Chao Building is located on Beijing Road, a thousand-year-old street in one of the oldest and most famous commercial districts in Guangzhou. The Chao Building once held the trendy memories of the “post-80s” generation, but due to sluggish business growth and other reasons, it gradually declined alongside its grid-shop commerce with the passage of time. Now, the all-new Yue·Chao Building NEW IN, has returned with a comprehensive renovation and renewal.
The building currently has 30 floors, with a 6-story podium that includes commercial spaces and a hotel. The renovation retained the architectural features and local cultural elements while reconstructing the internal space and flow, creating a vertical and multi-level outdoor space with a “stairway” design rich in Lingnan characteristics. This formed a “multi-ground level” commercial area that combined trendy retails, experiential scenes, art exhibitions of new lifestyles, and social activities into a new commercial model of “commerce+art+scenes”, continuing Guangzhou’s trendy cultural heritage and creating a hub for the youth to gather and explore new lifestyles.
The Chao Building is surrounded by historical arcade buildings. On both sides of Beijing Road, traditional Lingnan-style commercial buildings feature elevated arcades at their base, so the design concept transformed the horizontal street into a vertical one, incorporating elevated arcades on each floor of the Chao Building to form a multi-level commercial street, embodying Lingnan cultural elements.
© Siming Wu
The façade’s arcade stairs brought the spread-out arcade culture and Lingnan charm of Beijing Road into a vertical and multi-level commercial space, resulting in a distinctive visual design. Due to the building’s address being No. 182, the “182 Arcade Stairway” was born. This arcade stairway can be converted to suit different activity themes, transforming into a stairway art gallery, a stairway living room, or a stairway garden as needed.
Arcade stairway on the building facade
The interior integrated the concept of a new-style ANTI-MALL, fostering a youth cultural utopia as well as establishing a curated leisure and commercial community centered around “Fashion+Food+Entertainment+Knowledge”. Curated retail and scenario-based commercial spaces contrasted with traditional grid-style retail by prioritizing consumer experience. They reduced the boundaries between individual units and highlight the overall spatial experience.
Project Info:
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Architects: Atelier cnS-CICADA ART
- Country: China
- Area: 11000 m²
- Year: 2024
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Lead Architects: Gang Song, Zi’an Luo
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Architectural Design: Yongzai Cen, Yuheng Xiao, Zhencheng Huang, Qiyi Lian, Haihui Zhu, Zhehan Li
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Lighting Design: Guangzhou Serafina Lighting Design
Ruba Ahmed, a senior project editor at Arch2O and an Alexandria University graduate, has reviewed hundreds of architectural projects with precision and insight. Specializing in architecture and urban design, she excels in project curation, topic selection, and interdepartmental collaboration. Her dedication and expertise make her a pivotal asset to Arch2O.