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Press Release

Kangding Garden Space Design

A' Design Award 2026 Silver Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design

22 April 2026

Kangding Garden Space Design by Jian Zhang
Kangding Garden Space Design by Jian Zhang
Kangding Garden Space Design by Jian Zhang
Kangding Garden Space Design by Jian Zhang
Kangding Garden Space Design by Jian Zhang

Jian Zhang

Kangding Garden is a residential interior design project in Shanghai that includes a club and show flats. The club occupies 1,800 square metres on the first basement level and serves more than 300 residents. An entire wall of Italian Calacatta marble is framed by a tall arch at the entrance. A marble frame surrounds a view of a Chinese tallow tree in the sunken courtyard. Three-metre-high timber doors lead to a tea lounge and a private dining suite. Beige stone, dark timber and a recurring curved motif recall the character of old Shanghai.

Press Kit

Unique Properties
The project is not simply residential innovation, but a contemporary renaissance of retro aesthetics by transforming living spaces into three-dimensional indexes of cultural memory and redefining elegance for a new era. Led by DIA's Shanghai and Shenzhen design directors, Jian Zhang shaped the club and public spaces, while Feng Xue designed the show flats. Their work decodes Jing’an’s historic DNA through spatial storytelling, material dialogue, and color philosophy.
Dimensions & Packaging
Through three-metre-high timber doors lie a tea lounge and private dining suite available by reservation. These spaces are at once functional and emblematic of status. Here, the Shanghainese concept of fastidious refinement reaches its purest form: restrained luxury, quiet boldness, perfection distilled into the smallest detail.
Tags
interior design, show flat, residence, club, DIA
Production Technology
Descending to the 1,800-square-metre club on B1, guests encounter an entire wall of Italian Calacatta marble, framed by a soaring arch, which is solemn yet opulent. Beyond it, a marble picture frame captures the rare Chinese tallow tree in the sunken courtyard, turning nature into a living oil painting. It is an ever-changing focal point and the project’s most memorable anchor.
Design Challenge
Ceiling and floor are clad in a bold pairing of black and dark gray. The interwoven grids patterns strike a dramatic contrast with the pale walls and soft furnishings. This chiaroscuro evokes the syncopated rhythms of the Paramount Ballroom, as if stepping into the monochrome frames of a vintage Shanghai film.
Project Duration
On Shanghai’s luxury real estate map of 2025, Kangding Garden emerges as a defining landmark. Positioned at the crossroads of Wuning Road South and Kangding Road, this heritage-inspired development sits less than one kilometer from Jing’an Temple, making it immersed in the global glamour of Nanjing West Road, yet embraced by the quiet poetry of century-old plane trees.
Operation Flow
The club entrance flows into the Writer’s Study, forming an extended ground-floor lounge. Two nearly five-meter-high square volumes are wrapped in beige stone and dark timber. A stone arch portal instantly evokes the memory of old Shanghai, yet its curves and junctions have been subtly deconstructed and reassembled through a modernist lens. This signature curve recurs in the reception desk and even the lamps, unifying the design language throughout.
Research
Kangding Garden’s living philosophy finds its fullest expression in the daily rituals of its show flats. Unlike a merely personal notion of being particular, it is a meticulous, research-driven process rooted in empathy, highlighting precision that translates into palpable quality and quiet confidence.
Inspiration
The essence of Jing'an District, Shanghai lies in its meticulous attention to detail. Named after the millennium-old temple, the district has long cultivated a philosophy of refinement. The club at Kangding Garden extends this tradition in this spiritual lounge for over 300 residents. Inspired by the Paramount Ballroom, the club resembles a series of cinematic stage sets, each space laced with metaphors for those who notice.

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