Design, architecture and the latest construction appointments in China.

 

AUSTRALIAN INTERIOR DESIGN AGENCY, GEYER, has completed work on Shanghai’s 50-level One Luijiazhui building in collaboration with Japanese architectural firm Nikken Sekkai. One Luijiazhui is 269 metres high. Geyer was commissioned to give the ilding’s interior a more human appeal and draws inspiration from the Chinese way of life while incorporating aprogressive aesthetic. The concept employs shape and forms from key Chinese cultural icons and landscapes, exploring the parallels between new technologies and materials of the past.

Groundwork has begun on the NANJING-SHANGHAI-HANGZHOU HIGH-SPEED TRAIN triangle and is expected to be completed sometime in 2011. Travel time between Nanjing and Hangzhou is expected to be cut from up to eight hours to just 50 minutes, and will by-pass Shanghai. The Shanghai-Hangzhou line is expected to be completed in time for the 2010 World Expo and will cut travel time between the two cities to 38 minutes. Trains will travel up to 350km/h.

SHANGHAI’S METRO LINE 8 is set for extension to meet anticipated demand during the 2010 World Expo in which an estimated 70 million people are expected to visit over the six month expo period. The new service is expected to come into service as early as July. Lines 7, 9 and 11 are also in final stages of development and are expected to begin services by the end of the year.

Despite a cooling off in China’s upmarket residential property market, SHIMAO PROPERTY HOLDINGS has sold a villa in Shanghai for a record RMB 205 million (A$41 million) – the most expensive residential property ever sold in China.

CHINESE NEW YEAR REVELLERS got more than they bargained for when Beijing’s recently completed Mandarin Oriental Tower building, part of the CCTV tower complex, caught fire and was destroyed by misdirected fireworks on the last night of the two-week Chinese New Year celebrations. One fire-fighter was killed and 12 people have since been arrested including the former head of the CCTV construction office. The 30-storey building has been rendered damaged beyond repair.Beijing is set to begin construction on an inter-city railway linking

BEIJING AND ZHANGJIAKOU – a city in neighbouring Hebei Province. Construction of the 160-km railway line will begin in August at a cost of RMB30 billion.

In March, the BEIJING MUNICIPAL COMMISSION OF DEVELOPMENT AND REFORM released 198 projects it wants to see constructed within 2009. The projects cover transportation, social security, environment, modern industry, energy and commercial buildings.

Bidding for the design of THE WORLD’S LONGEST SEA LINK – a bridge connecting Hong Kong and Macau to the Mainland – has begun. The 29.6km bridge will link the major cities of Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai in China’s affluent Pearl River Delta and carries a RMB 72.6 billion (US$10 billion) price tag. The design bid includes the main body and ports in Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau. The six lane bridge is expected to cut the drive between Zhuhai and Hong Kong from four hours to half an hour. Construction is expected to commence at the end of 2009.

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