Location: Guilin, Guangxi

Gross Floor Area: 362,999.44m²

Services: Conceptual masterplanning/Urban renewal entitlement plan/Urban design/Schematic design/Construction

documents

Design: 2015-2017

Completion: 2019

Client: CR Land (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

Awards:

-The Third Prize for Architectural Schemes of Public Construction Projects of the 9th Guangdong Architectural Design Award

－The Third prize for Uncompleted Public Construction Projects of the 5th Shenzhen Architectural Design Award

Introduction

As the original designer of the Mixc Guilin, CAPOL focused on the relationship between architectural functionals and poetic sceneries since the start and tried to create the architecture that meets the needs of both city life and geographic and cultural demonstration.

The overall planning, inspired by the ancient town and streets in the north of Guangxi Autonomous Region and the Dragon’s Bone Rice Terraces, presents two traditional street blocks and commercial space from geographical and aesthetic perspectives in the form of “mall + street blocks”. More than that, the blocks are connected with the mall through three cantilever boxes and multi-level set-back space, offering a shopping experience that is both modern and traditional, roam-like, and diverse.

The design starts with the features of the dwellings in Guilin and its natural landforms, extracts the concept of “Zhusheng” (a musical instrument), constructs the “Zhusheng square” with high flow of visitors, and creates the public gathering space and must-go places in the city. Moreover, the set-back terrace square not only improves the integrity of the project image, but also serves as an enlarged space outside the single building of boutique B&Bs to convey the spirit of the place with regional characteristics.

To best achieve its people-friendly effects, architects also extracted the vertical texture of the residences in northern Guangxi and used the vertical V-shaped grating, so that it presents a yellowish-brown color and meets the requirements of ventilation while keeping the equipment out of people’s sight.