City Balcony Park promenade at the Qianjiang River in Hangzhou

The impressive Qian Tang River is one of the main attractions of the city of Hangzhou, but was only little considered in previous urban planning. The planning now realized eliminates this imbalance and brings the river as part of the city into this.

On top of a 500 m long building complex, which projects 80 m above the water of the Qian Tang River, a new park promenade has been created, which is designed as a flowing space between inside and outside and combines shopping mall with park landscape to a park mall. In the interplay of light and shadow, meandering pathways of wood and stone as well as ribbons of lawn and water form a fabric that unites all levels of the building - across ramps, stairs and light trenches - into a cohesive ensemble. Architecture merges with the landscape, artificiality becomes part of the natural. The flowing movement of the Qian Tang River and its play with ebb and flow is given expression here in the built structure of the park promenade.

As part of an urban vision, the City Balcony connects the city with the impressive Qian Tang River in a new way and makes it tangible.
The City Balcony is the new symbol for the outstanding significance of the location on the river. It symbolizes the change from the West Lake era to the Qian Tang River era.
With an embracing, embracing gesture, the City Balcony juts out over the shore onto the Qian Tang River. City, park, and river intertwine, as it were, forming a bond and entering into a dialogue with one another. Across ramp runs, the meandering pavement surfaces weave together to form a cohesive surface.
Thus, urban spaces that are both river and city are created in an amazing way.


The City Balcony is the prelude, high point and vantage point of the new landscape space, which is articulated with over 1000 trees. The loose groves of Cinnamomum camphora, Magnolia grandiflora, Taxodiaceae lay like gentle veils over the "City Balcony".