Xuzhou East Station Plaza Urban Gateway & Public Realm

Xuzhou High-Speed Rail New City East Plaza

As a major node within China’s high-speed rail network, Xuzhou East Station connects 181 cities and accommodates over 13.8 million passengers annually. The East Plaza redefines the conventional station forecourt as an urban landscape infrastructure—transforming a transit space into a civic gateway and public realm.

Positioned above a multi-layered transport system integrating underground parking, metro lines, and elevated circulation, the project reconceives the ground plane as a three-dimensional landscape. Instead of separating infrastructure and public space, the design fuses architecture and topography into a continuous urban surface.

A system of linear landform structures organizes movement, frames the station façade, and establishes a clear spatial hierarchy. Embedded commercial streets activate the plaza, humanizing the scale of the vast forecourt and supporting everyday urban life. Above them, accessible green roofs form a continuous park that extends the city’s ecological corridor and connects surrounding neighborhoods.

Inspired by Xuzhou’s identity as a historic crossroads, the paving geometry radiates outward, expressing both movement and cultural symbolism. The plaza becomes not only a point of transit, but a place of pause, gathering, and urban experience.

The project proposes a new paradigm for high-speed rail developments—where landscape operates as urban infrastructure, integrating mobility, ecology, and public life into a unified spatial system.