They may look like alien spaceships perched at the edge of China’s Yangtze River, but these structures by MAD Architects were inspired by something decidedly mundane: the enormous steel gantry cranes used to lift heavy loads out of ships at ports. The firm’s bold vision for the Chongqing Cuntan International Cruise Center is the winner of an international competition to design a new cruise ship terminal in the city’s Cuntan Port area. In addition to its 160,000 square feet of terminal, the facility will include over 500,000 square feet of commercial space.

An aluminum curtain wall lends a surreal feel to the building, which also hosts mixed-use retail spaces, restaurants, and other commercial areas. Beneath the “floating” skywalk is a new Cruise Ship Landscape Park and Cruise Ship Hall that extends the Cuntan Central Golden Axis Pier to form a new link between the adjacent Pier Park and Century Cuntan Park. Together, they’ll create a massive new urban green space offering scenic views of the river and city from a place that’s currently unpleasantly industrial.
“Chongqing has mountains and waters,” says Yansong. “However, the Yangtze River is more than just a natural landscape in Chongqing. Because of human activities such as shipping traffic and industrial transport, this mountain city is also full of energy and movement. We want to transform this energy in Chongqing from traces of industry into an energy that ...