What makes a good architectural design

Case study -
South Tai Sheng Road Mixed-Use Development

Image 1 - South Tai Sheng Road Mixed-Use Development

Type of space: City space
Location within the urban context: Chengdu, China
General description:
The South Tai Sheng Road Mixed-use Development Chengdu reflects in its planning and architecture the objectives and visions of the client. The master planning of the different components generates an overall sense of balance using a very strong concept to dynamically link the four components of the Hotel, Office, Residential and Retail Commercial into a unified whole.

“Urban Oasis Park” is the architectural theme of the design. The design adopted one of the theme landscape of Sichuan, “Terrace Court”.

The architecture here combines modernism with the regional characteristic landscape to create mutual harmony in the city. The challenge is to achieve an appropriate balance between the sublime and the functional. The following conceptual and design issues have been embedded in the development process and our design proposal.

The building aspires to become one of Chengdu’s high quality benchmark developments, and a new “Urban Landmark Jewel in Park” rising above this District. Aedas is the Lead Consultant and Architect for this project.

Image 2 - The architectural design is a balance between the sublime and the functional.

Image 3 - Combines the Hotel, Office, Residential and Commercial into a unified whole.

Image 4 - Modernism

Source: Aedas

My comments:

What is in the design that you consider to be good design? What are the criteria?

The design of the mixed-use development is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it is also functional, as it combines four components (Hotel, Office, Residential, and Commercial) together into a single development. People would be able to easily access the four components in the space. Combining four components together also saves landspace used in the building of the development, which is an important factor for countries with not much landspace to spare and is densely populated e.g. Singapore. The glass walls also make the building an environmentally friendly one, as the sunlight would naturally light the interior of the building, and not much electricity would be needed to use the artificial lighting.

In a nutshell, the criteria are FUNCTIONALITY, AESTHETICS, CONSUMERS, & SUSTAINABILITY.