CITIC City Plaza
Citic City Plaza is located in Huizhou, a metropolitan city of Guangdong province, and is one of Citic's prime development opportunities in the city centre.
The design drew inspiration from the existing network of beautiful gardens and lakes throughout the city. The project is designed to become a garden gateway fusing the city's urban edge with the adjoining expansive civic parks. The surrounding garden textures are pulled into the heart of the site creating a large, outdoor courtyard. The buildings cascade upwards from the courtyard, creating a series of receding terraces and resembling the agricultural landscape of the region. The inner edges of the courtyard are more organic in nature.
The exterior walls are composed primarily of a light glass façade. The transparent nature of the façade diffuses the boundary between interior and exterior spaces, blurring the retail zone into the park. Three entry plazas are carved into the podium massing to further break down the boundaries of the site and encourage pedestrian traffic through the site. The buildings on the northern edge of the site remain low to blend in with the heights of neighbouring low-rise museums.
Two towers define the southern edge of the site. The organic textures of the courtyard spaces below are drawn up into the towers, culminating in a series of roof courtyards and containing multiple functions including a sky-bar and a conferencing centre. The towers become a visible marker defining the garden networks surrounding the site and defining the nexus between the urban and natural edge.
