SLICED POROSITY BLOCK - RAFFLES CITY CHENGDUChengdu, China, 2007-November 2012

PROGRAM: five towers with offices, serviced apartments, retail, a hotel, cafes, and restaurants, and large urban public plazaCLIENT: CapitaLand DevelopmentBUILDING AREA (SQUARE): 3,336,812 sfSTATUS: completed

In the center of Chengdu, China, at the intersection of the first Ring Road and Ren Ming Nam Road, the Sliced Porosity Block forms large public plazas with a hybrid of different functions. Creating a metropolitan public space instead of object-icon skyscrapers, this three million square foot project takes its shape from its distribution of natural light. The required minimum sunlight exposures to the surrounding urban fabric prescribe precise geometric angles that slice the exoskeletal concrete frame of the structure. The building structure is white concrete organized in six foot high openings with earthquake diagonals as required while the "sliced" sections are glass.

The large public space framed in the center of the block is formed into three valleys inspired by a poem of the city's greatest poet, Du Fu (713-770), who wrote, 'From the northeast storm-tossed to the southwest, time has left stranded in Three Valleys.' The three plaza levels feature water gardens based on concepts of time-the Fountain of the Chinese Calendar Year, Fountain of Twelve Months, and Fountain of Thirty Days. These three ponds function as skylights to the six-story shopping precinct below.

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.

The Sliced Porosity Block is heated and cooled with 468 geothermal wells and the large ponds in the plaza harvest recycled rainwater, while the natural grasses and lily pads create a natural cooling effect. High-performance glazing, energy-efficient equipment and the use of regional materials are among the other methods employed to reach the LEED Gold rating.

Films on the Sliced Porosity Block are available on Vimeo at the links below:Sliced Porosity Block - A Conversation with Steven HollSliced Porosity Block

"[Sliced Porosity Block's] sustainable design - including its central Chengdu site, easy transportation access, and multiple uses and attractions - make it a place to visit. Its poetic design makes it a place for contemplation."-Clare Jacobson, GreenSourceSource : http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?id=98

LINKED HYBRIDBeijing, China, 2003-2009

PROGRAM: 644 apartments, public green space, commercial zones, hotel, cinemateque, kindergarten, Montessori school, underground parking.CLIENT: Modern Green Development Co., Ltd. BeijingSIZE: 221,426 smSTATUS: completed

The 220,000 square meter pedestrian-oriented Linked Hybrid complex, sited adjacent to the site of old city wall of Beijing, aims to counter the current privatized urban developments in China by creating a new twenty-first century porous urban space, inviting and open to the public from every side. Filmic urban public space; around, over and through multifaceted spatial layers, as well as the many passages through the project, make the Linked Hybrid an "open city within a city". The project promotes interactive relations and encourages encounters in the public spaces that vary from commercial, residential, and educational to recreational. The entire complex is a three-dimensional urban space in which buildings on the ground, under the ground and over the ground are fused together.

The ground level offers a number of open passages for all people (residents and visitors) to walk through. These passages ensure a micro-urbanisms of small scale. Shops activate the urban space surrounding the large reflecting pond. On the intermediate level of the lower buildings, public roofs gardens offer tranquil green spaces, and at the top of the eight residential towers private roof gardens are connected to the penthouses. All public functions on the ground level, - including a restaurant, hotel, Montessori school, kindergarten, and cinema - have connections with the green spaces surrounding and penetrating the project. The elevator displaces like a "jump cut" to another series of passages on a higher levels. From the 12th to the 18th floor a multi-functional series of skybridges with a swimming pool, a fitness room, a caf, a gallery, auditorium and a mini salon connects the eight residential towers and the hotel tower, and offers spectacular views over the unfolding city. Programmatically this loop aspires to be semi-lattice-like rather than simplistically linear. We hope the public sky-loop and the base-loop will constantly generate random relationships. They will function as social condensers resulting in a special experience of city life to both residents and visitors.Geo-thermal wells (655 at 100 meters deep) provide Linked Hybrid with cooling in summer and heating in winter, and make it one of the largest green residential projects in the world.

