One HuaiHai Road Shopping Mall (2013)

Project Data
 
Total GFA:   6.500m2
Location:   Shanghai, China
Function:   Commercial
Features:   Rretro-fit with new circulation, shopfronts and kinetic facade
Scope:   Architectural Concept and SD Design
Status:   Planning
 
 
Project Summary
 
HuaiHai Road is - alongside Nanjing Road - Shanghai’s most prestigious retail location, developing fast into a Chinese Fifth Avenue, Aoyama or Oxford Street. The building is situated at Number One, Hui Hai Road - an iconic address and entrance to this evolving metropolitan shopping street. The previous low-standard electronics mall has closed for good leaving behind an uninspiring facade and bad interior layout.

A series of parameters had to be balanced: creating a new interior circulation layout while keeping as much of the structural integrity and owner’s requirements, creating a brand-new facade worthy of the location while keeping planning submissions (and as a result volumetric and floor area alterations) to a minimum, creating a real entrance to HuaiHai Road retail environment although the building itself is much smaller than most other malls on HuaiHai Road. As a result, the currently haphazard exterior geometry of the podium building was largely retained and covered with a smooth 2F / 3F to 4F wooden facade acting as a gigantic welcome screen towards the busy HuaiHai Road / Xizang Road crossing. On GF to 2F a new curtain wall facade - simpler in geometry yet more transparent and spatially evocative - compliments the tree lined HuaiHai Road shopping sidewalk.

It was one of the project’s primary targets to define a contemporary retail elegance beyond screaming, visually polluting LED screens. Instead of a loud, advertisement driven facade (most of which look dead and blank when the LEDs are off during daytime), the screen was designed around warm and elegant wood panels with an extra kinetic quality: areas of the facade display different textures and geometries like an obscure treasure map.

Parts of the facade are made up of wind chimes and wind mills, swaying and chiming in the wind, creating a serene day-time counterpoint to the busy city life. At night, kinetic elements come to life in combination with music and light displaying a celebration of urban space - free of advertisement, a modern version of European market square clockworks that have been attracting people for centuries.