Buildings

The Hainan Energy Trading Building stands proudly in Jiangdong New District, an emerging industrial, financial, and residential development on the outskirts of Haikou, the capital of China’s Hainan province. The Yankuang Group, owner and occupier of the building, specializes in mining production and sales, high-end coal processing, and modern logistics, and the early entry of the firm’s headquarters in Jiangdong New District paves the way for other leading businesses to follow suit. The building is a floating box above a landscaped ground floor, and an impressive central courtyard greets visitors as they enter the atrium. The rigid lines of the exterior contrast with the sky gardens positioned at regular intervals—a blend of rigidity and softness that creates a harmonious whole, mirroring the fledgling district’s aim of combining existing site conditions with cutting-edge technology.

Over 90% of the world’s diamond pieces are cut in Surat, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, with the city playing host to the world’s largest community of diamond workers. Most traders, however, have to commute over 250 kilometers daily by train to reach Mumbai to conduct their business, significantly impacting their cost of living and commuting as well as access to a healthy quality of life. The Surat Diamond Bourse brings this vast community together, uniting all activities of cutting, polishing, and trading under one roof. With a built-up area of 7.1 million sq. ft. occupying a 35.3-acre site, the design of the bourse redefines the conventional office building typology while establishing new sustainability benchmarks within the hot and humid climatic context of Surat.

Creating a pleasant city to walk in by designing multilayer streets that connect urban public spaces and architecture. Osaka Umeda Twin Towers South is an expansive urban complex with a total floor area of approximately 260,000 ㎡, consisting of a department store, offices, and conference halls, with 3 basement levels and 38 above-ground floors, in an integrated development across the city blocks. This project is a dynamic urban renewal initiative led by the vitality of a private company, centering the complex to create a comfortable city environment by improving the surrounding public facilities and maintaining them for the future.