Text description provided by the architects. The design for the Phase I of Qinhuangdao Golden Dream Bay, a high-density beachfront residential community, utilizes a series of stacked vertical modules, creating a porous massing punctuated with terraces and gardens. Arranged in stepped patterns along the shore, the composition creates large urban windows, framing views and fostering a sense of openness.

Courtesy of Kerry Properties and Safdie Architects

The complex is organized around a beachfront boardwalk running north–south, and an east–west bazaarlike spine that connects abutting communities with the beach. The crisscrossing of these two community spines links the city with the waterfront and provides for daytime and nighttime activities throughout all seasons. This stands in contrast to typical high-density development patterns that tend to segregate the city from the water’s edge.

Courtesy of Kerry Properties and Safdie Architects

The project’s overall massing consists of individual 15-story slab buildings that connect and stack vertically in two tiers for a total height of 30 stories. The building blocks are staggered and join corner to corner between tiers, creating a mixture of units that offer a great variety of openness and views.

Courtesy of Kerry Properties and Safdie Architects

Many units feature gardens open to the sky, while other units have solariums, bay windows, or balconies. In addition, garden/pool areas top the parking deck and enliven the 15th and 30th community levels.

Courtesy of Kerry Properties and Safdie Architects

At level 15, between the tiers, a community thoroughfare links the building blocks and allows residents to traverse the entire complex surrounded by greenery and city and ocean views. Within this unconventional massing, the rational geometry allows for conventional construction and highly efficient service cores.

Courtesy of Kerry Properties and Safdie Architects

The advantages of the unique and efficient arrangement and the benefits it provides offer a model for future urban housing development at a similar density.

Courtesy of Kerry Properties and Safdie Architects

• Architects

  Safdie Architects

• Location

  Jin Meng Hai Wan, Qinhuangdao, China

• Category

  Apartments

• Local Design Institute

  China Shanghai Architectural Design & Research Institute Co. Ltd.

• Client

  Kerry Properties Limited

• Area

  4800000.0 ft2

• Project Year

  2017