Carved Towers | STEFANIA ADDIS

The 50.000 m2 mixed-use urban development, representing the 3rd phase of the Yi Xin Garden project, comprises a residential and a hotel tower united by a public plinth. The two towers have been carefully positioned and dimensioned in order to maximize the program contact with South, East and West and minimze the impact on the surrounding urban context. Mass from the towers’ mid section has been carved out to create tempered atriums which provide natural ventilation and green areas of social exchange sheltered from the harsh continental climate. The excavated mass has been repositioned outside as hanging volumes – protruding pixels which provide enhanced South-East and South-West façade contact and a large variety of corner apartments with fantastic panoramic views over the surroundings, while in the same time minimizing façade downwash. The two operations of carving and adding building mass provide the towers with a dramatic appearance of eroded landscapes – a geological reference to the Mongolian landscape and an iconic contribution to the city skyline. On the North-Eastern corner, the plinth has been “pushed” inwards, to maximize the contact with the public program embracing a public plaza sheltered from the dominant winds, and to create a direct connection between plaza and the residential area behind.