The project is located in the fast-growing seventh District of Taichung; the 128 m high tower aims to integrate the character and identity of nearby Charlotte Park, while fostering a dynamic relationship with the surrounding urban context. Located in close proximity to several department stores, civic buildings and cultural venues, the 33,000 sq m highrise creates a new residential community in the commercial heart of the city, and activates the street level areas with a series of retail spaces.
La Bella Vita is located in the new prime district of Taichung; the area represents a cluster of the city's high end housing and service sector developments from the last decade. The site of the new residential highrise is situated halfway between the City Hall and the new National Taichung Theater by Toyo Ito. Within its characteristic grid plan, the city of Taichung combines green public spaces and public art in a unique manner.
The tower is designed as a continuation of the surrounding public spaces. Through the artworks and the green landscape at the foot of the building, La Bella Vita’s ground floor creates a continuum with the exterior areas. As the studio’s design for the Treasure Garden residential tower in the same building block, La Bella Vita blends elements of an Italian approach with influences from the East.
The distinct identity of La Bella Vita is expressed by the composition of the building's seemingly disjoint, yet complementary volumes. Four lower volumes of stacked balconies allude to the materiality of long stretches of rock formations found on the surface of the Earth. They combine with the tallest 37 storey amber volume that ties all building masses together, creating a sense of sophisticated playfulness.
With its core wrapped in a honeycomb-patterned window structure that breaks light and reflections, La Bella Vita bears a crystalline quality that sets it apart from neighbouring buildings. This tall central volume ties together the four residential volumes in a permeable structure that maps out an arrival sequence from the green landscape of the street level to the privacy of the 168 residential units.
The building's architectural concept is mapped out by the clear separation between the shared and private areas of the residential tower. Shared areas, vertical connections, technical and support spaces are located in the middle of the rectangular space enclosed by the four residential volumes, creating a central vertical core that emerges from the ground level and stretches to the tallest point of the building.
The vertical core of La Bella Vita is wrapped in an amber honeycomb structure that generates warm crystal reflections’, said Claudio Raviolo, partner at Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and in charge of architecture for La Bella Vita, ‘this pattern lends a distinctly Milanese quality of fine living to the building’.
La Bella Vita embeds a different approach to building design, putting the needs of the people who occupy it at the heart of the process. All elements were considered and curated with the wellbeing of residents in mind. In the spirit of social sustainability, shared areas are conceived as a framework for interaction among residents and visitors.
The tower features a vertical sequence of biospheres that gather around large indoor trees, fostering connections among groups of residents. The clear and long sightlines within the biospheres mirror the uninterrupted views of the surroundings from the large balconies of the residences.