KPF Threads a Park Through Hangzhou's Westlake 66, Linking Five Towers Between West Lake and the Grand Canal

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Q: What is "KPF Threads a Park Through Hangzhou's Westlake 66, Linking Five Towers Between West Lake and the Grand Canal" about?

This article covers topics related to Residential Building, Landscape Design. A 194,400 m² mixed-use district in Hangzhou wraps offices, a hotel and a university in a terracotta-lined Cell Wall beneath a 400 m Sky Park.

Westlake 66 sits on a site in downtown Hangzhou, one street back from a main boulevard and behind a row of large buildings. That location also places it between two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, West Lake and the Grand Canal. KPF was given a deteriorated neighborhood and a brief for 194,400 m² of program: five office towers, the Mandarin Oriental Hangzhou, retail, a university building and several public parks. Hang Lung is the developer and Wong & Ouyang (HK) is the project architect. The obvious response would have been a cluster of towers on a podium. KPF built something closer to a piece of walkable landscape that happens to carry towers.

The project matters because of how its two main ideas work together. First, a central greenway and a roughly 400 m rooftop Sky Park make the podium a public route instead of a barrier, so pedestrians can move between the lake and the canal without depending on cars. Second, a long facade called the Urban Cell Wall turns local craft into a modular system. It uses metal panels lined with glazed terracotta from Yixing, and each cell can be updated as the program behind it changes. Most mixed-use megaprojects claim to be both landscape and city. This one has the plans and details to support the claim.

A Big Project in a Fine-Grained Neighborhood

Aerial view of towers and linked rooftop terraces outlined in warm light over surrounding city blocks and traffic at dusk

Street corner with a curved, banded glass tower and a glazed lobby volume beside a low old tiled-roof house at dusk

Rooftop terrace with a curved timber handrail and planted edge, overlooking a glass tower and older apartment blocks in clear daylight

The aerial view shows the scale clearly. Linked terraces step down from the towers into a city of ordinary blocks and heavy traffic. At ground level the contrast is sharper. A curved, banded glass tower stands next to a low house with a tiled roof, and the rooftop terraces look out over older apartment slabs. KPF did not hide these neighbors. The historic structures on the site were kept, and the design was developed with local planning authorities. As a result, the old buildings act as measuring points for the new ones.

Height was decided by analysis, and it shows. KPF's Urban Interface algorithm tested the massing for floor plate size, views in and out, and shadow cast on neighboring buildings. The stepped profile is the outcome of that testing. You notice it most where the towers pull back from the street.

The Urban Cell Wall as an Adaptable Facade

Close-up of curved facade bands with orange-lined window boxes above a timber-clad soffit and white fins

Frontal view of the aluminium window-box facade with orange-lit recesses and louvres, glowing at dusk above a curved canopy

Close-up of curved facade panels with orange-edged windows, lit warmly from inside at dusk beside a timber-lined soffit

The Cell Wall is the project's main achievement. It is a long, curving band of rectangular cells, and each cell is a window box that can be adjusted to the room behind it. At dusk the recesses glow orange, and the facade reads as many separate rooms rather than one blank surface. This matters on a building this long, where a uniform curtain wall would feel like a barrier.

The construction logic is equally important. The cells were made as modular units and installed in sections, and the design expects them to be replaced over the building's life. Most commercial facades are fixed for decades. Here the facade is treated as something that can be changed piece by piece, and that is a sensible bet for offices aimed at tech startups whose needs will shift.

Yixing Terracotta, Reworked for a Modern Facade

Low-angle view of a tower stepping back above rows of orange-trimmed window frames under a clear blue sky

Street facade with orange-lined window frames over a bamboo planting strip, a passing car and pedestrians in evening light

Street-level view of a facade with small yellow and blue window frames above a stone wall, with a scooter rider passing

Many Chinese projects use regional materials as decoration. Westlake 66 builds them into the system. The glazed terracotta comes from Yixing, a nearby city whose pottery industry dates to the Song Dynasty, and it is produced in five custom colors. It lines metal panels instead of being laid as heavy masonry. The result looks handmade when you are close to it and reads as a precise grid from the street.

Where small yellow and blue frames sit above a stone wall, the facade refers to the stone embankments along West Lake. The reference is clear without being copied. Planting strips of bamboo at the base carry the same idea down to the sidewalk.

Fins Shaped by Sun and View

Podium facade with green vertical fins and a rooftop sign, below stepped glass towers, with pedestrians crossing the street at blue hour

Two people stand reading a phone against a wall of vertical rust-colored metal fins in low golden sunlight

Street-side facade of vertical fins glowing orange with a cantilevered timber soffit, with families walking the pavement at dusk

The vertical fins are where the computational work becomes visible. Green fins on the podium and rust-colored metal fins along the street were tuned to their exposure, shading where solar gain is high and opening where views are worth keeping. Each facade is adjusted to its own context, so the building does not show the same face in every direction.

That is how a performance-driven facade should work. The data does not dictate the appearance. It changes the depth, spacing and color of the fins within a family of elements that is already strong on its own terms. People leaning against the warm fins in low sun show that the facade also works at body scale.

