In the core of Qianjiang Century City in Hangzhou, an internal street long dominated by vehicular congestion and fragmented infrastructure has been transformed into an integrated, pedestrian-oriented public realm. Designed by TJAD Original Design Studio, the Yuelang Road Block Comprehensive Quality Enhancement project addresses an approximately 330-meter corridor bordered by six high-density commercial and office towers. By dismantling physical barriers, reallocating spatial priorities, and introducing a cohesive architectural and lighting identity, the project demonstrates how neglected urban backstreets can be reclaimed as vibrant social destinations.
Qianjiang Century City represents one of Hangzhou’s most intensely developed modern financial and commercial districts, characterized by soaring skylines and dense commercial complexes. Within such high-intensity urban environments, internal secondary roads and connector streets frequently suffer from an imbalance between infrastructural efficiency and human well-being. Before the intervention, Yuelang Road served as a typical utilitarian service corridor. Its primary functions were confined to facilitating peak-hour office commuting, providing access to underground parking ramps, accommodating temporary curbside parking, and handling building logistics and loading operations.
These competing demands produced acute spatial friction within a constrained right-of-way. Motor vehicles, commuter bicycles, electric delivery couriers, logistics trucks, and pedestrians were forced to navigate the same narrow, congested ground plane. The situation was compounded by the spatial treatment of the properties lining both sides of the corridor. Rather than engaging with the street, each of the surrounding corporate and commercial towers had developed its own distinct, inward-focused boundary treatments. The frontage zones were heavily fragmented by perimeter fencing, ornamental planting strips, abrupt topographical steps, and mismatched paving systems installed by different property managers.
The resulting streetscape was visually chaotic, functionally hostile to walkers, and entirely stripped of civic warmth. It functioned strictly as an operational conduit designed for rapid passage, leaving office workers and visitors with virtually no opportunity or physical space to pause, sit, or interact. The urban threshold between private architecture and public right-of-way had hardened into a series of disconnected, residual spaces that undermined the urban quality of the surrounding district.
Faced with this condition, TJAD Original Design Studio bypassed superficial cosmetic repairs in favor of a coordinated, envelope-to-envelope renewal framework. The architects recognized that the street’s systemic issues could not be resolved solely by repaving sidewalks or adjusting traffic signals. Instead, the design team pursued an integrated approach that simultaneously treated the roadway, the sidewalk zones, and the private building frontages on both sides as an indivisible urban living room.
A critical step in this reorganization was the decluttering of the ground plane through the systematic relocation of surface-level parking. Removing curbside and frontage vehicular stalls reclaimed extensive square footage that had previously fragmented the public realm. With the ground cleared of idle automobiles, the architects were able to thoroughly reorganize the street’s cross-section. The newly configured profile rationalizes the pathways for vehicular ingress, underground garage access, and delivery logistics, while significantly expanding the territorial footprint dedicated to pedestrians.
Central to the project’s spatial philosophy was the systematic opening up of the building frontages. The design dismantled the arbitrary perimeter fences, resolved disruptive grade separations, and removed awkward landscape berms that had long severed the towers from the street. By replacing mismatched paving with a continuous, unified ground treatment that flows seamlessly from the curb to building entrances, the project established an uninterrupted pedestrian network. This continuous ground plane allows office workers and visitors to walk comfortably along the entire 330-meter length of the corridor without navigating physical obstacles, safety hazards, or abrupt dead ends.
To transform this restored pedestrian territory into a genuinely inhabited place, the design introduced a series of functional amenities crafted to encourage lingering. Generous seating installations were embedded along the widened walkways, offering shaded places to rest during lunch breaks and informal meeting spots throughout the workday. The previously barren frontages were repurposed to accommodate outdoor dining terraces and flexible public activity zones, bridging the gap between indoor commercial establishments and the open street.
These spatial interventions alter the daily rhythm of the block. What was once an aggressive, exhaust-laden logistics corridor is now populated by outdoor cafe seating, casual social gatherings, and micro-spaces designed for brief moments of respite. By providing opportunities for outdoor dining and leisurely conversation, the street invites the surrounding office community to extend their daily routines into the open air, fostering a sense of shared urban community that high-rise office developments often lack.
The design extends its contextual responsiveness into the nocturnal hours, drawing thematic inspiration from Yuelang Road’s existing metropolitan nightscape. Recognizing the street’s dual identity as a daytime commercial artery and an evening destination, TJAD Original Design Studio adopted the motif of lunar phases as a unifying conceptual thread. This lunar theme is articulated consistently across newly introduced street structures, public pavilions, bespoke urban furniture, and an integrated lighting scheme.
The lighting and architectural elements avoid generic fixtures in favor of customized geometries that subtly evoke the evolving silhouettes of the moon. Soft, layered illumination embedded within canopies, seating edges, and overhead frameworks replaces harsh, utilitarian street lamps. During the twilight and evening hours, these structures emit a balanced, warm glow that enhances pedestrian safety while creating an inviting, ambient metropolitan atmosphere. The thematic lighting highlights the architectural character of the street, framing outdoor dining spaces and social nooks against the dramatic backdrop of the surrounding illuminated office towers.
This deliberate focus on the evening experience ensures that Yuelang Road does not turn desolate once corporate offices close for the day. Instead, the street maintains steady foot traffic and economic vitality into the night, supporting evening dining, informal night walks, and casual social gatherings alongside routine vehicular access to the towers’ garages. The lunar phase motifs establish a distinct visual and spatial identity for the corridor, helping it stand out as an identifiable urban landmark within the broader fabric of Qianjiang Century City.
Documented in photographs by Guowei Liu, the completed project highlights how focused public realm interventions can dramatically improve urban liveability in dense commercial centers. By coordinating the needs of property owners, municipal infrastructure, and daily commuters into a single coherent framework, the enhancement of Yuelang Road offers a scalable model for retrofitting the overlooked "back-of-house" corridors that permeate rapidly built modern cities.
Through the balanced reconciliation of everyday vehicular circulation with dedicated pedestrian paths, community amenities, and an expressive nocturnal identity, TJAD Original Design Studio has converted a former logistical backstreet into an open, multifunctional urban artery that serves the diverse rhythms of Hangzhou’s contemporary metropolitan life.
