Chongqing Cuntan International Cruise Centre

The Cuntan International Cruise Centre converts a working Yangtze River cargo terminal into a passenger cruise gateway and mixed-use city complex on a 66,000-square-metre site in Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area. MAD Architects won the international design competition with a scheme that reads the site's orange gantry cranes as the formal starting point, translating them into a cantilevered upper volume that hovers over the terminal concourse. Skylights draw daylight deep into the interior while the cantilever shades the floors below from direct sun. The programme splits roughly 15,000 square metres of cruise terminal from 50,000 square metres of commercial space, making the building as much an urban destination as a port. It sits within the wider Cuntan International Cruise Home Port, which is being built with six luxury cruise berths and four Two Rivers sightseeing berths.