30
PROJECT REPORT: RETAIL DEVELOPMENTS
“Shopping malls are the public spaces of Chinese cities” Ben van Berkel, UNStudio
Part of the courtyard is sunken, with ample integrated seating meaning it serves “not only as an event space for the mall itself, but also as a destination for the wider community,” says Piber. Carefully designed landscaping/planting and lighting also features throughout the space, making it usable both during the day and in the evenings, as a ‘garden’ for the city’s inhabitants.
The courtyard also has the benefit of reducing the depth of the building, though this wasn’t necessarily a key part of the design brief, says Piber. “We looked at the building organisation in a holistic manner,” she says. They wanted the exterior and interior spaces – including the three voids – to feel connected, and have a strong relationship with one another. “Horizontal window bands in the facades surrounding the courtyard create a strong visual connection between the external spaces and interior area,” Piber explains. “Light enters the void spaces through the facade, creating vertical spaces flooded with daylight, bringing it into the depth of the floor space,” she continues.
Connecting the interior and exterior spaces was aided by the somewhat constrained footprint of the overall site. “It enabled us to think of ways to create a fluent transition between exterior and
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
interior, guide the daylight deep into the spaces, and organise the different floors around a continuous looped routing system,” says Piber.
Semi-enclosed walkways and balconies line the edge of the courtyard and connect to the three voids which, says Piber, further “blurs the relationship between interior and exterior.” The balcony detailing was colour matched to those used within the voids in order to “accentuate” these features within the space. The basement levels and upper levels are connected via the courtyard by a series of staircases and escalators, which also lead up to a rooftop garden.
Materials
The heart of the complex – the courtyard and its internal facades – was designed to represent a ‘pearl set within its shell,’ with curved champagne-coloured aluminium alloy strips and pearlescent ceramic tiles. This contrasts against the harsher, tessellated metal facade of the centre, which “opens up to a fluid experience, and a mother-of-pearl effect, as you enter the central courtyard,” says Piber. During the day natural light is reflected off these pearlescent tiles into the interior spaces, further enhancing the connection between interior and exterior.
ADF APRIL 2022
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
