Raffles City Hangzhou, Neo-futuristic office complex in Qianjiang New Town, China
Raffles City Hangzhou is a neo-futurist mixed-use complex in Hangzhou, China, made up of two towers standing at around 258 and 242 meters respectively, both rising from a shared podium base. The podium connects office floors, retail areas, and leisure spaces under one roof, with the towers built from concrete, steel, and reinforced structural elements.
CapitaLand completed the complex in 2017, making it the sixth Raffles City project after earlier ones in Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and Bahrain. The Hangzhou project continued a pattern of building large mixed-use developments in major cities across Asia.
The wave-shaped facade refers to the nearby Qiantang River, making the connection to the city's natural surroundings visible from a distance. Visitors who know this detail tend to look at the towers differently once they spot the resemblance.
The complex has direct metro access, which makes arriving without a car straightforward. The podium alone covers a large area, so it is worth allowing extra time if you plan to explore more than one section.
The retail section inside the podium was the first large-scale project in China to use natural ventilation rather than full air conditioning throughout. This creates a noticeably different feel in the air compared to most shopping centers of the same size.
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