Xi'an CCBD,
China

A serene, forest-like after dark experience celebrates the rich material qualities of the architecture and landscape in unexpected and magical ways.
Client
CR Land
Date
2021-2024
Architecture, Landscape and Interior Design
Heatherwick Studio
Executive Lighting Design
HDA
 
Project Team
Keith Bradshaw, Benz Roos, Bruno Leung, Keerthigan Thavaseelan, Gordon Chan

Inspired by moonlight filtering through trees, we created a series of luminous moments for Xi'an CCBD that transforms the night into a tranquil sensory experience - inviting wonder, reflection, and discovery.

In the podium roof gardens, glowing pod-shaped lanterns emerge from the ground, while bespoke inground luminaires embossed with a ginkgo motif are playfully scattered across the landscape.

The new 155,000m² district blends retail, offices, homes, green spaces, and the iconic Xi’an Tree vertical park, creating an oasis within the adjacent high density cityscape.


“
It was important to us that it felt welcoming and natural - a place of calm counterpoint to the dense clustering of tower blocks nearby, offering people the space to breathe...”

Although visually striking at scale, Xi'an CCBD is set apart by the richness of the human experience. Meticulous attention to material and detail creates intimate touchpoints throughout.

Our design builds on this, enhancing the after dark experience with moments that highlight the crafted finishes that evoke the feeling of light filtering through a forest.

As night falls, warm, soft light reveals the curving rooflines and columns, drawing out the texture of the Terracotta-inspired ceramic cladding.

Across façades, streets, and terraces, we balance light levels to make the site easy to navigate-while letting the retail spaces shine.

“
...We grazed light across key forms and surfaces, picking up the naturally irregular organic qualities and rich colours of the cladding materials. We interspersed this with deliberate pockets of shadow to create contrast helping to make the key routes and features clear, while enveloping visitors in a soft ambient glow.”

Xi'an Tree


At the heart of the district stands the Xi'an Tree, the central landmark and natural gathering place. Inspired by the ancient ginkgo at Xi'an's Old Guanyin Temple, it invites visitors to ascend 57 meters through a series of cascading gardens that echo the biomes of the Silk Route, from alpine tundra to dry steppe, before reaching a panoramic city-viewing platform.




To create a striking night time identity, we embedded bespoke light 'seeds' into the structure - integrated floodlights that wash warm light across the underside of the petals, revealing their sculptural form.


As visitors ascend the tree, low-level textured lighting highlights the shifting foliage while keeping views open and uninterrupted. Warm light integrated into the stairs and central column brings out the richness of the materials and ensures a safe, welcoming path. At the base, small round lights float in the water like glowing lilies - quiet moments of magic to ground the experience.

“
We explored how light could contribute to a new experience of the Xi'an tree for the night time, bringing attention to aspects of foliage and plants that people might overlook during the day, such as form, texture and tone, amplifying these qualities with added dappled shadow...”



Interiors and Terraces


Inside, our lighting design continues the focus on emphasising the organic forms and material qualities of the architecture.


“
...to deliver the effect we wanted at a miniature scale, we created tiny bespoke 'flower lights' - small flexible low-level projectors that feature integrated diffusers and gobos, designed to bring the right level of variation and pattern to the lighting.”

Huge skylights take the form of outsized leaf skeletons, their structural 'veins' appearing in soft silhouette by day. By night, bathed in concealed integrated lighting, they glow as if held up to the light of the moon.



For the lift lobbies and bathrooms, we played up the textures in the panel cladding with non-uniform lighting placed to boost visual interest and amplifies the organic qualities.