Timber Soffits and a Shaded Retail Street

Entrance canopy with timber-clad fins and a facade of orange-lined window boxes above wide stone steps, with pedestrians in late sun

Timber-lined canopy overhanging a glazed retail corner at a street crossing, with pedestrians and a passing car in daylight

Street corner of a glass-fronted retail podium below tall towers, with cyclists and pedestrians passing at dusk

The retail podium creates a commercial avenue beneath the towers, and timber is what makes it comfortable. Wood-lined canopies extend over glazed corners and wide stone entrance steps. They give shade and a warmer, lower ceiling to pavements that would otherwise sit under glass towers.

The street-level views show cyclists, scooters, families and pedestrians crossing in front of the shops. A project that set out to move away from car-centric urbanism has to prove it at the curb, and these spaces suggest it does.

A Greenway Through the Site

Garden courtyard with a reflecting pool and a stone path, with curved glass towers rising behind visitors in late afternoon sun

Glass towers rising above a landscaped courtyard with lit trees and a green roof terrace at dusk

Curved timber-soffit corner of a tower rising above a landscaped courtyard with patterned paving and a woman walking past

The four podium blocks are separated by a central greenway, and this is the decision that makes the rest of the scheme work. A reflecting pool, stone paths, lit trees and patterned paving produce a sequence that feels more like a garden walk than a gap between buildings. The curved glass towers look out over it rather than turning their backs on it.

KPF cites the Chinese landscape tradition of placing gardens, pagodas, pavilions and dams along visual axes. The greenway applies that idea to an office district, framing the towers as landmarks seen from the path.

The Sky Park: A Public Roof 400 Meters Long

Two visitors walk a flagstone path through a rooftop garden of shrubs and trees toward a banded glass building

Curving pedestrian path beside planted beds and a sweeping metal-clad facade, with two women walking under clear afternoon sky

Glass-balustraded stair with a patterned stone wall, leading toward two glass towers framed by tree canopy under a blue evening sky

The upper office floors open onto a green roof that runs the length of the podium. The result is a public Sky Park about 400 m long. Flagstone paths cross areas of shrubs and trees, curving walkways follow the metal facade, and glass-balustraded stairs lead from the street up to the planted level.

This is the clearest expression of the brief's ambition to treat architecture as an urban park. A green roof on a podium is common. One that is publicly accessible and continuous across four blocks is rare. Together with more than 10,000 m² of green space, it gives Hangzhou a raised public route that connects the city's two heritage sites at a second level.

Towers, Bridges and Curved Openings

Low-angle view of a tapering tower with pale gridded facade and rounded corners against a clear blue sky

Upward view through a curved opening framed by gridded window facades against a blue sky with a thin cloud

Pedestrian crossing in front of a glazed sky bridge linking two curved podium volumes at dusk

The towers are more restrained than the podium, and that restraint helps. Pale gridded facades with rounded corners taper as they rise, so the colored Cell Wall and the planted terraces carry most of the visual interest. A glazed sky bridge connects two curved podium volumes over a pedestrian crossing, keeping the elevated route continuous.

The upward view through a curved opening shows the same discipline. The gridded window walls step back to frame the sky, so the large volumes still let light and air reach the spaces below.

Plans and Drawings

Exploded axonometric diagram of five towers on a shared podium, color-coded by office, hotel, education, retail and terrace uses

Visibility and view analysis diagrams comparing dot grids at the middle and top of a building, with a site plan locating the vantage area

Grid of iteration thumbnails of massing studies on a site plan, above a parallel coordinates chart of daylight and view metrics

Flat elevation diagram of facade panels shaded from yellow to deep orange to show varying solar radiation across a stepped building

Facade diagram combining an unobstructed view map and a solar radiation map to produce an optimized green-fin facade on a stepped tower

The exploded axonometric shows how the program is stacked: offices, hotel, education, retail and terraces layered on a shared podium, arranged so that uses can change over time. The visibility studies and the grid of massing iterations show the Urban Interface process at work, with daylight and view metrics plotted to compare each option.

The solar radiation and view maps link that analysis to the facade itself. Color gradients from yellow to deep orange record solar exposure, and combining the radiation and view maps produces the optimized green-fin elevation. The drawings make one point plain: the facade's variety comes from calculation, not decoration.

Why This Project Matters

Chinese cities are full of mixed-use complexes that seal themselves off from the street. Westlake 66 argues for the opposite approach. A development of almost 200,000 m² can work as public infrastructure, opening a pedestrian route between West Lake and the Grand Canal and placing a park on its roof. With targets of LEED Platinum, China Green Building Label 3 Star and WELL Platinum, it also tries to show that this generosity does not have to cost performance.

The broader lesson is in the Cell Wall. Computational design often produces facades that are clever but anonymous. KPF used the algorithm to calibrate Yixing terracotta, local stone and timber, and designed the cells to be replaced as the building's uses change. The project treats regional craft and data-driven design as compatible, and the result is a commercial district that is clearly rooted in Hangzhou.

Westlake 66 Mixed Use Complex by KPF, with Wong & Ouyang (HK) as project architect. Location: Hangzhou, China. Area: 194,400 m². Year: 2026. Photography: Blackstation, KPF, StudioSZ Photo / Justin Szeremeta.

About the Studio

KPF

Official website of KPF, one of the studios behind this project.

kpf.com

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