The “Five Hills” concept for the Suning IT Headquarters Park located in Nanjing, China, combines convenience with drama. The integration of the project’s vehicular circulation system with a radical topographical proposal sets the foundation for articulating two office typologies manifested in the Headquarters and the Workstation building types.

The Headquarters are atrium buildings organized in clusters of three around ‘hilltop’ plazas, with 2 shared lower levels for parking and drop-off carved out of the sculpted landscape. The grandeur of the hilltop clusters frames the park from the north and south, formalizes the main entry to the park, and provides expansive views for the occupants.

The Workstations are articulated as a series of modified spines stretching diagonally across the site in order to take advantage of natural ventilation and daylighting. Automobile access and parking facilities are buried, enabling direct access from automobile into each unit, while preserving pedestrian use above. The landscape is calibrated to respond to the change in scale as one moves outward beyond the Headquarter hills. The Workstation fields are punctuated with intimate gardens, sunken courtyards, and ground-level access paths to the central park.