TJAD Turns Hangzhou Backstreet Into 69,900 m² Lunar-Themed Public Realm

TJAD Original Design Studio has completed a 69,900-square-meter comprehensive quality enhancement of Yuelang Road, converting a congested service street in Hangzhou's Qianjiang Century City into a continuous pedestrian and public-space system.

The 330-meter internal street sits in the core of Qianjiang Century City, surrounded by six high-density commercial and office towers. Before renewal, Yuelang Road primarily served office commuting, garage access, temporary parking and building logistics. Motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians and loading activities competed within the limited road space.

The problems extended beyond the roadway itself. According to the architects, the building frontage spaces on both sides were fragmented by fences, planting, level changes and varied paving. The street functioned as a commercial-office backstreet dominated by movement, with little space to pause.

The design team — led by architects Zhang Ming, Zhang Zi, Shen Jie and Wang Xunan — brought the roadway, pedestrian spaces and building frontage areas on both sides into a single coordinated renewal framework. The strategy rests on four moves: relocating surface parking, reorganizing the street section, opening the building frontages, and introducing seating, outdoor dining and public activity spaces.

Together, these interventions gradually establish a continuous pedestrian and public-space system along the corridor, replacing the former movement-dominated condition with places to stop, eat and gather.

The project also draws on an existing asset: Yuelang Road's metropolitan nightscape. The design uses lunar phases as a recurring motif across structures, lighting and street furniture. The motif ties the streetscape elements together while signaling the street's shift toward nighttime activity alongside everyday circulation.

The completed street now makes room for rest, outdoor dining, social interaction and nighttime events in a district where those functions previously had no place. The project demonstrates how internal service streets in dense commercial districts can be reprogrammed as public ground rather than remaining residual infrastructure between towers.

Photographs by Guowei Liu and TJAD Original Design Studio document the completed 2025 project.