On Chengdu’s economic landscape, the East New Area serves as the “gateway window” for the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle. Here, a building resembling a “sprouting bud breaking through the soil” captures attention with its vibrant orange hue. This structure is the Western Financial Innovation Center—a pivotal project underpinning the rising CBD core of the East New Area.
In September 2023, with the completion acceptance of the Phase II of the Western Financial Innovation Center, it marks the overall and complete construction of the project. The Western Financial Innovation Center spans approximately 24 acres with a total construction area of about 360,000 square meters. Developed in four phases, it encompasses functional zones including financial headquarters office clusters, financial services enterprise hubs, commercial service centers, star-rated hotels and apartments, public libraries, and art galleries. Positioned as the new financial nucleus of the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle, the project prioritizes financial industry leadership to create a park-integrated business ecosystem, embodying the mission of “building nests to attract phoenixes” (strategic talent and enterprise recruitment).
The project was designed by Chengdu Architectural Design & Research Institute Co., LTD, constructed by China MCC5 Group Co., LTD., with lighting design completed by Chengdu HITTON LIGHTING Design. Traxon e:cue, as a professional lighting solution provider, participated in the exterior lighting enhancement of the Western Financial Innovation Center (Phases I, II, and III), supplying a total of 23,000 lighting fixtures.
The lighting design team collaborated deeply with the architectural design from the outset. Given the building’s clean geometric form, Traxon e:cue custom linear wash lights and bespoke linear fixtures were selected to evoke the imagery of spring plants breaking through the soil. Additionally, along the Park Avenue and the TOD-facing perspectives, monochromatic controlled patterns are implemented. These adopt a static single-color display with adjustable brightness during normal weekdays, while enabling dynamic single-color variations for festive occasions. The fifth facade utilizes a controlled monochromatic pattern display system to ensure architectural harmony.
To achieve a visually dominant “orange” that balances minimalist sophistication with sufficient illuminance, and visual comfort, this posed significant challenges not only for the lighting design and installation but also for Traxon e:cue, which delivered mass-customized fixtures for the Western Financial Innovation Center project.”
The building’s exterior walls are equipped with Traxon e:cue linear lights and LED washer lights, recessed into airfoil-shaped louvers and perimeter grooves of the glass curtain walls. Through precise optical treatment, these fixtures achieve seamless integration with the architecture, delivering outward-directed illumination that fulfills the client’s bespoke requirements.
“The fixtures employ specially designed lenses with off-axis optical design to achieve zero interior light spill. Finished in curtain wall-matched colors, they remain visually undetectable during daylight, with both fixture locations and mounting grooves fully concealed. Integrated flawlessly into the waterproof curtain wall system, this recessed installation ensures architectural integrity while eliminating leakage risks.” said Tang Xiaoming, the design director of HITTON LIGHTING, the main creator of the lighting design for the Western Financial Innovation Center.
