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RADAR
FEATURES
COMMENT
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| | NATIONAL AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
SOHO SHANGDU
LAB ARCHITECTURE STUDIO |
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JURY CITATION
Working within the rapid-growth economy of China provides serious challenges to international architects. These challenges include the vast scale, complexity and speed of major development, but also, more specifically, the question of how Western architects can provide culturally appropriate design strategies within contemporary Chinese culture.
The Soho Shangdu development clearly meets these challenges. It is an utterly contemporary development, which also engages seriously with the characteristics of Chinese cultural traditions and urban types. The planning is a hybrid, with a Western generic commercial development overlayed with traditional Chinese street and courtyard structures. These references fold back into the contemporary design, to differentiate it from being merely a Western “import” and to connect it directly to a local tradition.
Similarly, the external form of the buildings makes use of traditional Chinese ice-ray patterns (often used in joinery and paving), and scales these references up for use on the mega object. The result in three-dimensional form creates an energetic relationship with the surrounding streets, further adding to the project’s engagement with the local. This relationship with the streets clearly counts, and reinforces the success of the project as a relevant proposition for mega-scale urbanism.
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Soho Shangdu
Architect
Lab Architecture Studio—design architect Peter Davidson, Donald Bates; project architect Mike Buttery, Melissa Bright, Ann Lau; facade architect Wayne Sanderson; interior architect Matt Foley.
Landscape
Oculus (Melbourne).
Lighting consultant
LDP.
Signage and graphics
Garry Emery Studio.
Structural consultant
Arup.
Project manager
Soho China.
Facade subcontractor
Jianghe.
Local design institute
CABR.
Construction manager
CSCEC.
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Copyright © 2010 Architecture Media Pty Ltd
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