Site 9, Chongqing

Client: Chongqing City Urban Planning Bureau

Role: Masterplanning, Urban Design, Architecture and Landscape Architecture

PRP were commissioned in 2008 by the Chongqing City Urban Planning Bureau to provide an extensive range of design services to help reinvigorate the city centre's YuZhong Peninsula.

Chongqing is the largest city in western China with a population of 32million. It is the centre for the automotive and manufacturing industry in China and is a city that is undergoing rapid urbanisation and modernisation. The YuZhong peninsula is the centre piece site of the wider 2 River 4 Shore urban design campaign that was originally commenced by the Chongqing government in 2007.

PRP have developed the overall vision and instigated a new planning framework for the YuZhong Peninsula, a 13km² area of the city that makes up the CBD and historic core of the city. The site is bounded by the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers to the north and south respectively, with their confluence forming the dramatic heart of the city.

PRP were engaged to carry out high level studies focusing on the upgrading of the functionality and the urban image of the city centre by way of master planning, heritage protection, refurbishment of the existing fabric, environmental upgrading and significant new landscape proposals. The project required the careful coordination of various stakeholders including the City and District government, private developers and extensive public consultation.

The objective of the project ranges from raising the international profile of the city to enable greater inward investment, through to improving the quality of the living environment at a human scale. Proposals looked at the legibility of this vibrant and complex city, improving connections to the river front and developing character areas within new urban quarters.

This current stage of the project is due to complete in May 2010.