5+design looks to mountains for Chinese transport hub design

Hollywood, Calif.-based architecture practice 5+design has designed a mixed-use transportation hub in Shenyang, China, that is inspired by mountains, Inhabitat reports.

The complex is called Diamond Hill, and it will feature sloping rooflines and a mountain-like silhouette inspired by traditional Chinese landscape paintings. According to the firm, the slopes minimize the building’s interference with direct sunlight to surrounding buildings.

According to Inhabitat, “the materials’ palette and façade design evoke sedimentary rock layers.”

A series of skylights and a glass-covered atrium dots the top of the complex’s buildings, mimicking alpine lakes.

The development will include a 800,000-sf mall at its center, surrounded by the jagged peak-like office and residential buildings.

“Due to the severity of the climate where the project is located, Diamond Hill has required a great deal of pre-design analysis, which has affected the final form,” Michael Ellis, 5+design Managing Partner, told Inhabitat. “It’s exciting to take a project with so many restrictions and shape it into a cohesive and dynamic place which will become a new destination in Shenyang.”

Inhabitat has the full story.

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