RUF Architects: Winner of World Design Awards 2023. Located in the east of Zhoukou downtown area, the project is only 2.1km away from Zhoukoudong Railway Station and 9km away from Zhoukou Railway Station, enjoying convenient transportation. The two sides of the site are close to the urban green space, with an area of 7,300m square meters, and the east side is a 110m-wide ecological corridor along the river. Its south side is close to Zhoukou Botanical Garden and Yongning Lake Wetland Park, enjoying rich landscape resources. Due to the respect for the development direction of urban planning, the architects build the development axis of the urban public center along Wenchang Avenue, and shape the urban spirit symbol with the landmark architecture approach of “building mountain and platform & a city of clouds and waterfalls”.

As a unique symbol of a city, a landmark building is an important way for people to experience the city’s history, culture, art and social life, and is the main “place” for a city to display spiritual civilization. The master plan suggests that the core area should be built as a landmark super high-rise building complex with a leading role in order to highlight the internationality and epoch characteristics and reflect local cultural features. As a commercial land for the development and construction of the core area, the design of this project is required to have the appearance and functional attributes of future technology-based business office buildings.

For the consideration of the image of the city and the positioning of the future center, the architects finally decide to create a modern and elegant business office landmark building with magnificent “twin towers” structure, varied outline of set-back model and double-glazed curtain wall facade effect. The commercial areas at the bottom and the auxiliary rooms, with their flowing curves, ensure continuity and unity with the style of the tower facade, presenting a sense of rhythm. The garden-style commercial office community is designed within the area, and its individual buildings and private office environment and immersive landscaped touring spaces can create a relaxed, free and modern office atmosphere.

The architects also propose a mixed and shared area as a centripetal point for commercial vitality. In terms of commercial space, it abandons the traditional form of setting up commercial areas along the street at the ground level, and replaces it with a single commercial building. This can increase the brand tolerance and meet the requirements of interconversion between commercial functions and individual office buildings, so that the space can adapt to the changes of the surrounding urban environment and maintain maximum flexibility and practicality. Based on the independent units suitable for various urban functional formats, the design controls the distribution, form and spatial scale of each volume through the combination of units and different vertical and horizontal divisions, which can make it possible to carry more formats, ensure the best format space quality and operation status, and maximize the flexibility of switching between different functional spaces.

Project Details
Firm
RUF Architects

Architect
Yang Jinang

Project Name
ZHOUKOU BOQUN INTERCONTINENTAL HOLIDAY HOTEL COMPLEX PROJECT DESIGN

World Design Awards Category
Mixed-Use Concept

Project Location
Zhoukou City

Team
Hu Sanduo, Yao Jilin

Country
China

Photography ©Credit
©RUF Architects

Founded in 2007 Shanghai, RUF Architects is the only branch of Shanghai RUF Design Consulting Co., Ltd. in Shanghai, focusing on high-quality residential, commercial complexes, industrial parks and hotels. After 15 years of development, the company has more than 130 architects and become an efficient and capable, dynamic international team.

RUF Architects has a strong overall control ability, can skillfully control the coordination of planning, architectural, landscaping and other design parties of the joint work. For the use of materials, the design team has a long-term experience in practical project control, with excellent cost control ability.