Design revealed for Olympic park legacy

KCAP Architects & Planners has won a design contract to develop a 50 ha site at the southern edge of the Olympic Park in Beijing, China.

With its local design partner, the Beijing Institute for Architectural Design (BIAD), KCAP plans a large-scale development which connects the site to the emerging transport links along the newly built metro line.

The new mixed-use city quarter will mainly house residential and office space as well as retail and other commercial facilities. There will be two public transport hubs featuring a bus interchange and metro station, a series of hotels as well as cultural and community areas.

A KCAP statement said, "The proposed urban lay-out respects Chinese traditions of spatial organisation and translates them into the larger scale of the development. The result is a highly flexible and adaptable plan which will be further developed in the coming years."

The heart of the scheme is formed by a large urban park acting as a bridge building with commercial functions in an east west direction below a large landscaped roof. It bridges a tunnel which will connect to a north-south axis of the urban grid of Beijing. The landscaped heart of the plan intermediates between all parts of the site and forms the central element of the scheme, the architect said.

Kees Christiaanse, founder and partner of KCAP said, "We are extremely happy to help shaping the legacy of the Olympic Park in Beijing. This project is a key contribution to activating a former Olympic Area. We believe to be able to demonstrate similar qualities in our other current Olympic Legacy commission - the London Olympic Legacy Framework."

Markus Appenzeller, director of international projects at KCAP added: "This is a great result. It underlines KCAP's growing success in China and values our special expertise with large scale projects in China which we have built up over the past years."