Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with Spirit of Space has created two short films on the Sliced Porosity Block - CapitaLand Raffles City, completed in November 2012 in Chengdu, China.
Filmed in November 2012, A Conversation with Steven Holl presents Steven Holl on site as he explains the design concept. The film Sliced Porosity Block explores the project in its urban context and as a public space in the city of Chengdu.
Still from "Sliced Porosity Block"
In the center of Chengdu, at the intersection of the first Ring Road and Ren Ming Nam Road, the Sliced Porosity Block forms large public plazas with a hybrid of different functions. Creating a metropolitan public space instead of object-icon skyscrapers, this three million sq ft. project takes its shape from the distribution of natural light. The required minimum sunlight exposures to the surrounding urban fabric prescribe geometric angles that slice the exoskeletal concrete frame of the structure. The building structure is white concrete organized in six foot high openings with earthquake diagonals as required, while the "sliced" sections are glass.
Still from "Sliced Porosity Block"
The large public space framed in the center of the block is formed into three valleys inspired by a poem of the city's greatest poet, Du Fu (713-770), who wrote, “From the northeast storm-tossed to the southwest, time has left stranded in Three Valleys.” The three plaza levels feature water gardens based on concepts of time—the Fountain of the Chinese Calendar Year, Fountain of Twelve Months, and Fountain of Thirty Days. These three ponds function as skylights to the six-story shopping precinct below.
Still from "Sliced Porosity Block"
Establishing human scale in this metropolitan rectangle is achieved through the concept of "micro urbanism," with double-fronted shops open to the street as well as the shopping center. Three large openings are sculpted into the mass of the towers as the sites of the pavilion of history, designed by Steven Holl Architects, the Light Pavilion by Lebbeus Woods, and the Local Art Pavilion.
The Sliced Porosity Block is heated and cooled geo-thermally with 468 wells at 90 meters deep. The large ponds in the plaza harvest recycled rainwater, while the natural grasses and lily pads create a natural cooling effect. High-performance glazing, energy-efficient equipment and the use of regional materials are among the other methods employed to reach the LEED Gold rating.
27 Comments
Awesome Steve!
Is there any doubt that Steven Holl is the best architect alive? Give him the Pritzker for god's sake.
without a doubt there is doubt
what's it like inside steve?
I would have liked to see more of that as well. As good as the exterior is, the interior is just as important.
Probably unfinished, ha.
Are you ready to bring your talent to Brazil? Say hi to Larry!
For all of the flak architects get for being too "obtuse" Holl has always been a clear and unpretentious presenter of difficult concepts.
I didn't see anything particularly poetic in this commercial development even with the architect's narrative. Maybe the video does not capture the essence of it and the project needs to be visited in person.
One would wish Lebbeus Woods' only built project was not a light show to embellish property values and make the shopping mall festive.
Is he paying his interns these days?
It's amazing anyone takes this guy seriously.
Holl is a great architect. I am not a huge fan of this particular project, but the nelson atkins is probably one of the best buildings of the 21st century.
Well that goes to show you that you should never work for your idols.
This project is pretty good though--from concept (the anti-icon) to execution, at least of the plaza. It needs more of those colored lights though, which work well against the white.
Orhan, what architecture isn't a part of the commercial landscape? I guess buildings fall out of the sky. Ironically this is the only Lebbeus Woods project I like, because it actually exists.
We don't have to capitalize on every architecture as North American, namely USA, model of development which is old fashion capitalist paradigm on its way out. So, yes, there are many architectures that are not part of "commercial landscape" in contrast to your frame of definitions. I would think it is more important to recognize them on your own instead of a clear list of events and instances, thus vacating them from any polemical discussion for the thread's sake.
orhan your recent time at uni is making you a wee bit erudite. either that or pedantic ;-) I can't quite understand what you are getting at. are you offering a polemical stance? anything commercial is shit by definition? or is it just that the buildings are flat compared to the california sort of star-chitecture?
I think the complex is quite well brought together for china, which has a hard time making public spaces for the public...within the limits of the project steven holl has done quite well.
not sure that commercial architecture is on its way out. even wang shu is following that model in the end. or are you speaking to offices like MASS design group and similar? they seem to point a different direction, yet they are working in places of intense corruption -so I don't think we should be overly naive about who is being served with those projects either. there does seem to be a return to architecture for the larger community a la the early modernistes, but we should be careful to not see that sort of work as superior to how it has been done until now. It is not necessary to have it either/or. actually, that sort of all or nothing view of things is probably what got is in the mess we are in to begin with....
