Sliced Porosity Block / Steven Holl Architects

Sliced Porosity Block in Chengdu, China by Steven Holl Architects:

Rather than being designed as object-icon skyscrapers, the three million square foot complex identifies itself as a metropolitan public space with large plazas and a hybrid of different functions. The five towers stimulate a micro urbanism by offering offices, serviced apartments, retail, a hotel, cafes, and restaurants.

Steven Holl describes these environmentally state of the art skyscrapers as “a poetic form shaped by sunlight.” The required minimum sunlight exposures to the surrounding urban fabric prescribe precise geometric angles that slice the exoskeletal concrete frame of the building. The white concrete structure is organized in six foot high openings with earthquake diagonals as required while the “sliced” sections are glass.

Establishing human scale in this metropolitan rectangle is achieved through the concept of “micro urbanism,” with double-fronted shops open to the street as well as the shopping center. Three large openings are sculpted into the mass of the towers as the sites of the pavilion of history, designed by Steven Holl Architects, the Light Pavilion by Lebbeus Woods, and the Local Art Pavilion by Chinese sculptor Han Meilin.

via ArchDaily

Images by Iwan Baan, Shu He and Hufton + Crow