The Garden Club

Dalian is known in northeast China as “A City Built in Gardens,” the 22-floor Garden Club is the region’s first example of “green high-rise architecture.”

Innovatively, plant material is integrated with the project’s architectural features to establish a garden like ambiance on every level. A restored historic villa forms the “jewel” at the heart of the lushly landscaped ground level Club Garden complex. The new residential towers surround the Club Garden and offer garden view corridors. In addition to the project’s central landscape feature, the Club Garden, the urban garden atmosphere is continued vertically by the distinctive “Sky Gardens” atop the commercial podiums. The Sky Gardens provide special outdoor green space exclusively for residents’ outdoor enjoyment and relaxation. These elevated garden areas feature decorative green trellises, seasonal flowers and evergreen trees. The south balconies of the residential towers include planting areas, vine trellises and strategically placed double-volume heights in the balconies’ curves that allow for large potted trees growing up to two stories tall. Together, these elements establish a high-rise vertical greenscape that offers an inviting living environment. The nature-oriented design is reinforced by the residential towers’ undulating balcony shapes, which presenta dramatic weaving of forms. At the same time, the vertical greenscape’s balcony plantings and trees establish a subtle movement of shape and shimmering leaves, imparting a natural life to the buildings. The vegetation also contributes to the project’s energy-saving design, with carefully selected deciduous trees on the balconies helping to shade the glass exterior during summer and admit sunlight during the winter months.