The Xi'an We Young 168 Balcony Renovation Project

This case is a "prefabricated" landscape renovation for the terrace space of the completed We Young 168 commercial block. The finished building is designed with extremely streamlined and technological style, with an indisputable sense of oppression. The landscape space designed by the architect emphasizes a grand spatial narrative and coordination with the building. Although large outdoor terraces are created as circulation and activity areas, these areas are large and empty because the perspective is still architectural. These terrace spaces were originally designed to provide sufficient flexibility for business and activities. However, after completion, neither client nor the business owners know how to use them. Obviously, these outdoor terrace spaces lack definition, and there is a missing link between terrace space and operational use - the detailed design of commercial landscape. We must deal with three main challenges: first, provide opportunities for people to stay; second, create attractive details for people to take photos and videos; third, the renovation had to be completed in a very short time. These challenges actually echo the problems faced by similar commercial renovation projects: to attract and retain people to consume, and to complete the construction as soon as possible to reduce the impact on operations. The strategies are simple and direct: use light and convenient prefabricated landscape elements to define the circulation and resting areas, and enclose the space for staying. Then incorporate creative elements into the designed space. Designing a space is actually to do its ceiling, floor and edge, and enclosing a space is to see how the edge is designed. If the canopy of the existing tree is regarded as the ceiling of the terrace space, then we only need to renovate the floor and the edge. We lay a wooden platform at the bottom to create a warmer and more comfortable feeling. The edge is enclosed by a combination of bar tables, flower beds, benches, and back chairs. We also set up two facile frames on the second and third floor terraces to further emphasize the sense of enclosure. It is also an infrastructure for lamps, display racks or other hanging objects. In terms of color, we boldly chose bright yellow, which is completely different from the building. It makes the landscape facilities more prominent and further enhanced their "prefabricated" appearance. At the same time, the bright yellow also makes each small space more light, warm and pleasant, forming an escape in the cold architectural atmosphere. In addition, we also incorporated some Chinese characters into the bar tables. On the one hand, because people are highly sensitive to characters, they can be attracted in an instant; on the other hand, it adds interests to each terrace space. Also, it creates nodes for people to take photos and celebrate on their social media. The key to commercial landscape design is to better promote circulations and guide people into different commercial areas. The ground level usually has the biggest business opportunities. In order to attract people to the higher floors, we introduced a rotating slide between the 2nd and 3rd floor, making it a popular interactive spot. Creating a commercial landscaping on a terrace that has already been paved is more like an outdoor version of interior design, we minimize on-site wet work and install the landscape facilities that has been prefabricated in factory. Almost all facilities (except the wooden platform) are made of stainless steel. We hardly destroyed any existing pavement, which saved the client money while compressing the construction time to the greatest extent and reducing the difficulty of construction. This "prefabricated landscape" approach is an experiment on how to renovate a existing commercial block. Through the detailed design of the terrace space and the implantation of landscape facilities, we change the perspective of the terrace space from "architectural grand narrative" to "landscape detail experience". And this kind of detail experience is the key to the success of contemporary commercial space. com