THE PARK by K11 – Façade Design

Located in the heart of Ningbo in Zhejiang, China, “The Park by K11” is a major mixed-use development whose one-kilometre envelope establishes clarity, coherence, and spatial richness across four interconnected plots. Designed by Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design (LEAD) and delivered with AGC Design Ltd., the project addresses the challenge of unifying a large and diverse programme while remaining responsive to orientation, public realm, and micro-context.
The development integrates cultural, commercial, and artistic functions within a dense urban setting, prompting the need for a facade strategy that could move beyond standard retail typologies. The design adopts a visually legible, materially precise system composed of prefabricated metal shingles that register light, shadow, and movement. Simple components generate layered effects: shopfronts curve outward to activate the street edge, while the upper cladding introduces shifts in colour, density, and geometry that distinguish each volume without compromising the overall identity.
At ground level, a continuous band of transparent glazing creates permeability and direct street engagement for each unit. This strip extends vertically through the facade as a narrow-glazed incision, maintaining a visual connection between interior activity and the city above, and breaking down the perceived mass of the blocks.
The facade is founded on an economy of parts: two shingle types and a controlled palette of finishes. This constraint enabled efficient off-site fabrication, minimal waste, and rapid manual installation, aligning design intent with local construction capabilities. A parametric digital framework drove the system’s variation, allowing modules to adjust in depth, angle, and pattern while preserving rationality and fabrication clarity. The angle and spacing of the shingles were also calibrated to optimise airflow for the mechanical ventilation systems behind them, ensuring performance requirements were met without disrupting the architectural language. Detailing was further refined to support drainage and weathering, embedding practical considerations within the overall formal logic.
Although contemporary in expression, the design is informed by regional craft traditions, particularly the layered geometries and material ageing of copper temple roofs. These influences appear indirectly, through logics of repetition, tactility, and atmospheric change rather than literal replication. As daylight shifts, the shingles reflect and absorb their surroundings, giving the surface a dynamic quality that evolves through movement and time.
The result is a facade that balances precision and adaptability, unity and variation, surface impact and spatial nuance. It sets a clear identity across multiple buildings while avoiding homogeneity, demonstrating that rigorous systems can also deliver expressive architectural character.
In a commercial landscape often dominated by signage and spectacle, The Park proposes an alternative approach. It shows how a principle-driven design, tied closely to fabrication methods and environmental performance, can produce a large-scale urban architecture that is efficient, adaptable, and rooted in place. The facade operates not merely as enclosure but as an urban contributor, shaping the public realm as much as it frames the programme within.

LOCATION | Ningbo, Zhejiang, China
CLIENT | New World China Land
FAÇADE DESIGN | Laboratory for Explorative Architecture & Design Ltd. (LEAD)
LEAD DESIGN TEAM | Kristof Crolla, Julien Klisz, Alex Ng, Adrien Gesulfo, Kenneth Cheung, Ben James, Simon Ng, Sian Wong Chi Hang, Frankie Han Wing Chung, Teddy Fan Tianpeng. Luke Yau, Jason Kin Keung Lau, Nichol Long Hin Wong, Zion Chan Tik Chun.
PROJECT COORDINATION | AGC Design Ltd.
AGC PROJECT TEAM | Tony Lam, Erica Chui, Alex Wong, Eric Lai
FAÇADE DESIGN | 2016 – Mid 2022
CONTRACTOR | China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd.
CONSTRUCTION | 2018 – October 2024
PHOTOGRAPHY | StudioSZ, AGC-Design, New World China Courtesy