©Shao Feng
Chongqing boasts a history spanning thousands of years, yet it is undergoing rapid development and renewal. As the city sees a rise in massive, high-density building projects, design demands grow increasingly complex. Our approach reconnects pedestrian, vehicular, rail transit, and ferry systems, layering these transportation modes around Chaotianmen—the city’s most historic and significant landmark, regarded as both a welcoming and sacred site.
– Moshe Safdie
©Shao Feng
Located at the core of Chaotianmen, where the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers converge, Chongqing Raffles City stands as a landmark reflecting the area’s historical role as a port and a place of welcome for officials and dignitaries. The design continues Safdie’s exploration of vertical living, livable urban communities, and harmonious public spaces. It represents an advanced iteration of the Marina Bay Sands SkyPark concept.
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
Crystal Corridor
Known as the world’s tallest horizontal skyscraper, the Crystal Corridor sits 250 meters above ground and stretches 300 meters in length. Covering over 10,000 square meters indoors, it connects four towers and supports Chongqing Raffles City. Opened to the public in May 2020, its outdoor cantilevered glass observation deck offers stunning views of the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers. The corridor also houses a sky garden restaurant and bar, a club with an infinity pool, and a hotel lobby.
©Shao Feng
The Crystal Corridor weighs approximately 12,000 tons and features a steel truss and curtain wall system shaped like an accordion. Its integrated façade consists of 3,000 glass panels and 5,000 aluminum plates. Thanks to its unique folding structure, the corridor remains open year-round despite Chongqing’s variable climate. The western section is clad in metal plates, while the eastern section is transparent glass, allowing abundant natural light while minimizing sun exposure. This innovative shading system helps regulate indoor temperatures throughout the day.
© Existence of buildings
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
Towers
Chongqing Raffles City comprises eight towers: six southern towers reach 250 meters, while two northern towers soar up to 350 meters. Together, they form a distinctive new landmark on Chongqing’s skyline. The curved northern towers resemble sails billowing in the wind, while the curved Crystal Corridor mirrors the arched Chaotian Gate, evoking the region’s rich maritime heritage.
©Shao Feng
Functionally, five towers serve purely residential purposes, including one 350-meter northern tower—the tallest residential building in China. The other 350-meter northern tower is mixed-use, with office spaces below the Crystal Corridor and a hotel above. The remaining two towers accommodate offices and a combination of offices with upscale serviced apartments. All northern façades feature sail-shaped screening components, unifying the towers’ “sailing skyward” theme while providing shade for residents, office workers, and hotel guests.
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
Podium Shopping Center
The five-story shopping center at Chongqing Raffles City is designed to offer visitors clear navigation and an enjoyable experience. It features three themed corridors inspired by the colors of the surrounding rivers: a lighter tone near the Jialing River to the west, a warm tone along the Yangtze River to the east, and a white corridor in the center. Running parallel to the city’s north-south main road, the shopping center extends the urban street experience indoors. Its streets are intelligently arranged between the eight towers and provide access to Chaotianmen Square.
Skylights flood the three themed corridors with natural light, while two east-west pedestrian corridors lead directly to scenic views of the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers. With a clear vertical and horizontal layout complemented by service facilities at key nodes, this 235,000-square-meter shopping center ranks among the largest in Chongqing.
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
© Existence of buildings
Upon opening, the shopping center achieved a merchant occupancy rate of approximately 95%, featuring tenants such as CGV Cinema’s Global Flagship Store, Suning Jiwu Southwest Flagship Store, the playable Museum Cartoon Ni, and Olé Boutique Supermarket. Reports indicate that during its three-day opening in September 2019, the center welcomed 900,000 visitors, maintaining an average daily footfall of around 100,000 thereafter.
Interior Design
Safdie Architects embraced the concept of “continuing and connecting the charm of the mountain city” throughout Chongqing Raffles City. Collaborating closely with all interior design partners, they seamlessly integrated this vision into both architectural elements and interior public spaces.
©Shao Feng
Urban Public Garden on the Podium
Inspired by the natural terrain of Chongqing, the architects created the Mountain City Garden—a sprawling outdoor public park of over 30,000 square meters atop the shopping center podium. Slightly larger than New York’s Madison Square Park, this green lung overlooks Chaotianmen Square. The rooftop space is lush with vegetation and adorned with exclusive sculptures by contemporary Chinese artists Zheng Lu and Jiao Xingtao.
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
Connecting the Mountain City
Driven by design, Chongqing Raffles enhances connectivity between Monument, the People’s Liberation area, and Chaotianmen Square through new sidewalks and improved public transport facilities, benefiting residents, visitors, and the public.
Besides a comprehensive transportation hub integrating subway, bus, and ferry services, the design features a creative traffic diversion system embedded into the existing road network to improve site accessibility. This system links upper-level roads with riverside lower-level roads, effectively resolving a 30-meter elevation difference.
© Existence of buildings
©Shao Feng
Special attention was given to pedestrian accessibility throughout the site and its surroundings. The Mountain City Garden atop the podium aligns with the higher streets nearby and connects to Chaotianmen Square via a tiered stairway, reflecting the city’s unique mountainous topography. This new public walkway offers 24/7 access to the shopping center and links to Chaotianmen Square through a pedestrian overpass. Additionally, the pedestrian paths along Jiabin and Changbin riverside roads were widened from 3 to 7 meters, significantly enhancing pedestrian flow efficiency.
©Shao Feng
Engineering Challenges
The massive and complex Chongqing Raffles City was completed within eight years, a testament to meticulous architectural design and advanced construction techniques. The Crystal Corridor’s construction posed particular challenges due to limited site space and the need for precise assembly and logistics.
The corridor spans four towers and is divided into nine sections. The three connecting sections between towers were assembled at ground level and then lifted into place using hydraulic jacks. The four tower-top sections and terraces at the ends were assembled on the rooftops. To avoid installing the curtain wall 250 meters high, workers pre-installed it at Shancheng Garden’s platform before lifting it to its final position.
©Shao Feng
Because the corridor spans four towers, its seismic isolation and energy dissipation systems are critical. The corridor rests on bearing pads atop the towers, with movement controlled by a large hydraulic damper system monitored electronically. The two bridge frames connecting the tallest towers and the corridor are cantilevered, requiring precise interface connections.
The unique location at the confluence of two rivers also presented construction challenges. Flood seasons (July to September) cause foundations to fall below flood levels. The team avoided flood season, demolishing original riverside roads in just nine months—these roads acted as natural flood barriers during excavation. They completed about 2,700 pile foundations and constructed permanent, robust flood defenses.
In August 2020, the Chongqing Yangtze River Cuntan Hydrological Station recorded the highest flood level since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Thanks to the strong flood barriers, Chongqing Raffles City operated normally during this peak period.
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
Sustainability
Chongqing Raffles City’s comprehensive approach extends beyond development to embrace its unique local environmental context. The integration of rainwater management and building management systems has significantly enhanced efficiency while reducing energy consumption through advanced monitoring.
Compared to standard systems, the project’s regional cooling and heating systems have achieved substantial energy savings. As the city’s largest urban development, Chongqing Raffles City earned LEED Gold Pre-Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for its outstanding environmental design.
©Shao Feng
©Shao Feng
Design Drawings
△ Plan view
△ Plan view
△ Plan view
△ Elevation drawing
△ Cross section of Water Landscape Corridor
△ Sketch
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