Ningbo Future City Neighborhood Center, China
Ningbo Future City Neighborhood Center, China
Ningbo Future City Neighborhood Center, China
Ningbo Future City Neighborhood Center, China
Location: Ningbo, Zhejiang, China
Program: Community Center
Gross Floor Area: 35,775.91 m²
Structure: Reinforced Concrete (RC)
Completion: 2026
Five Gardens
The Five Gardens is a community center designed to serve as a symbol of the city’s growth from the very beginning, serving as the pioneer of a newly planned residential district in front of the train station in Ningbo, People’s Republic of China.
While the building’s internal functions are planned to develop in four phases alongside the construction of the new residential district, it has incorporated five Zen-inspired gardens from the outset. These are Ryokugai, Kōha, Untei, Taikai, and Zensha. Within the ever-evolving program of the entire building, these gardens are designed to serve as constant, unchanging focal points. Ningbo is blessed with the rich natural beauty of the sea and mountains in the Jiangnan region, and the Zen culture nurtured there has spread not only throughout China but also to Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and the rest of the world. The main façade on the northern side of the site takes the form of a semi-architectural, semi-natural colonnade, and the five gardens are designed to be directly accessible from the front façade. These five gardens serve as points of connection between the city’s residents and Ningbo’s history and nature, playing a role in anchoring the “dynamic” growth of the city to the “stillness” of its collective memory.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Green Cliff
At the center of the grand atrium leading from the station stands the “Green Cliff,” a towering cliff adorned with vegetation native to Mount Tiantai in Ningbo. It serves as a symbol of the city’s harmony with nature and its growth rooted in the local community.
Light Slope
In the atrium on the east side, the “Light Slope” is designed to receive sunlight from the south, where a cluster of sundials marks the passage of time for the entire city.
Cloud Courtyard
The Cloud Courtyard is a circular, sloping garden situated in the forecourt of the third-floor meeting room, open to the sky and gazing upward, symbolizing the building’s connection to the heavens and the earth.
Moss Staircase
The Moss Staircase represents the timeless history of Ningbo, symbolizing how the moss-covered stairways found in both the city and nature lead to a space open to the future.
Zen Pavilion
Zen is, after all, an aesthetic that spread from Ningbo to the world; within this modern, abstract architectural setting, it signifies the origin of a symbiotic space—part architecture, part outdoors—where people can find respite.
©加納永一
