POA

POA Architects, jointly invited by the Chicago Architecture Museum and European Centre for Architecture, showcased its Phoenix Green Valley project at the Urban and World 2025 International Architecture Exhibition in Athens on September 12, 2025, at Mitropoleos Square.

Phoenix Arrives auspiciously，Green Valley Concept

Phoenix Green Valley, named after the phoenix rising from the ashes (an Eastern myth), embodies regeneration and integration. Its “one core, two axes, four zones” framework weaves logistics, R&D, and manufacturing into an organic network, blurring industry-urban divides. The core—“a green cloud hub”—unites talent via a shared platform, while north-south urban/ecological axes infuse warehouses and workshops with humanistic landscapes.

Here, architecture is not merely a container but a medium for dialogue between industry and life—corridors weaving like veins, parks breathing like lungs, where bonded zones and urban living rooms coexist symbiotically. This ensemble interprets the evolutionary paradigm of "the park as a city."

Mixed-Use Formats, Spatial Symbiosis

Beneath the ancient dome of Athens' Benaki Museum, the models and visual narratives of Phoenix Green Valley have emerged as the focal point of cross-cultural contemplation.

Guided by the theme of "Flowing Symbiosis," the team leverages dynamic data visualization to showcase how Green Valley surpasses the LEED Gold Certification through its Green Building Three-Star Standard, and via ground-source heat pumps, rainwater recycling, and smart systems, actualizes buildings as "breathing living organisms."

Visitors wander through the exhibition space, as if strolling in a miniature Green Valley: photovoltaic roofs and ground-source heat pump technology exemplify low-carbon wisdom, while multi-level ground planes interwoven with gardens convey a palpable sense of spatial breathing. Meanwhile, the digital interface of the "Shared Cloud Platform" uncovers the underlying logic of the park as an "intelligent living organism."

POA's concept—"not building parks, but weaving networks"—resonates deeply with the critical and interdisciplinary curatorial logic of the Athens Biennale, sparking a rethinking of "What Does Architecture Mean?"

As the exhibition draws to a close, the dialogue sparked by Phoenix Green Valley continues: Where industry converges with ecology, and logistics intertwines with humanism, architecture emerges as a response to the era’s pressing questions. POA, drawing on the traditional Chinese wisdom of "harmony between humanity and nature," presents the world with a Chinese model of "symbiosis between industry and city"—a blueprint that serves not only as Yiwu’s linchpin in the dual circulation strategy but also as a metaphor for urban transformation in the globalized age. In Athens, we sail toward that evergreen valley of sustainable coexistence between humanity and nature, technology and civilization—with architecture as our vessel and critical thinking as our oar. The city of the future shall ultimately take root where boundaries dissolve.

Phoenix Green Valley
2025 Athens Biennale of Cities and the World

Public Opening Dates: September 12 – October 5, 2025

Venue: Mitropoulos Square, Athens, Greece

Exhibitor: POA Architects