Longfor Central

Longfor Central is transforming and shaping inner-city Chengdu by delivering a vibrant development and platform for working, living and socialising. Located above a new metro interchange within the city’s central district, Lead8 collaborated with the developer to revitalise a former printing factory site into a new model for new-gemeration, community-focused transit-oriented design in the area.



The brief called for a masterplan and design intervention that would explore the mixed-use typology and take advantage of the site’s rare positioning on the 1st Ring Road in Chengdu. Accessibility to two metro lines which intersect near the site was vital to the design together with enhancing the commuter experience.



The 590,000 sqm mixed-use development consists of a retail podium, retail precinct, a SOHO tower, two Loft towers, and an office tower – masterplanned and designed by Lead8. A further four residential towers complete the masterplan by sitting on the podium roof landscape. The 198m-tall Loft tower sits atop the six-storey mall, acting as a visual gateway to welcome visitors.



The design has promoted and attracted investment to benefit the area through extending and renewing uses for the site as a multi-dimensional TOD hub. An elevated outdoor park on Level 5 also acts as a rainwater collection system, creating a cost-effective but visually vibrant green space offering multiple outdoor uses.



The original architectural form has been inspired by the Sichuan landscape of quiet mountain scenery and flowing rivers. Like natural streams coursing over pebbles, the arrangement of blocks has been rotated and stacked, and edges smoothed, to reflect a unique and organic composition.



Referencing the province’s traditional ‘bamboo over porcelain’ craftsmanship, an undulating horizontal glass ribbon façade wraps the building’s architecture. Composite glass and LED ribbons are woven across the exterior, taking on different expressions during the day and night to develop a strong identity.