The LEED Gold-certified Palace 66 retail complex operates as a modern interpretation of the city’s historical markets and allows a flexible program to exist within a single superstructure.
As the 17th century birthplace of the Qing Dynasty, the city of Shenyang has long been one of China’s premier trading centers. Now, 400 years later, the capital of the Liaoning Province remains a thriving city of industry and commerce. As an extension of Shenyang, a northern city once defined by the roof landscape of the neighboring Imperial Palace, the Palace 66 roof system defines the building façade, while permitting the retail below to re-imagine itself overtime. It in turn functions as a piece of sustainable infrastructure containing multiple systems that supply solar power, reduce heat, provide outdoor gardens and bring natural light into the depths of the building. The building materials promote transparency and legibility, allowing the interior program to engage the surrounding streets.
Inside, the building features a vast atrium at the center of the complex, providing a public gathering space saturated with natural light for a city dominated by long winter months. A variety of shops are arranged in specialty zones along interior galleries. Frequent, active entries along the pedestrian streets maintain the intense traffic of the lively merchant setting. Rather than acting as merely a terminus, the building becomes an integrated constituent of the urban traffic. All circulation spaces are designed to allow maximum daylight which, when drawn into the building, displays the delicate patterns of the soaring roofs overhead.
