Melbourne-based architecture firm Denton Corker Marshall (DCM) have signed an agreement with influential real estate developer Beijing Zhongkun Investment Group to begin work on phase 2 of the exclusive 100-hectare vineyard resort development, located north of Beijing near the Great Wall of China.

The deal was witnessed by Melbourne’s lord mayor Robert Doyle and a vice mayor of Beijing. Robert Doyle and a delegation of business leaders were in China’s capital city to promote prominent Melbourne industries.

Luoying Vineyard

Denton Corker Marshall’s completed projects span more than 20 countries but 35 per cent of the firm’s revenue comes from China; it first ventured into the country in 1982 with the design of the Australian Embassy in Beijing and this has since extended to other major commercial and residential projects.

Luoying Vineyard

“We started working there in the early days of China opening up to the outside world. Three decades later – one of the longest periods of sustained engagement by a foreign architectural firm – China is now a dynamic economy whose rapid urbanisation creates huge housing demands,” says Adrian FitzGerald, a director at Denton Corker Marshall with substantial involvement in the practice’s China projects.

“Just recently we counted a staggering 33,600 apartments that we have built in China, and the demand for high-quality high-density housing which grew stronger in the 1990s continues.”

The Luoying Vineyard project comprises a state-of-the-art winery, cellars, wine tasting facilities, an art gallery, restaurants, a day spa and conference venue. A 6-star 50-suite boutique hotel and 33 luxury clubhouse/villas were included in stage 1. Stage 2 will involve an additional 120 luxury clubhouse/villas.

Denton Corker Marshall’s project with Beijing Zhongkun Investment Group, Dazhongsi International Plaza, was completed in 2011

“Globalised China has produced a new middle class where wine drinking is a status symbol and which can afford to support a local wine industry. China has also realised it is capable of producing table wines comparable to wine from other countries.

Dazhongsi International Plaza

“A number of China’s vineyard buildings are modelled on the great French chateaux but we felt the French references weren’t appropriate for the Luoying site. Inspired by the Great Wall as well as other great stone structures, our design is a contemporary expression of traditional cultural references.”

Images © Denton Corker Marshall

Denton Corker Marshall
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