2002 bis 2009

The Culture Wave City in Hangzhou with offices, businesses and residences as well as public culture buildings is part of the urban development area “New Central Business District (NCBD)”, being located between the old city core and the river Qiang Tang. The NCBD defines the end of a central green axis, which extends – as a new urban development axis from the West Lake towards the river. Framed by highrise towers, a new urban axis emerges with underground shoppingmall and upperground culture buildings. The open spaces of the new shopping- and culture centre pick up the theme of the hilly landscape around Hangzhou and of the waves of the Qian Tang river.. Broad wave structures, which raise and lower, link the plateaus on the surface to the multi-levelled structure of the shoppingmall below. At the end of the urban axis, there is the city balcony located, a platform, which extends by 75 meters into the river. Here, every year in autumn, a nature spectacle is to be observed – a flood wave, up to eight meters high, which shoots from the sea up the river Qiang Tang.