Plot No. 2020-WG-61 (Country Garden)

The SuDi 2020-WG-61 land parcel project is located in Huangtai Town, Xiangcheng District, Suzhou, with a total site area of approximately 45,868 square meters. To the east, it adjoins the Suzhou Flower and Plant Garden; to the west lies Chunshen Lake Park, offering rich natural scenery. To the south, it borders Taiyang Road, and to the east, it abuts the North Section of the Middle Ring Road, ensuring convenient transportation access.

Within the district where the base is located, all essential amenities—including schools, shopping malls, and hospitals—are readily available. The completion of this project will inject new vitality into the area while significantly enhancing the quality of life for its residents.

The project is subject to a height restriction of 40–80 meters, with a maximum floor area ratio of 2.0. However, due to meteorological height limitations, the site master plan has been somewhat constrained. The design scheme makes maximum use of the height‑restricted space, breaking away from the conventional layout pattern in residential neighborhoods that arranges high- and low-rise buildings into distinct clusters. Employing a cascading spatial organization, the design articulates a stepped skyline that ascends from the 18th to the 25th floor along Chunyu Road and Changchun Road, while its valley‑like form fosters a highly livable environment. By echoing the urban fabric through a layered composition, the project effectively enhances both the internal spatial quality of the residential community and the overall urban spatial experience.

Our institute has been invited to undertake the optimized design of the residential building’s façade.

The initial facade design for the residential building adopts a modern, minimalist style, employing beige and dark gray textured paint to achieve a clean, uncluttered aesthetic. However, due to insufficient clarity in the relationship between positive and negative spaces and the compositional structure of the original scheme’s façade lines, the overall visual effect falls short of expectations.

Faced with this challenging issue, our institute’s designers promptly engaged in a brainstorming session. Within a short timeframe, while maintaining the original design’s stylistic foundation, they refined the facade composition and detailing, resulting in two initial design proposals—Proposal 1 and Proposal 2.

The design strengthens the compositional relationship between the residential balcony and the bay windows on either side, creating a three-part facade. By refining window frame details and maintaining the original materials and color palette, it achieves a dignified and balanced立面 aesthetic. The residential façade embodies classical aesthetic principles while ensuring enduring durability. Following several rounds of discussion, the leadership expressed a desire for a more pronounced enhancement in residential quality, allowing the proposal to transcend the existing façade’s logic and style.

Against this backdrop, our company’s designers have implemented rather radical revisions to the facade design.

By incorporating aluminum panels to create sculptural, irregular lines, we can reimagine the residential façade and significantly elevate its material quality. Building on this design concept, we developed two more streamlined façade proposals—Scheme 3 and Scheme 4. One maintains a symmetrical composition, while the other shifts toward an asymmetrical arrangement, aiming to evoke a cheerful and lively spatial atmosphere. Both schemes received unanimous praise from the leadership; however, the lead designers felt they still lacked a certain soul—a set of elements that would better resonate with the site’s context.

When first assigned the project, the creative team spent considerable time pondering how to integrate the site’s unique character and the surrounding cultural context into the design.

The town of Huang’ai derives its name from the Warring States period, when Chunshen Jun Huang Xie, a high-ranking official of the Chu state, was enfeoffed in the Jiangdong region and made the Wu area—now Suzhou—the seat of his domain. He led the local people in dredging rivers, developing irrigation systems, and constructing embankments to create levees; thus, the thousand-year-old town came to be known as “Huang’ai.” Later, in honor of Chunshen Jun, who is credited with building these levees here, the original Pei Jiawei was transformed into Chunshen Lake Park, complete with commemorative landscapes erected to pay tribute. Conveniently located just about 2 kilometers west of the project site, Chunshen Lake Park endows this development with uniquely advantageous cultural heritage and natural scenery.

Against this backdrop and within this context, we drew inspiration from the characters “Chun” and “Shen” in the Kaishu and Zhuan scripts. From these, we distilled circular‑arc and symmetrical motifs, employing a pictographic transformation to inform the façade design. By shaping aluminum panels into curvilinear forms, we crafted compositions that echo the arcs of these two characters, paying homage to Lord Chunshen, who once built embankments and created polders. Through this abstract approach, we sought to engage with the site’s distinctive cultural heritage—only such a resonant dialogue can truly imbue the architecture with its unique sense of place.

Evolutionary Process of Typical Building 1

Evolution of Plan 2

18F Typical Building Type – Local Perspective

Partial perspective of a typical floor plan on the 24th floor

As urban economies grow and residents’ expectations for living standards and aesthetic sensibilities rise, residential buildings in city centers—owing to their unique locational advantages—are increasingly called upon to feature façade designs that not only complement the surrounding public architecture but also harmonize with the city’s overall character. This trend has made the “public‑building‑like” treatment of residential facades an inevitable hallmark of our times, earning it the favor and exclusive appeal of many luxury residences in the world’s leading metropolises.

Public‑Built Residential Design Case Studies

Residential‑public‑building‑style facade design is far more than a mere façade exercise; it should begin with the apartment‑type floor plan, taking into account the building’s overall form and the regularity of its external outline to facilitate subsequent façade design. It represents a systematic design approach and a comprehensive solution.

Public‑Built Residential Design Case Studies

The public‑building‑style facade places primary emphasis on a clean, imposing architectural form and a streamlined compositional rhythm, while demands for the quality of facade materials and the precision of design and construction are steadily rising. This design approach is likely to remain one of the dominant trends in residential architecture for the foreseeable future.

Our institute is committed year-round to enhancing the urban living environment, offering expert solutions for a diverse range of building types, including public facilities, residential projects, and industrial parks. To date, we have successfully completed numerous projects that feature façades designed in a public‑building style, all of which have earned strong market recognition.

Public‑Built Residential Design Case Studies

Going forward, our institute will continue to closely monitor cutting-edge developments in the facade design of residential buildings repurposed for public use, and, through practical project implementation, remain committed to making a modest contribution to the enhancement of the living environment.

Project Location: Huangtai Town, Xiangcheng District, Suzhou City

Design Period: Oct 2020 – Nov 2020

Land area: 45,868.00㎡

Total floor area: 162,940.88 m²

Construction Entity: Suzhou Bizhisheng Real Estate Co., Ltd.

Project Type: Residential Building

Scope of Design: Architectural Facade Optimization

Project Manager: Wen Wei

Scheme Design: Xu Peng, Chen Xiao, Tang Ming

Author: Chen Xiao