BEIJING CHAOYANG JOY CITY

As flagship of COFCO's "Joy City" system, Beijing Chaoyang Joy City stands at the heart of the Chaoyang-Qingnian Road district in eastern Beijing. For sixteen years, it has remained the city's vibrant lifestyle destination for urban youth.

The facade lighting renovation was not a demolition-and-rebuild exercise. Guided by the philosophy of "renewal through reuse," the design retained existing infrastructure and curtain wall conditions to the fullest extent, optimizing luminaire placement and reconfiguring the lighting program to restore the building's fading architectural identity — a minimal intervention with maximum impact.

Responding to the building's volumetric articulation and stone texture, the design rejects the flat, uniform wash typical of commercial facades. Warm, soft floodlight unfolds naturally along the elevation, precisely articulating structural layers while preserving the building's signature orange-red tones and natural materiality. Star-point luminaires concealed within the crown glazing "breathe" through dynamic programming, lending rhythm to the skyline. At the main entrance, integrated floodlighting and dynamic ground projections craft an immersive nocturnal interface — light flows across the ground like a woven carpet, gently guiding visitors into the space while ensuring comfortable, safe passage.

The horizontal light-guide panel at mid-elevation was the project's greatest technical challenge: with retail and back-of-house functions behind the glazing, interior brightness varied, and exterior lighting could not disturb interior sightlines. Through iterative prototyping with the contractor and tenants, the team adopted light-guide panel technology, harmonizing the conflict between interior and exterior light. Illumination now glides along the panels in a continuous horizontal stream. The elevator-louver facades on both flanks respond in dynamic rhythm, synchronized with the crown star-points and the mid-elevation light bands, weaving a seamless vertical light narrative that endows the nightscape with artistic tension and futuristic character.

More than an aesthetic upgrade, this renovation is a sustainable practice in urban renewal: using flowing light as its narrative language, it balances artistic expression with on-the-ground results, offering a replicable model for similar commercial transformations. Through light, Chaoyang Joy City continues its youthful legacy — alive, forward, and forever in motion.