Luwan Shanghai, China

Coen + Partners is providing landscape architectural design for a new retail complex and office tower in the Luwan neighborhood of Shanghai, China, in collaboration with project lead Safdie Architects.  The project focuses on a multi-dimensional landscape experience, featuring expansive rooftop terraces at the retail complex and office tower, interior garden rooms, and innovative ground-level public plazas and streetscapes.

The streetscape is designed to evoke a sense of history, pattern, and movement. Luwan is within the French Concession area, once famous for its Plane Tree-lined boulevards. Coen + Partners concept calls for a new generation of Plane Trees at the boulevard and an abstract, patterned pavement that recalls both the mottled bark of the Plane Tree and the stippled movement of the architectural façade designed by the renowned artist, Ned Kahn.  Within the site, subtle two-way mirrors reveal a vine wall backdrop, capturing reflections of the adjacent seating areas and Kahn façade, while blurring the perception of built and natural form. At the retail rooftop level, Coen + Partners concept includes a verdant outdoor restaurant space. Atop the adjacent tower, Coen + Partners is designing a flexible entertainment space with swimming pool, seating terraces, and lush gardens.  From each of these spaces, visitors are offered unparalleled views to the streetscape below and the surrounding urban context.

Design of the project is in progress; the project is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Location: Shanghai, China

Client: CapitaMalls Asia

Collaborators: Safdie Architects