'A new landmark building should inject fresh confidence into its location and indicate the direction of the era it represents. It should exemplify a city's character and charm,' says Dai Zhikang, the chairman of Shanghai Zendai Group and the man who commissioned Arata Isozaki to design the Himalayas Center, a cultural and business complex in Pudong, Shanghai. If there's any place in the world where they know a thing or two about landmarks, it's Pudong - and especially Pudong's waterfront financial district. Lining the Huangpu River, distinctive skyscrapers try hard to outdo one another. Among those vying for attention are the Jin Mao Tower (421 m); the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, with its bulging spheres (468 m); and the Shanghai World Financial Center (492 m), the tallest building in China and the third tallest in the world. Slated for completion in 2014 is the Shanghai Tower, which - at a height of 632 m - will dwarf the rest by the proverbial mile.
In erecting the Himalayas Center, Dai Zhikang opted to stay out of the 'tallest building' rat race. The holder of lofty ideals, he envisions 'the end of the skyscraper era' and hopes to see his building 'herald the beginning of an Oriental civilization' poised to enter the mainstream of the world. Only after umpteen attempts to find what he was looking for did Zhikang discover a suitable design in Arata Isozaki's proposal: a plan that satisfied his idea of an Oriental hybrid architecture that would integrate commerce and culture.
Unlike many celebrated Japanese architects, Isozaki is not one whose work exhibits a signature style. Where his greatest talent lies is in the deft exploitation of a project's geographical, cultural and political environment, which often involves latent variables. His recent projects include Shanghai Symphony Hall and the Liberal Arts and Science Building in Qatar. Here, as elsewhere, subtle local elements are discernible in his work. Perhaps it is this quality that brought about the collaboration between the Shanghai-based property tycoon and the esteemed Japanese master builder.
Strategically located, the Himalayas Center is in the centre of Pudong, near Century Park and across from Shanghai New International Expo Center. Walking along Fangdian Lu, you cannot help feeling like a midget in front of Isozaki's mammoth construction, which spans a massive 29,000-m2 site. Although the hybrid complex does not present itself as the stoic business-like structure that many of its commercial neighbours aspire to be, the random stacking of assorted volumes certainly represents a compelling architectural presence, even among its towering neighbours. The building's superficial heterogeneity not only captures the attention of passers-by but also stirs up all sorts of speculation about the functions of its dissimilar constituents.
The entire structure seems to grow out of the ground through 31.5-m-tall reinforced-concrete 'tree trunks' whose organic forms almost seem to buckle under the weight of the floors above. This rectangular midsection of the building's large lower volume veils functions that fill the five levels behind the impressive contours of its facade. Walking into the building from the street, you enter a triple-height plaza that resembles a natural setting; within the cavernous space, load-bearing columns assume the form of towering, rough-hewn, arching tree trunks. Openings invite daylight into this airy transitional space, from which you can access the Himalayas Art Museum and the DaGuan Theatre.
Having relocated to the Himalayas Center, the museum - formerly known as the Zendai Art Museum - extends over all five levels of the midsection. Thanks to a greater amount of exhibition space in the new building, the Himalayas Art Museum can better develop and promote contemporary art in China. The DaGuan Theatre, which occupies the third and fourth floors, is a state-of-the-art cultural facility that can seat 1,100 visitors.
Volumes at both ends of the Himalayas Center are wrapped in intricately designed Chinese lattice panels. The architect explains that the pattern 'is inspired by an object of Liangzhu jade, which gives it a cultural and natural connotation'. Some observers interpret the motifs carved on the uniform grids of these facades as pseudo Chinese characters. Functions within the two flanking volumes include high-end shopping malls, a banquet hall and a conference centre. Above these facilities, towering to a height of 100 m, is the five-star, 400-room Jumeirah Hotel and, on the south end, an office complex for the creative sector. Connecting the two is an open-air roof garden.
Arata Isozaki says he 'discarded the traditional model of independent construction and organically integrated all buildings into one'. His methodology can be compared to the creation of a Chinese word, or 'logogram', by combining several characters to form a new variant with a new meaning.
With the possible exception of the organic midsection, the building is not a composite of individual structures worthy of being called 'architectural marvels'. The Himalayas Center does provide users, however, with an uninterrupted flow of physical and visual access to and among its various zones. It is indeed the integrated entity that Isozaki wanted it to be. Hu Qian, the local architect who served as his partner on the project, confirms their pride in this achievement, while also acknowledging potential sticking points: 'It proved challenging to adhere to our design principle - seamless integration of all functions and complete freedom of movement from one zone to another within the complex - but commercial considerations may eventually free management to separate the various business units.'
Perhaps a stroke of idealistic genius or creativity is needed to bridge the gap between commerce and the arts. As illustrated by Shanghai - with its patchwork of progress exemplified by streets that meander through areas of rampant 21st-century development, which are so often punctuated with the remains of dilapidated buildings from a bygone era - it takes more than new buildings to weave together the different strands of a city's urban fabric.
ReplyDeleteHello, my name is Mario, I am from Spain. My group and I were assigned a project at the university about the Zendai Himalaya Center in Shanghai (I'll attach a photo at the end). Our task is to talk about the architect Arata Isozaki, and then comment on his work: the Shanghai Zendaya Center in the Himalayas. For this we are going to create a model of it. The problem is that we can't find a site plan, so it will be difficult for us to create this model. We would like to ask you to send us some photographs of the site plan so we can work and create the best model possible.
Thank you very much for reading our article.
Mario Gabardino.