InTime Lotte Shopping Centre
Beijing, China
China Yin Tai
Project 2004 – 2008
On the site of the original Ji Xiang Peking Opera Theatre, the 50,000m² shopping, entertainment and theatre complex is located on Beijing’s premier shopping street, with multi-level basement carpark and retail outlets.
Responding to its historical artistic context and contemporary program of uses, the building is conceived as a theatre behind a transparent glass stage curtain. The glass curtain provides an opportunity to view, in select spots, an interior of colour, movement, advertising and display visible to Wang Fu Jing and Jin Yu Hu Tong Streets.
Instead of a ‘traditional building’ with windows and signage, here the building becomes one gigantic sign; contemporary, vibrant, exciting, and memorable. The life and activity of the street is drawn upwards and into its heart.
The sensuous draped perimeter skin provides an ever-changing surface of reflection and transparency, where the movement of passers-by creates an illusion of movement and complexity in an otherwise calm and understated form.
