With a superior location at the center area of the Tai Lake New Town, the Magnolia Garden at WuXi is composed of three blocks. On the north is Gaolang Avenue, the main entrance for the city traffic. Guanshan Road is on the south, next to the financial district. On its east is Jinkui Park, and the newly built civic center of Tai Lake New Town is on the south-east. In the master plan, we adopt symmetric and balanced structure – buildings are aligned symmetrically along the south-north main axis which connects the three blocks like beads on a string. 

Naturally, we turn the three blocks into three residential clusters, of which each has separated circulation systems for vehicles and pedestrians respectively. For each cluster, a club house is placed at the main entrance in an effort to mix social activities from different clusters and therefore give residents a sense of “small neighborhood, big community”. Inside the clusters verandas, garden features and plants are used to strengthen the feeling of enclosed space. The landscaped central garden and scattered green courtyards interpenetrate each other with different feels, and they also get some connection with Jinkui Park through the spaces between slab-typed buildings on the east.

The elevation design is in modern style, and we purposely treat the high-rise buildings as public project in a way to guarantee a better quality. The details on the façade are inspired by the neoclassical architectures, which emphasize individual features, proportions as a whole, the golden ratio in the openings in the wall. The columns and architrave enrich the buildings on the street level. The main body of the buildings is covered by beige natural stones and the window frames are dark-colored. This color combination gives the buildings a look that is fresh, elegant, and delicate.