MALL OF CHINA serves as a model for urban renewal through the iterative upgrading of Xi’an’s existing commercial assets. With a total construction area of 140,000㎡, the project has adopted a “Three-Year, Three-Phase” strategy for upgrading its commercial interface. Phase I, Dongfang Highstreet – Lifestyle Aesthetics Social Hub, was completed in 2024. Phase II (Sihai Mall) and Phase III (Wuzhou Avenue Commercial Street) are scheduled for completion between late 2025 and 2026. This progressive and organic development model fundamentally advances through three transitions—spatial reconstruction, content innovation, and urban empowerment—evolving traditional stock commerce from a site of consumption into a cultural interface for the city.
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MALL OF CHINA · DONG FANG HIGHSTREET
Renovation and Restoration (Built)
Firm
JZFZ Architectural Design Co. Ltd
Architect/Designer
Liu Qiang
Design Team
Liu Qiang, Wang Zhe, Feng Tao, Qian Guikuan, Ma Guolong, Gao Bo, Li Chunlin, Li Jing, Li Mingyuan, Zhang Yajuan, Zhao Junwei, Yang Furong, Bai Lu, Zhang Zheng, Zheng Ziquan
Location
Xi’an City
Country
China
Photographer/Copyright
©JZFZ Architectural Design Co. Ltd
Social Media Handles:
Website
N/A
The Dongfang Market reconfigures spatial circulation with the concept of “MAKE MARKET”. Anchored by the East Market and complemented by the West Market, it creates a continuous indoor marketplace. Originally fragmented streets of varying styles have been unified into a flexible and adaptable market environment, achieving a symbiotic evolution between the traditional bazaar and contemporary commercial aesthetics. The East and West Markets are linked by an outdoor harbor-style street, embedding themed indoor bazaars and forming a three-tiered spatial structure of “core market—outdoor market—extended market”.
The façade design adopts a strategy of “light intervention, strong revitalization”. Against the backdrop of economic slowdown and consumer downgrading, the core principle of “preserving the skin while changing the core” is applied—retaining the historical texture of building exteriors while focusing renovation efforts on reprogramming interior spaces and upgrading experiential scenes. Through subtle modifications at key spatial nodes and reinterpretation of local cultural elements, everyday motifs such as red lanterns and red bricks are transformed into design features. Combined with commercial scene-making, this creates a time–space interface where the texture of traditional urban life coexists with the aesthetics of modern commerce. The Dongfang Market introduces an expansive red-brick commercial language, extending from interior walls to the building façade, creating a consistent indoor-outdoor material expression. On this unified basis, practical requirements such as insulation and waterproofing are fulfilled, while red bricks are also used to form distinctive landscape walls and custom planters, producing a style that is both unique and seamlessly integrated with the architecture. Curved glass, designed as the signature frontage of the Dongfang Market, takes inspiration from the motif of lanterns. It emphasizes the warmth and vibrancy of daily life, fusing visual impact with the functional need for spatial transparency. Standardized curved glass units are employed to reduce the cost of irregular components, while the outer frame is finished in warm copper-toned stainless steel, creating a material dialogue with red brick and reinforcing an aesthetic tension between history and modernity.
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