STF#9 - 2025: Presentations
Crafting Contemporary Cities: Xi’an CCBD
Heatherwick Studio
Heatherwick Studio
Crafting Contemporary Cities: Xi'an CCBD - Can a modern district have character? Focusing on fabrication and construction processes, this discussion will explore how cutting-edge technologies and advanced computational methods enabled the recent completion of Xi'an CCBD – a crafted district which blends a retail podium with walkable streets, terraces and open plazas, offices, apartments, accommodation, green spaces, and a 57-metre-high vertical park. How can collaborations and innovative processes help us scale traditional craftsmanship to the industrial scale of a district? Join us to explore how urban design can be reimagined as a celebration of cultural legacy, materiality, three-dimensionality and human experience.
Images: Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio / Credit: Qingyan Zhu
Luis Sacristán Murga - Luis is a Senior Associate at Heatherwick studio and Project Leader of Xi’an CCBD. He has overseen the schematic, detailed design and construction stages of the architecture, interior and Xi’an Tree, as well as the concept to construction stages of the public realm and landscape.
Since joining the studio in 2015, Luis has held key leadership roles in a wide range of projects, including Google’s Gradient Canopy campus in California, Google Downtown West in San José, Azabudai Hills in Tokyo and Olympia in London. He has also led other major projects including Renazca, Changi Airport T5 Hotel, Savarin Mucha Gallery, Ras Al Akhdar, IMKAN Pavilion, an eco-community in Tulum and a technology campus in South Korea.
Luis is an Associate Lecturer for the Royal College of Art’s Architecture MA and a visiting lecturer at Loughborough University, leading the university’s MA programme based on the studio’s Humanise campaign. He lectures at institutions worldwide, including the Architectural Association, ITMO University, the University of Antwerp and the Polytechnic School of Madrid, and is a regular contributor to the critically acclaimed Int|AR Journal.
Prior to joining the studio, Luis worked at prominent architecture firms ACME and LASSA in London, Schmidt Hammer Lassen in Copenhagen, and Von Weise Associates in Chicago. He has received multiple awards, including COAM, ETSAM and Iris Foundation, and is a registered architect in Spain and the UK.
Pablo Zamorano - Since joining Heatherwick Studio in 2015, Pablo has been instrumental on projects and leading on applied research. He currently leads the studio’s strategic vision on A.I.
As Head of Geometry and Computational Design at the studio, Pablo leads several Applied Research projects, digital products and a team of specialists that work across all studio projects. He also provides strategic vision, expertise, and guidance on the integration of emergent technologies, techniques, and the execution of challenging geometries.
He plays an instrumental role on projects, including the recently completed Xi’an CCBD Tree, and has previously been Deputy Project Leader on Coal Drops Yard, an award-winning retail quarter and public space in King’s Cross, London.
Prior to working at the studio in 2015, Pablo was based at SOM London, and has worked extensively in New York and Santiago, Chile, where he won international competitions. Pablo has lectured widely, and his personal work has been published and awarded internationally.
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Heatherwick Studio