Inner courtyards
Wrapping floors.
Archillumi — CC BY-SA 4.0 · AsAuSo — CC BY-SA 4.0 · RG72 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Francesco Bini — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rob Deutscher — CC BY 2.0 · RG72 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Francesco Bini — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Francesco Bini — CC BY-SA 4.0
An office and retail complex at the south-west corner of Chaoyangmen Bridge on the Second Ring Road, built in 2009–2012 to designs by the Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, the first of her three buildings in Beijing, with 330,000 m² of floor space. It is made of four curving domed blocks without corners, fused by bridges and platforms on several levels around open courtyards and a larger central «canyon». Hadid described it as a reinvention of the classical Chinese courtyard, and its stacked white floors read as flowing bands. Wandering the courtyards and lower floors is free, with shops and restaurants there and offices above; the building stands by Chaoyangmen metro station, and the best photos come from the inner courtyards, where the floors wrap around you.
Wrapping floors.
Between domes.
No corners.
Chaoyangmen Bridge, Second Ring Road, Dongcheng District, Beijing
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