11 FOR 22 | CHENGDU LUXE LAKES

Project | Chengdu Luxe Lakes

Importance | One of four of China's Legendary Developments

Project Aim | To bring yachting lifestyle to landlocked Chengdu

Chengdu Luxe Lakes is a pioneering eco-city project brought to life across 10 years by over 100 of the world’s most visionary planners, architects, landscape designers, and environmentalists. Renowned as one of China’s Four Legendary Developments, Luxe Lakes has set the standard for all lake developments since.

At the soul of Luxe, Lakes is water, and NDA reimagined how water and land would interact to serve people and places. NDA reshaped the waterfront, created water activities, and planned the entire boating system, all from the starting point of LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) intertwined with Chengdu’s local culture.

Luxe Lakes is the brainchild of visionary developer Mr. Luo Li Ping, who travelled the world for inspiration, to create a water-based eco-city in this landlocked region. To achieve this the original hillside site was flooded to create an extraordinary network of canals and islands with a total shoreline of 45km.

Chengdu has long been renowned for its parks, teahouses, and artistic scene, and as it stepped onto the world stage we looked to capture this culture and intersect it with the incredible nature of the Luxe Lakes, creating the lifestyle Chengdu citizens deserve – active, inspired and world-class.

Ecosystem in Harmony

NDA envisioned a collection of open and relaxed activities that allow us to protect nature whilst maximising people’s enjoyment of it. Working alongside environmentalists, we gave ourselves strict guidelines on noise, size, and speed of boats – understanding that only by carefully considering people, water, and land, can there be harmony between the three.

Thus, NDA planned for exclusively using smaller vessels, averaging 10m long, like boat taxis, water buses, luxury lake boats, and leisure sailboats all which have low wave impact and ensure future integrity of the shorelines. Further, we planned for low-impact human-powered water sports including kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding.

NDA also arranged security and technical details to warrant safe activities and brought on high-level environmental equipment for boat and engine maintenance.

Onshore we worked with landscape designers to create bike paths and running trails, giving people the space and means to explore the lakes from land with minimum disruption to the shoreline.

Vision Realised

Luxe Lakes is one of the earliest large-scale lake boating projects in China. To even conceive of bringing a yachting lifestyle here was radical, especially in 2009.

Today, Luxe Lakes has bloomed into a truly holistic community and destination where the young, the curious, and the active live healthy lifestyles whilst still enjoying the conveniences of modern life.

NDA's foresight in bringing LOHAS living to Luxe Lakes has made it become one of Chengdu's most sought-after residential areas and popular tourist destinations. It has even formed its own mini culture, with dozens of festivals, events, cafes, and restaurants, putting it perfectly in sync with Chengdu's effortlessly cool and health-conscious Millenials and Gen Z.

*All pictures sourced from the internet unless otherwise stated