Wide Horizon Clubhouse
Chongqing, China
The Wide Horizon Clubhouse comprises a total gross floor area of approximately 9,000 square metres spread across 5 floors. It is located on a steeply sloped hillside adjacent to the main entrance to a new residential development in Chongqing, China. The clubhouse will act as a main gateway into the new development and was designed as a dynamic pairing with a future office tower adjacent to the site.
Inspired by the natural mountains and lush topography of the immediate Chongqing context, it sits proudly on the top of a hill like a shimmering sculpture with its lower levels cascading down the hillside.
The clubhouse was designed to become a social and community gathering space for the local community. It is organised around a multi-storey grand atrium that opens up towards the residential scheme. This large, light filled atrium links all main functions together and serves as a reception and exhibition hall with opportunities to show art, hold events, and provide a large community meeting space.
The lower levels of the building provide more leisure and wellness amenities for the community with an indoor pool, gym, children’s play areas and smaller meeting rooms. All spaces have direct connection to external terraces to provide views and access to the surrounding landscape. With current and future flexibility in mind, the building will be converted in the future into a retail center and community center for the residents.
The exterior of the clubhouse is designed to reaffirm a strong connection to the site with the lower levels formed by a series of dynamic, stepped terraces. It appears as if the building were being carved out of the hillside.
The main building sits on top of the hill like a sculptural object with a lightweight, screened façade wrapping a three-storey glass volume. The screened façade is comprised of angled and perforated metal plates to capture and reflect light as well as create a unique and dynamic image to the development. The composition of metal plates are varied and rotated to create a sense of wave-like movement in the façade.
The plates are attached to the main structure through a lightweight steel skeletal framework that helps frame views out and balances a sense of openness versus privacy. At the main entrance to the building, the planes of metal plates open to reveal the central, light filled atrium.
Underneath the main sculptural metal and glass volume, a series of solid aluminum terraces step down the hillside to create a strong base for the main volume. These terraces are designed to ground the building and create a strong relationship to the natural landscape.
The terraces also allow the interior spaces within to open up towards the amazing views of the surrounding river valley. The combination of solid, stepped terraces and shimmering metallic façades is intended to become a new iconic focal point of the larger development.
The Wide Horizon Clubhouse has become not only a new symbol of a wider development but also a new icon in Chongqing. Its strong, dynamic forms and materials have helped to make the building an object of art itself, in addition to the exhibitions within.
winning awards
Outstanding Property Award London 2021 - Platinum Winner, Architectural Design – Cultural
team
Project Partner - Barry Shapiro (Managing Partner, Asia)
Design Partners - Scott Findley, Ian Milne
Design Partners - Scott Findley, Ian Milne
Architectural Team
Frisly Colop Morales, Rita Pang, Hallen Deng, Gwilym Jones, Yueyue Chen, Luke O'Callaghan, Suhan Na, Murphy Ho
consultants
10 Design - Lead Design Architect
Chongqing Arch-Age Design - Local Architect
MOD - Interior Designer
Zhejiang Zhongnan Institution of Curtain Wall Design & Research - Façade Consultant
LEOX Design Partnership - Lighting Consultant
Photo courtesy of Prism Image, Arch-Exist, HereSpace, NEED FILM
