▲ North Entrance of the Vitality Center at Taikang Home · Shenyuan
How can we create a diverse and growth-oriented healthcare community? How do we develop a product model seamlessly integrated with Taikang Home’s elderly care operations? And how can we identify project highlights that address Shenyang’s regional characteristics and challenges?
In an aging society encouraged by supportive policies, increasing financial investment is flowing into the healthcare market. Taikang Insurance Group is among the pioneers, operating under its “Taikang Home” brand to build and manage senior living communities. Following their 2015 Beijing Yanyuan project, they launched plans to develop medical and elderly care communities in key cities nationwide.
At the start of 2018, Taikang Home · Shenyuan in Shenyang officially began, taking nearly four years to complete. By late 2021, the first phase of the park was mostly finished and gradually opened for operation.
Taikang Home · Shenyuan represents Taikang Insurance Group’s first medical and elderly care community project in Northeast China.
Overall Layout: The Vitality Center as the Community Hub
The project is situated in Hunnan New District, Shenyang, covering a total land area of 95,000 square meters with a square-shaped terrain. The development is divided into two phases—north and south. This article focuses on the first phase of the CCRC Elderly Care Community located in the north, featuring six retirement apartment buildings under 32 meters in height, one comprehensive building for nursing and rehabilitation medical services, and one Vitality Center that houses centralized support functions.
The Vitality Center stands at the heart of the site, surrounded by the six apartment buildings, ensuring its service radius covers the entire community efficiently. The rehabilitation hospital lies at the northeast corner, with entrances and exits positioned along city roads to facilitate external access and logistics. All underlying circulation paths throughout the site are linked by a fully enclosed corridor system, all converging at the Vitality Center.
Our vision for the Vitality Center goes beyond being a simple venue for activities. It is intended as a transportation and social hub for the community, much like the train stations found in many European city centers where people gather, depart, and linger.
▲ Masterplan of the Community
Regional Climate: Embracing Sunshine and Freedom
Shenyang, a renowned heavy industry base in Northeast China, has historically faced challenges to healthy living due to its cold climate and severe air pollution. Our design responds to the community’s desire for sunshine and freedom by creating a medical and nursing environment that encourages local elderly residents to stay rather than retreating to warmer places like Sanya during winter.
We envisioned spaces bathed in sunlight—even during winter—with warm, bright interiors filled with vibrant greenery. The design allows for a spacious, outdoor-like experience indoors, minimizing clear boundaries to foster a sense of freedom. Additionally, the community is designed to be engaging and full of exploratory possibilities, moving beyond traditional activity rooms to enrich residents’ retirement life.
▲ Exterior dining area at the Vitality Center Restaurant
Inside the glass hall, supported by 11 tree-shaped columns, a bright and warm inner street offers a comfortable and inviting spatial experience.
Business Organization: Functional Cells
To create a flowing space described as “sunny, natural, and interesting,” we deliberately stepped away from rigid design guidelines to avoid spaces becoming mere translations of functional requirements.
Instead, we reclassified functions based on their spatial characteristics—whether concentrated or dispersed, closed or open—forming distinct “functional cells.” Each cell features a clear, solid core (a closed, indivisible space) surrounded by a flexible and variable “cell wall” (an open boundary).
We imagined a massive glass box containing these cells, varying in size and arrangement, with intentional gaps between them. This design allows the cells to grow and adapt organically over time.
▲ Functional Cell Diagram (Bidding Stage)
Structural System: Tree-Like Columns
This expansive glass box is supported by 11 large “tree-like columns.” After thorough discussions about structural form, construction feasibility, and decorative finishes, the “tree trunks” were designed as octagonal prisms. From each trunk, diagonal braces fan out in eight directions to support the main beams. These braces follow the stress lines of the beams and extend upward to the steel roof ceiling, integrating with a T-shaped steel beam system to create a complete and efficient structural framework.
Why tree columns? Beyond their structural efficiency for large, open spaces, they also evoke a mixed imagery of tropical botanical gardens, transportation hubs, and bustling shopping streets—through this biomimetic design, we aim to enrich users’ experience and imagination.
▲ Tree column and roof structure deconstruction diagrams
▲ The “glass box” supported by tree-shaped columns and a T-shaped steel beam system
Physical Relationship: Inner Street Arcade
On both sides of the glass box, various enclosed forms—representing clusters of functional cells—are inserted, each with a degree of spatial independence allowing for separate entrances and exits. Internally, this creates an arcade-like spatial environment designed for commercial use. This form is reminiscent of building types we referenced earlier in the design process.
We envision these inward-facing cells to embrace stylistic diversity rather than uniformity, allowing them to evolve and change over time. This approach also reflects the architectural concept of “growth potential.”
▲ Spatial layout analysis of the Vitality Center (Bidding Stage)
A commercial inner street designed with “growth potential.”
– Conclusion –
This large-scale medical and elderly care community is rare even on an international level, especially with such a centralized supporting facility. The significance of the entire community space seems to converge here.
We could not identify a single typological prototype that fully matches this project—be it a greenhouse, station, shopping street, terminal, hotel, or amusement park. This uncertainty is where our creative joy lies. We are grateful to our homeowners for their tolerance, understanding, and support, and we hope to bring happiness to the elderly and their families living in Northeast China.
Project Information
Project Name: Taikang Home · Shenyuan
Location: Shenyang, Liaoning
Ground Floor Area: Approximately 162,000 square meters
Owner: Taikang Insurance Group
Architectural Design: Qicheng Design
Lead Designers: Guan Yiqun, Sun Chengyu
Design Team: Li Sijia, Jin Xiaoyan, Meng Wei, Shang Mengqi, Huang Wei
Design Phase: Phase 1, 2018
Construction Completion: December 2021
Architectural Photography: Liang Wenjun
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