UNStudio Wins Yongjia World Trade Center Competition in Wenzhou

Dutch architecture firm UNStudio has announced that their proposal for the Yongjia World Trade Center Competition has been selected as the winning entry. Unlike the typical world trade center—which usually represents only a concentration business or financial programs—UNStudio has incorporated recreational and cultural facilities and residential units into their plan. For the site in the riverside city of Wenzhou, located in the southeastern Zhejiang province of China, UNStudio identified the driving force behind the project as the “notion of precious objects on a tray…where the continuous podium landscape occupies the entire site and serves as a tray-like, green plain for the towers.”

The towers, which the architects claim have been conceptualized as “neighborhoods in the sky” have overlapping sections which form “the so-called ‘Eyes,’”—communal spaces with sky gardens and lounges, or social gathering places for office areas “that afford the best views towards the river and Wenzhou city center.”