NANJING ALIBABA HEADQUARTER CAMPUS

CLOUD FORMATION OF
NANJING ALIBABA HEADQUARTER CAMPUS

The project is located in the CBD of Nanjing Hexi New Town, adjacent to an existing river, spanning across three plots with a total land area of about 150,700 square meters. The project is composed of multiple headquarter office buildings, a visitor center, a commercial complex and a talent apartment, connected by sky bridges and sunken plaza passages. Alibaba, one of China's largest internet companies, aims to build online business ecosystem of the future, and aspires to create a campus where people meet, work and live at Alibaba.

CONCEPTUAL NARRATIVE OF THE “CLOUDS”
As a future landmark of Alibaba, we envisioned a concept driven by “clouds”, reflecting Alibaba’s pursuit of excellence in cloud-based digitization and strengthening the dynamic spirituality of campus living lifestyles. The abstraction of the concept is integral to our place-making strategies consistent with Alibaba’s corporate culture, as well as reflecting its manifesto of being sustainably conscious, with its focus and efforts on carbon neutrality.

DESIGN NARRATIVE OF THE “CLOUDS”
The design of the landscape emphasizes on re-interpretating the conception into tangible experiences, and there are seven experiential themes “in-between the clouds” that directly respond to Alibaba’s corporate spirit. For instance, the theme of “Conquering of the Hills” at the image display interface of the headquarter signifies the quality of “courage” through a grand stepped terrace design. Our design language transforms the cloud into abstracted geometric pixels at the civic display interface, and the language gradually transforms to become more organic towards the natural interface of the waterfront where immersive experiences within the ecology becomes predominant.

SUSTAINABLE NARRATIVE OF THE “CLOUD FORMATION”
The dynamism of clouds is a special atmospheric phenomena in our planet’s ecosystem, and it is important in maintaining and balancing the climatic environment. The design team takes inspiration from cloud formation cycles, and formulates our sustainability narrative into sustainability strategies, implementing a diverse range of sustainability measures integrated throughout the site, including ecological swales and rain gardens for rainwater collection, retention to water re-use .