Buildings
Australia's Lab Architecture Studio Designing Major Development
in Beijing
(archrecord.construction.com - 09/02/04)
By Daniel
Elsea
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Courtesy Lab Architecture |
Lab Architecture Studio of Melbourne,
Australia, will design a new a 170,000 square-meter office
and retail mixed-use development at the western edge Beijing’s
Central Business District. The new development, called SOHO
Shang Du, will be adjacent to Beijing’s famed Landau
Department Store, and will cost an estimated 830 million Yuan.
SOHO Shang Du will comprise of two elements
built on neighboring city blocks, which will be connected
by a large oblique bridge that crosses over a busy city street.
The proposed design has a faceted image comprised of a series
of forms and shapes inspired by crystals. Peter Davidson,
a director at Lab and SOHO Shang Du’s lead architect
explained the building’s design as influenced by the
radicals of fractal geometry.
“Architecture is about geometry
and life,” says Davidson, who hopes SOHO Shang Du will
be a new urban icon for Beijing.
The project’s developers are SOHO
China, led by husband-and-wife team Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin.
Their projects include Commune by the Great Wall, which features
works by Shigeru Ban and others, two large-scale SOHO developments
in Beijing and the Boao Canal Village, designed by Hong Kong’s
Rocco Yim. Their most recent completed development, Jianwai
SOHO (Record, April 2004) has become one of Beijing’s
most sought-after properties. Additionally, Pan and Zhang
are currently working with Zaha Hadid to develop a large residential
subdivision in Beijing. Zhang and Pan have emerged as patrons
of high quality architecture and design in an environment
where developers often pay scant attention to the design of
their buildings.
“My mission is to find beautiful
things and bring them to China,” says Zhang, who is a
well known public figure in China and has been the subject
of much curiosity from overseas. Zhang was initially drawn
to Lab because of their design of Federation Square in Melbourne,
which is also clad in labyrinthine geometric façades.
“Federation Square engages with
contemporary life, rather than repeat historical models,”
says Davidson, who hopes to repeat its success in the heart
of Beijing.
“Construction will begin in October,”
assures Zhang, despite a recent downturn in China’s overheated
construction market, ”and we should be finished by the
end of 2006, in time for the Olympics.”
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