Yesterday we finished our evening at a rooftop bar overlooking the Bund, with the glimmering city as our backdrop. At precisely 11pm the city dimmed and the 30 storey billboards ceased dazzling. This is one Shanghai. Today we travelled the breadth of this enormous city and along the way viewed the Shanghai that accommodates most of its people, the cloned apartments towers that are stamped out across the horizon. Whether this is progress was a question that each of us considered.
Our first visit was the Giant Campus, designed by Morphosis, for an Internet gaming company. In its contrast to the city fringy where it is set, it’s almost like a concession, where other rules apply. Through a guided tour, we were able to see how soaring formal ambitions where translated into the local context. The sweeping roof garden, covered with flowers, was a delightful highlight.
We then visited the office-workshop of Archi Union, set in a Creative Park, AKA former industrial estate. Their compound is shrouded by an undulating wall made from concrete blocks, that acts as a dynamic screen. Scattered in the grounds were other prototypes and models, the tools of a practice deeply engaged with rethinking how a new architecture can be made in the new China, where skill is replaced by labour. Archi Union also curate exhibitions and conferences and are emerging as leaders in their research into digital tectonics.
Inspired, challenged, and weary we departed this amazing city, bound for London… All luggage accounted for and with a final horhorhohohohoho…. AP
