Taizhou Z Center: A Catalyst for City Vitality

Wei Zhang's Award-Winning Design Breathes Life into Urban Spaces

The Taizhou Z Center, completed in 2010, stands as a testament to Wei Zhang's vision of creating a lively and cordial interface for bustling crowds. The design breaks away from the conventional paradigm of closed parks and integrates office and commercial needs in a central business district. The design's unique properties lie in its three key ideas: Aggregate, Overlap, and Connect, which respectively represent the layout strategy of implanting a square, vertical expansion of composite functions, and place creation to boost vitality.

Wei Zhang and his team employed a variety of cantilever and overhead techniques to provide a gray space for commercial functions of the ground floor. This approach showcases the echoing relationship between the square and the city. The high-rise center and shopping center in diagonal form a convenient pedestrian flow path across the base, creating a public and open city square. This design strategy returns the inner space to the city, creating a dialogue with the neighboring administrative, cultural, and business districts.

The main building of the Taizhou Z Center is rendered a distinct block-joining look, with materials such as glass and perforated aluminum panels used to maintain the lightness and unity of the overall modeling language. The 90-meter-high main slab building spreads along the Shifu Avenue, gently incorporating into the city skyline. This design approach not only makes a natural division between the two functional blocks but also weakens the sense of high-level volume, connecting with the distant landscape from the vertical dimension of the space.

The project faced significant challenges, particularly the harsh land use conditions in the city's axis, where an inch of land values an inch of gold. The building density was limited to 20%. Despite these constraints, Wei Zhang and his team turned these challenges into the unique symbol of Z Center, demonstrating their creative prowess and innovative thinking.

The Taizhou Z Center project has been recognized for its innovative design and impact on the urban landscape, winning the Golden A' Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award in 2022. This prestigious award is granted to marvelous, outstanding, and trendsetting creations that reflect the designer's prodigy and wisdom, embodying extraordinary excellence and significantly impacting the world with their desirable characteristics.