Nanjing Culture and Conference Center by Zaha Hadid Architects is under construction. The center’s master plan expresses continuity, fluidity and connectivity between the urban environment of hexi New Town, the agricultural farmland along the Yangtze River and the rural landscapes. The development consists of two towers – the taller is 68 floors high while the shorter one is 59 floors in height. The towers share a five-level, mixed-use podium.

The towers create rather dynamic transition from the vertical urban topography to the horizontal one of the river. The natural landscapes of the river are connected to the urban streetscape of the new center through the fluid architectural language of the mixed-use podium and conference center. At the interface between the tower and the podium, the glass façade slowly transforms into a grid of rhomboid fiber-concrete panels, therefore giving the large surfaces of podium and conference center almost sculptural appearance which underlines the dynamic character of the form and providing daylight to the building’s interior.

The Conference Center facilitates a conference hall, multipurpose rooms, meeting rooms, exhibition areas, restaurants, and retail areas. The main program elements are independent volumes surrounding the courtyard but further merging into a singular whole at higher levels, allowing pedestrians to walk through an open landscape at the ground level. The Concert Hall offers five hundred seats and is optimized for both acoustic orchestral performances and also shows using audio equipment.