Project: Seazen Suzhou Wuyue Plaza
Award: Retail Design – Retail chain stores, department stores, supermarkets and show rooms, Bronze, 2022
Location: Suzhou, China
Design practice: Benoy Limited
Client: Seazen Group
This smart new shopping centre takes the local Suzhou culture and gives it an authentic, contemporary reinterpretation. The top floor, punctuated by sky lights, is designed to offer a modern take on Suzhou street life and the waterway landscape of Pinjiang Road. Marco Polo proclaimed Suzhou the "Venice of the East" because it was a centre of business and commerce in China with its Grand Canal.
With careful analysis of the macro and micros elements that make up Pinjiang Road – an area that is renowned for its traditional waterways and pedestrian-friendly, human-scale architecture - Benoy has successfully designed and recreated an indoor retail street with the authentic atmosphere of the city’s old town.
Design highlights
The first five storeys feature dynamic sweeping curves inspired by local craftsmanship, emphasizing the striking visual contrast of angular, blackened steel vertical surfaces with defined edges and corners, against curved, glossy and white horizontal elements. Examples can be seen throughout the shopping centre’s interior, from the signature curved atrium edges to the dynamic curved wall cladding panels around the lift lobbies.
The monochromatic space creates fresh forward-looking aesthetics which simultaneously allow the shopfronts to stand out.
Photo credit: Terrence Zhang
- LEAD DESIGNERS: Gregory Kovacs, Clement Kho, David Wirth, Edmond Yum, Eric Tsoi, Jinyoung Choi, Joey Lau, Mo Tam, Peggy Wong, Tiffany Chong , Tomohiro Sugeta, Van Krisadawat, Vic Chen, Yue Ming Cheung