PLP Architecture's latest mixed-use development is currently under construction in the Chinese city of Foshan. The project sits on a 65,000 sq m site and incorporates offices, shopping outlets, residential units and a 5-star hotel.
Located in the central district of the Foshan New Town, the new Suning Plaza is a mixed-use development organised around a city square, a place of social and cultural exchange.
The dynamic form of the plaza and the long curved shopping mall to the north create a spiral movement which sponsors a tower of organic shape.
The resulting 318m-high office and hotel tower assumes the shape of the bud of a lotus flower, symbolising the growth of the city and establishing a poetic relationship with the recently-completed Lotus Stadium nearby and the history of Foshan, with its strong Buddhist culture in which the lotus is a powerful symbol.
As the tower unfolds at the top, its planar, petal like form, stands out from the surrounding orthogonal cubic forms of its neighbours, establishing a new focal point for the Foshan skyline.
