The Cradle Towers consists of five tapering, mixed-use towers — residential, office and hotel. With their swooping design, the towers are intended to form a mountainscape mirroring the area’s terrain and will feature vertical gardens growing up their inner faces.

The towers sit atop a podium, shaped to form a hollow ring; in its interior spaces, the podium will house a shopping mall and other retail space.

This ring shelters a landscaped area designed with a manmade lake at its center that can also be used as an ice-skating rink. A large municipal park adjacent to the podium will link to the courtyard, creating a connection between the vast interior landscape and the surrounding city.

A metro station is also integrated into the design.

Zhengzhou sits at the heart of one of ancient China’s earliest settlement areas, and with its Cradle Towers design, Tonkin Liu makes references to city’s status as the cradle of China’s civilization.

A construction date has not yet been announced.

A building complex that likewise features tapered towers surrounding an inner public area was recently revealed to revitalize London’s Greenwich Peninsula. Santiago Calatrava’s Peninsula Place includes three towers, a winter garden and a glass galleria and will incorporate a tube and bus station, theater, cinema and performance venue, bars, stores and a “well-being hub.”