Capitalism is not the problem. Real capitalism has great potential. America is not the problem either, America is a great idea that has yet to be realised. An idea that has been hijacked by the corporate elite and the banking goons.
Looking to other "isms" as the solution is counterproductive because all isms tend toward corruption if the people are corrupt and morally bankrupt. Any system can work in theory, if the people running it are "good", but this never really happens because people are inherently greedy and corrupt. The only solution is a cultural renaissance. A movement that favors sustainability over corporatism, people over money.....Fortunatly, I do see some mental and cultural changes slowly taking shape. People are waking up from this deep sleep called the late 20th century. It may take another 20-30 years...but it will come, and with it, the architecture will reflect this change as it always does.
As architects, we must find new ways to encourage this change, and empower the people.
Will.:.)
are you offering a polemical stance?
No. Polemical stance in this case is not offered, I am trying to avoid it.
anything commercial is shit by definition?
No. Some of them are shittier and some of them are okay.
or is it just that the buildings are flat compared to the california sort of star-chitecture?
No, we in California have a lot of flatter stuff by our stars.
As to pedantic and erudite.. Hmm. Don't spend that much time at the uni., to master them. Teach and leave is my chosen schedule in those places. Are you kidding? Most universities are like commercial developments these days, selling education for resale!! It is shitty. You get a lot of condemnation for opposing "anything" or set aside for being "controversial." Most faculty is scared to shit for the possibility of losing their part time jobs and the tenured ones have no fire left in them.
hah, that is shitty indeed, orhan. so what are you against, with this project? you are using polemic-type/loaded keywords but seem not overly polemic in fact, just generally unsatisfied.
because....capitalism?
capitalism's bad, haven't you heard?
Actually, I should not really say anything about the project. Architect says it all. I don't find the same gravity as an audience. As for the capitalism, it usually ends up as a discussion of "are you with us or against us?"
You guys are right. Holl is the greatest. Give him a pretzel.. Capitalism is best. Democracy.., etc.. etc.. Hell yeah! End of criticism of anything popular..
If we can't celebrate the attempt to create an authentic space, then what's the point of popular criticism. Then you are just taking shots for the sake of it? Life is more complex then terms "capitalism" or "democracy." Look at the surrounding buildings here. No thought is put into 99% of the buildings out there. Doesn't mean all designed buildings are great. I personally think the CCTV building which towers over and looks down on people, is a fascist icon. This development invites you in. In creating a "Rockefeller center" type development I would predict that it becomes a popular magnet for activity. But who knows for sure, time will tell.
not just hell yeah:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGQaH3-LK54
Didn't like his St. Ignatius Chapel on the campus of Seattle University.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6977267056_1501aee45b_z.jpg
Don't like his orange scarf.
Is there a fire extinguisher handy to extinguish that scarf?
it seems to me that lebbeus woods 'buildings' should not be built anyway. his work is after-the-fact where all architecture is always always fact. what i mean by that is that his work should happen after the architectural actors have left the stage, not concurrent with the architectural performance and not self-willed as an architecture or a spatial experience. in a way, it seems like his work would be more content being a result of a chaotic coming-together/coming-apart than by virtue of deliberation and design, blueprints and procurements by which time, it loses its poignancy and becomes another self sufficient consumable edifice.one finds that it is therefore wishful architecture, post-prerescriptive architecture, something impossible and potent because of that. fable architecture?
re:holl, the contrast with the Koolhaas CCTV tower given above is interesting, given that the former - as a language of parts- is as generically 'anonymous' as steven holl's but in the binding force of its diagram (the CCTV), it closes itself as an iconic form. the holl complex, is left with little closure and suggesting designerly direction mimicing seemingly little direction. mock-anonymous? mocha nonymous, no-canon-nymous or acanonymous...archinonymous?
When I don’t know becomes now I know,
Architecture’s finished.
When last year’s words become next year’s words,
Architecture’s done.
Style arrives.
the above is a passage from a forthcoming text on faux-old theology.
class starts thursday morning, followed by an afternoon attempt at making a "wheel"
progress is not what it seems!
handwriting on paper from now on!
delivered by a horseman!
no forums!
I though it was Pokemon!
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