Location

Nanjing, China

Program

City master plan

Size

23.9 square kilometers

Dates

2013-2014

Key Staff

Eric McNevin, Andrew Wright, Kim Lagercrantz

The Super Block City is one component of a multi-city master plan located outside of Nanjing, China. The other cities in the plan are the Mountain Island City, the Bridge City, and the City Gate/Concentric City.

Site 3 organizes housing, recreation, and tourism uses around the existing reservoir on the western side of the site, and high-density commercial activities are lined along the major north-south roadway that crosses the eastern side of the site.

A series of residential Waterfront Towers are distributed along the lake edge. Waterfront Tower Connectors provide support services for the surrounding residential buildings and connect the towers into clusters. At the base of each tower a row of medium-density housing connects to an adjacent tower or road and creates a Wetland Village Prototype. Two very large Waterfront Entertainment Center towers are located along the waterfront for tourism and entertainment uses, including outdoor Wetland Amphitheaters and theme parks at their base. At the western edge of the lake the existing reservoir dam is converted to accommodate housing and a tram station.

The commercial uses on the site are located in dense developments along the major north-south roadway on the site. Several building types are combined to create a new Variable Super Block typology. The tallest buildings are located along the roadways with lower height and density adjacent to the landscape. Long narrow buildings extend away from the road into the natural landscape, and extend vertically as low-profile Super Block Towers.