New Power Technology Financial Center Project Selected as an Excellent Case of the “Best Practice of Beijing Urban Renewal”

Recently, New Power Technology Financial Center Project designed by UCD won the Excellent Case Award of the first “Best Practice of Beijing Urban Renewal”. In the project design, the design team, standing on a high standard and high starting point, set a new example in the practice of large-scale public building renovation and urban renewal with high level and difficulty by giving full play to the demonstration role of this project and designing the “new generation of smart city complex” with ingenuity.

This selection activity was organized by the Urban Planning Society of Beijing under the guidance of the Special Class for Promoting Implementation of the Beijing Urban Renewal Special Group and the support of the Urban Work Office of Beijing Municipal Party Committee, Beijing Municipal Commission of Planning and Natural Resources, and Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. A total of 210 projects recommended or declared by more than 100 organizations in Beijing were selected. After preliminary expert evaluation, online voting, expert re-evaluation and comprehensive review, 16 projects with the title of “Best Practice” and 18 projects with the title of “Excellent Case” of urban renewal were finally selected, with a total of 34 projects selected.

New Power Technology Financial Center Project is located in Xicheng District, Beijing, close to the zoo, with a total construction area of about 100,000 m2. The transformation and renovation work was completed in December 2020. More than ten years ago, it was the largest clothing wholesale and distribution center in the north of China, and “Beijing Zoo Wholesale Market” was on the hot list as the latest online popular words. More than ten years later, the previous clothing wholesale market has long been retreated, and transformed into a “fin-tech center” gathering well-known and leading enterprises of financial technology.

This project is a pioneering model for upgrading inefficient buildings in Xicheng District and a demonstration building in the core area of the National Financial Technology Demonstration Zone. It has created a five-in-one urban renewal and development model of “space, industry, capital, resources and operation” suitable for the efficient use of existing space resources.

Under the policy of “industry first” and “demand-oriented”, this project takes the fin-tech industry as the core target customer group, and all indicators and designs of building in this project are designed based on the industrial demand. Through the organic combination of software and hardware upgrading, intelligent building management and control system, traffic line optimization, public communication space creation and other means, the problems of mixed office workers with bus stations and buildings, lack of supporting public space and business service space are solved. The functional layout of each floor is adjusted according to the needs of the business type, and the original crowded and narrow wholesale market is upgraded to a high-end office serving the fin-tech industry.

The reconstructed building is not like a traditional office building, which only meets the basic needs of the corporate office, but gathers such functions as the carrier of fin-tech industry, the professional service platform, the smart building demonstration base and the urban traffic conversion hub, and becomes a “new generation of smart city complex”. The overall orientation of the building is “the birthplace of fin-tech ideas and professional service platform”, and it has become an important window to show the fin-tech image in the core area of the capital city.