SOHO Fuxing Lu is located in the old district of Shanghai, which was ruled by France - the so-called "French concession" from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. Historically, this part of the city has a very rigid, regular layout: conglomerates of regular rectangular courtyards, "li" - lined up along long, narrow streets called "moon". These traditional residential areas, known as "liluns", defined the concept for the project of the German bureau.
Inscribed in this way in the historic city, the new complex meets the requirements of the LEED Gold ecological certificate and is intended primarily for young companies and promising start-ups. It consists of one high-rise building (99.85 m) supporting the silhouette of Shanghai's business center, Pudong district, with its famous skyscrapers, located across the Huangpu River, and nine hangar-like low volumes, set very closely and connected by a complex system of passages and small streets. The semantic and social center of the district has become a round square, where restaurants and cafes are concentrated. The historic buildings preserved in the new quarter have been carefully integrated into the complex structure. A total of 85 661 m2 of retail space and 50 879 m2 of office space were built. Of these, almost 65,000 m2 are located below ground level.
The linear facades of the tower, as if composed of many barcodes, are devoid of historical reminiscences. And nine low and very extended volumes with gable roofs have glass end facades and are oriented along the east-west axis. Their, partly constructivist, and partly archetypal, form is first reinforced by repeated repetition, and then prepared: with the help of vertical strips of light natural stone, the volume is literally "cut" into different plate thicknesses. As a result, a too rational structure emerges, built exclusively from the head and devoid of the obligatory romantic touch, which, in the end, makes one forget about allusions to both the history of urban planning in China and constructivism.
