Dongguan · Songshan Lake Vientiane

MixC One at Songshan Lake in Dongguan is a joint project of China Resources Land and Jiahong Group, landscaped by IPD Australia under Marius Brits. The site sits in the new Songshan Lake district, north of Huawei's campus and south of existing industrial parks and residential compounds; although Songshan Lake is growing rapidly, urban life is thin, amenities are dispersed and quality public space is scarce. The project therefore aims to create a MALL plus park plus street comprehensive public space as a friendly urban playground for local residents. The central axis corridor formed by the surrounding buildings becomes the design focus, and its 35-meter width is calibrated to host night markets and commercial events while balancing commerce with friendly urban life. Two questions drive the design: what does commerce want, and what does friendly urban life need? The answer integrates landmark, display, gathering, roaming, resting, nature, play and civic services into a single circular framework of endless motion, moving visitors between commercial and urban scenes. At the human scale, circles become paving and landscape elements that define the commercial entry and connect interior to exterior; the sunken plaza is likewise organized by circles whose arcs break its formerly closed edge, drawing people down to lower-level retail or outward to the public realm. At the urban scale, the complete circular outline becomes the project's landmark and memory point. Floating circular planters in GFRC, shaped like bubbles on a linear carpet of paving, hold micro-terrains and planting and return maximum space to urban roaming. Play circles are not just for children: overlapping circles link a children's zone with an all-age play zone, extending happiness beyond age and program. More than a shopping or dining destination, MixC One is a healing place for young families, a neighborhood meeting ground, a lounge for office workers and a breather for city dwellers, pointing toward the future of community commerce as a warm, emotional, social place rather than merely a cluster of shops and restaurants.