Image 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 fa?ades.
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.
