In Chongqing, the city is never experienced as a flat plan. Mountains, slopes, riverbanks, tunnels and elevated roads shape everyday movement, turning circulation into a constant negotiation of height, density and speed.
Designed by vari architects, aa market responds to this distinctive urban condition by looking upward. Set on the top floor of RICHAUS, the approximately 4,000-square-metre project transforms a former rooftop-level interior into a layered public destination for independent brands, creative communities and everyday social exchange.
Rather than introducing a wholly new architectural object, vari architects began with what was already there. The existing concrete structure was retained and reorganised into a three-tiered vertical system. At its core are shops, planted nodes, a public plaza and adaptable event spaces; above, elevated corridors and stairs create a network of routes and pauses; at the highest level, a rooftop garden opens towards Chongqing’s sky. Together, these layers extend the idea of the street, plaza and garden beyond ground level.
The arrival sequence begins with a public square of around eight metres in depth. Rather than treating the atrium as a purely commercial threshold, the design gives a substantial portion of it over to lingering. Seating is dispersed among planted pockets, corners and edges, enabling visitors to settle in without needing a prescribed reason to do so. This generosity is central to aa market’s character: its public areas are not simply passages between retail units, but flexible social infrastructure capable of accommodating markets, pop-ups, exhibitions and informal gatherings.
Further inside, the open plaza narrows into a principal walkway approximately 2.4 metres wide, intersected by smaller side paths. Full-height glazing allows individual shops to remain visually connected to the shared circulation zone, blurring the boundary between retail and public life. The experience is intentionally less linear than that of a conventional mall. Vari architects describes the space as a “three-dimensional magazine”, where walking becomes a form of browsing. Each turn offers another composition of plants, products, people, views and architectural details, while spontaneous routes emerge alongside the intended circulation.
At the centre of the project sits the Little Tree Garden, a double-height void created by removing part of the floor slab. Here, a mature jacaranda provides aa market with its most vivid vertical gesture. Its canopy moves through two levels: rising towards daylight above and descending into dense planting below. The intervention involved more than a symbolic act of greening. The planter load was recalculated and distributed to surrounding beams through a structural suspension system, while a rain shelter, louvres and mechanical ventilation were added to support the rooftop’s new ecological role.
The stair running through the interior is also treated as a civic element rather than mere circulation. Its landings become places to pause, while railings, lighting and structural lines overlap to give the atrium a legible sense of order. On the upper floor, corridors widen and tighten around shops, gardens and terraces, producing an elevated route with the informal character of a lane. Low ceiling heights, exposed services and existing structural constraints are carefully composed rather than concealed, making the upper level feel intimate and deliberately restrained.
Materially, aa market embraces directness. Existing concrete walls, beams, columns and repair marks remain visible, joined by exposed pipes, steel connections and handrails. Reclaimed timber, aged steel plates and vintage merbau introduce a raw tactility that softens the industrial framework. Its regional identity is not expressed through decorative motifs, but through material choices, craft and atmosphere: a slower, looser sensibility that reflects the emotional and ecological character of southwest China.
For vari architects, aa market is not a fixed conclusion. It is an evolving rooftop prototype—part workplace extension, part social venue and part public garden—whose identity will continue to change with its tenants, events, planting and users. In a city celebrated for its dramatic skyline, the project directs attention to another kind of urban possibility: the overlooked interior, the in-between space and the rooftop where shared life can gradually take root.
Photo courtesy of Zhu Wenqiao, Chang Wenyu
