Obermeyer won the first place in the international competition for Urban Design of Changsha West Railway City, and will be in charge of the urban design deepening work.

Changsha West Railway City – a gateway area in central China, coordinating the surrounding industrial zones
At present, the industrial zones surrounding the Changsha West Railway City still lack effective coordination. Meanwhile, they are mostly lack of high-quality productive services and supporting facilities, which limits their attractiveness to talents. Therefore, we believe that the Changsha West Railway City should rely on its advantage of the transportation gateway, to become the regional center of industrial coordination, R&D coordination, and city-industry coordination, as well as to construct a series of service platforms. On the other hand, by extending the intercity railway lines and maglev lines, the Changsha West Railway City can enhance the traffic connection with the surrounding node cities and transport hubs, to become the gateway area coordinating the surrounding industrial zones.

Being the neighbor of hill- the hill corridor integrate the hill, city and station
The three ecological corridors in the east, south and north of Changsha West Railway City jointly define the ecological framework of the region. To the Changsha West Railway City, establishing the connection between the southern hill – the station – the northern urban area is the key of integrating into such a framework. At the level of space design, two landscape corridors embrace the railway station and extend northward, reaching the Huangjin River. They connect with the central park axis in the north, to integrate the hill, city and station. At the same time, the green corridor and the park axis are the main functional axes of the Changsha West Railway City, which lead the urban development of the zone along them. The two axes integrate the station area and the urban area in the north.

Being the friend of water – waterways feature green arteries
Considering the planned road network and urban development demand, our design maintains the self-flowing drainage system by retaining the main waterways, thereby reducing the risk of waterlogging: The natural water catchment area is designed to be linear sponge parks while the branch roads are adjusted correspondingly. A blue-green space with the function of rain runoff storage is formed as a result. The city parks along the station area and the river ways are connected to each other through a series of landscape nodes and axes, presenting comfortable and attractive slow-movement places.

Changsha West Railway City, located in the west of the Xiangjiang River and reaches the whole country, will rely on the advantage of transport portal to promote the regional industrial coordination and serve the Hexi industrial upgrading zones. It will grasp the three main points - industrial integration, productive service supply, and urban support, to become a gateway area in central China coordinating the surrounding industrial zones, a place linking the natural legacy and the railway city, a new city center providing diversified life style destinations in west Changsha, and a sponge city area being a part of the ecosystem in Changsha.