Sanya Serenity Coast, Hainan, Ch

Publicity and Privacy

Serenity Coast Lot A26 and A27 Project, Sanya, Hainan

The project brief called for the design of 140,000 square meters of residential towers with 24,000 square meters of commercial podium.  The 56,000 square meters site for the project is located at the narrowest pinch of Luhuitou Peninsula in Sanya, Hainan, China.  It is framed by Sanya Bay to the northwest and Dadong Sea to the southeast.  The site is divided into two halves by a 50 meters wide central green axis.

Given both residential and commercial programs in the project the biggest challenge in the design was addressing the publicity and privacy requirements at the interface between the two programs.  Residential projects in China are often designed with intentional impenetrable boundaries while commercial programs require maximum public exposure.  The requirement of a well-defined boundary is based on the tradition of exclusivity and condition of privacy demanded by sense of security.

In addressing this inherent contradiction, the design intent was to seek creative alternatives to the privacy requirement while satisfying the publicity of the commercial programs as well as the residential community. To accomplish this task, the following strategies were implemented:

Smaller urban blocks to create more public spaces and smaller and more intimate private community spaces.

Creation of public to private spatial layering from the most public street frontage to the more private sculpted inner courts.

Creation of alternate ground plane at top of the commercial program as community semi public space connected to the residential towers accessible from the community inner courts.

Balconies for all units as visual connectors to all public spaces and ocean view.