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INTERNATIONAL FOCUS
INTERNATIONAL FOCUS
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MAKERS’ KUBE, KANSAS BIG
© Foster + Partners
CHANGFENG MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT, SHANGHAI FOSTER + PARTNERS
Foster + Partners has revealed designs for the Changfeng mixed-use development, which will form an integral part of the Shanghai Science and Technology Finance cluster in the city’s Putuo District. Part of the wider Shanghai 2035 Masterplan, the scheme “sets a new benchmark for developments across the city, stitching into an existing network of public green spaces to enhance wellbeing,” said Fosters. Centring on the ‘LWP’ model, the designs provide “new high-quality spaces for living, working and playing.” The development brings together a “rich mix” of retail, offices, affordable housing, public facilities including an arts centre, and recreational areas.
A central green axis runs directly through the development connecting its two main access nodes. Smaller secondary streets intercept with the central axis to create a highly permeable and accessible scheme. The streets are designed at human scale and buildings step back for natural ventilation, creating “characterful and healthy spaces for the community to enjoy.”
At the heart of the scheme, a flexible arts centre known as ‘Jia Art’, features 5000 m² of exhibition, event, and educational spaces. Inspired by the spring flower that is native to the park, the petal-like structure embraces a central plaza that sits at the intersection of two primary axes. The interior space follows the same petal-like form and is topped by a glass roof, which brings natural light into the central atrium. The building’s upper facades are made from tubular glass with stainless steel back panelling, which can be lit up to animate the development at night.
Offices are located to the north of the central axis. The towers offer views of the city and Changfeng Park, and include a range of amenity spaces. Multi-level terraces are combined with flexible floorplates to cater for a variety of tenants. Double-height “sky atriums” and roof terraces form a “vertical green landscape and enhance natural ventilation within the towers.” The office buildings’ metal facades feature horizontal canopies and vertical fins, which are positioned to optimise energy efficiency, while windows at the podium level nod to the site’s industrial past.
BIG, together with architect BNIM and the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design, has unveiled a new mass timber building for learning and collaboration – the Makers’ KUbe. Designed in response to the needs of the school, BIG’s vision for the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design consolidates all architecture and design programmes into three interconnected buildings, tying together the existing 1908 Marvin Hall, 1978 Chalmers Hall and the new six-story Makers’ KUbe. The Makers’ KUbe is a 50,000 ft² mass timber cube structure. The KUbe’s distinct timber diagrid frame is optimised to reduce material and curtail carbon-intensive concrete. Inspired by traditional Japanese joinery techniques, the building’s structure uses “tight- fit dowels” and notched glulam timber to create an all-wood structure with columns and beams that run diagonally, without steel plates or fasteners, commented the architects. The “stripped back” facade, a timber structure enclosed in glass, foregoes cladding and finishing, exposing the MEP systems and “further proving the building’s ability to remain minimal and efficient, only using what is necessary,” commented BIG. “The mix of transparent and opaque insulated glass on the exterior showcases the school’s creativity to the entire University of Kansas campus while creating moments of privacy and reducing glare,” said the architects. The building’s enclosure includes natural fibre thermal insulation in the form of biodegradable hemp wool, which is exposed within the facade’s shadow boxes for improved thermal performance.
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ADF MAY 2024
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