An artist impression of the planned Suzhou Center by the Jinji Lake.[Photo/zhulong.com]

The design of Suzhou Center was revealed recently, showing the world's biggest thin-shell structure.

The planned Suzhou Center is in the heart of the city's central business district, Suzhou Industrial Park, and occupies 16.7 hectares of land on Jinji Lake, the largest inner lake in China. It will become a huge commercial complex consisting of a shopping mall, offices, residences, hotel rooms and cultural facilities.

The roof of the thin-shell building will total 36,000 square meters, the biggest of its kind in the world, according to Benoy, the British architectural company that designed several commercial projects in Shanghai. It said the concept was inspired by a phoenix in the legend about the Jinji Lake.

Suzhou Center expected be built and put into use in 2017.