SOHO China
office real-estate developer in China
SOHO China is a Chinese building developer, primarily in the office and commercial sector, with some residential and mixed-use properties in its portfolio. The company, which uses the name "SOHO" in both English and Chinese contexts, was founded in 1995 by Chairman Pan Shiyi (潘石屹) and CEO Zhang Xin (张欣). The name SOHO comes from the phrase "Smart Office, Home Office" as the company decided to combine office rooms and residential apartments in the same building to facilitate a comfortable and productive environment.
SOHO China focuses on developing properties in the central business districts of Beijing and Shanghai. SOHO China developments are known for their modern architecture, with designs from figures such as Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, and Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. The company has developed over five million square meters of commercial properties. Many of its buildings have won awards and other recognition for their design.
Fortune has described SOHO China as "one of the country's most high-profile real estate firms", and The New York Times has described the company as China's only pure prime office developer.
Having shifted from a "build to sell" to "build to hold" strategy in 2012, the company now holds 1.4 million square meters of office space in Beijing and Shanghai for long-term investment. Although the company has sold several properties in the late 2010s, Pan Shiyi has said that "Soho will continue to hold and operate its core assets in Beijing and Shanghai".
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “SOHO China” as office real-estate developer in China. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as office real-estate developer in China. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7392053. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1995 and 2012.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “SOHO China”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow SOHO China primary sources, SOHO China archive and SOHO research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “SOHO China” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.