The International Club, Hi-Technology Industry Park

Location: Hi-Tech District, Nanjing

Design: 9/2002-7/2003

Construction: 7/2003-12/2004

Architect: TONG Ming, CHEN Jiliang, HUANG Wenchao

Site area: 30.000 m2

Floor area: 14.600 m2

The International Club was originated as a community center in the Hi-Technology Industry Park in Nanjing, in order to serve the experts, the investors and visitors who will work and stay there for a short time. This multi-use project has several proposals of function, including a hotel with 60 rooms, a conference center, restaurants, a bath center and a swimming pool as well as KTV resorts. Altogether it will be a building with 15.000 square meter floor area; a huge volume for the original natural site. In order to keep the natural feature of the site, and present a symbolic vision for the New District, which is almost a total blank area on the northern suburb of Nanjing, several possible schemes were studied, and a final decision was made to embed the building along the hills on both sides in a zigzag shape. An important transformation was made in the midterm of design, which converted the twin solid strips into voids: one for a cascaded waterway and the other for bamboo planted courtyards. The various functional rooms will be deployed along these two garden canyons. The ground surface on the roof is kept for grass pavement and gives as few impacts as possible to the landscape around it. Some dinning rooms and conference rooms are suspended in the void strips, enjoying the scenery provided by the miracle space. Several corridors connect the ground field, and guarantee the continuity of the activities. Mechanical rooms wrapped in metal mesh are in between the strips. They can be the elements for this landscape building, and leave the floor area more adaptive to the future usage. In the evening the light along the glass walls will give an impressive sign of the new Hi-Tech District.