"Having just completed the Linked Hybrid in Beijing, Steven Holl Architects has established itself among the top of this ground-breaking pack. Their eight-tower structure, attached by floating walkways, received this year's award by the International Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat for the best new tall building in 'Asia and Australasia' and was also designed to qualify for a LEED Gold certification..."-Marcus Schulz, China Daily"Steven Holl's Linked Hybrid complex offers an alternative model of residential developments - one that applies striking, Modern architecture to the age-old patterns of housing mixed with shopping, dining, education, and entertainment. Holl and his Beijing-based partner Li Hu made a concerted effort to open the 2.37-million-square-foot development to the surrounding area, welcoming nonresidents to its grassy perimeter and landscaped central plaza. And throughout the project, the architects employed an impressive set of sustainable design strategies, pointing this heavily polluted city in a new direction."-Clifford Pearson, Architectural Record"Having just completed the Linked Hybrid in Beijing, Steven Holl Architects has established itself among the top of this ground-breaking pack. Their eight-tower structure, attached by floating walkways, received this year's award by the International Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat for the best new tall building in "Asia and Australasia" and was also designed to qualify for a LEED Gold certification, the second-highest LEED rating obtainable. The Linked Hybrid has one of the largest geothermal cooling and heating systems in the world, exemplifying energy efficiency in new Chinese developments. ... However, being energy efficient is not the only aspect to becoming LEED certified, says Li Hu, the partner of Steven Holl Architects and director of projects in China. The production of building materials, managing construction sites to avoid pollution and dealing with construction waste also count when earning points for certification."-Marcus Schulz, China Daily'(...) a new development designed by the New York architect Steven Holl - a cluster of linked apartment buildings - displays a boldness that would be unlikely to escape compromise in a Western city. (...) its most notable feature is a bridge - or, rather, bridges - high in the air. (...) The idea of the street high above the city is intended to counteract the sense of isolation that high-rise living usually brings, and to create an incentive for residents to walk around the complex. (...) The bridges are spectacular, inside and out, and one can imagine that there will be an allure to walking in the air from tower to tower that having a cup of coffee on the ground can't match.'-Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker'If the architect's own vision is progressive, can architecture be a vehicle for positive change? (..) Architects like Steven Holl cast their decision to build in China as a way of promoting a connection between East and West. (..) Mr. Holl said, "my position as an architect is to work in the spirit of international civilization and cooperation. You have to make a contribution."'-Robin Pogrebin, New York Times"With its eight colourful towers, unusual sky-bridge links, and central diamond-shaped glass structures, Holl's mixed-use scheme stands out from the skyline's more severe concrete skyscrapers. Ecological, luxurious, inspirationally designed, with a community feel and great links to the cultural hub of Beijing [] the Linked Hybrid will mark the city's post-Olympics architectural era - bridging, through design, the East and the West."-Ellie Stathaki, Wallpaper'A spectacular complex of eight residential towers with a hotel, cinema and school - all connected by bridges that will form a street in the sky'.-Aric Chen, Whitewall, March, 2007"The Linked Hybrid, on the other hand, true to its nerdy name, has an enthusiastic Erector Set complexity, and only gets more interesting as you wander through. It's a deeply ingenious piece of architecture, rich with ideas and virtuoso engineering."-Kurt Andersen, Vanity FairLinked Hybrid," is one of the most innovative housing complexes anywhere in the world: eight asymmetrical towers joined by a network of enclosed bridges that create a pedestrian zone in the sky. [..] Take Holl's Linked Hybrid in Beijing, for example, which has a surprisingly open, communal spirit. A series of massive portals lead from the street to an elaborate internal courtyard garden, a restaurant, a theater and a kindergarten, integrating the complex into the surrounding neighborhood. Bridges connect the towers above ground and are conceived as a continuous ring of public zones, with bars and nightclubs overlooking a glittering view of the city and a suspended swimming pool.-The New York Times - T Magazine'Beijing's most innovative new residential project - dubbed Linked Hybrid by its architects, New York-based Steven Holl - connects eight 22-story towers at their upper floors with pedestrian bridges. ... The 2.4-million-square-foot complex is also linked to the surrounding city, thanks to shops, restaurants, a movie theater, and a central park, all open to the public.'-Cond Nast Traveler'One of the ten coolest eco-friendly buildings in the world - One of the largest geothermal projects on earth'.-GQ, September, 2007Cool Complex: The climate of the Linked Hybrid housing project is controlled by circulating groundwater from 328 feet down.-Dec 1, 2006

Source : http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?id=58&type=&page=0

Porosity: The Architecture ofInvaginationA publication by Australian artist and architect, Richard Goodwin, aims to change our view of cities as collections of individual buildings.Richard Goodwin hasdedicated overthirty years of research to speculating onthe boundary between art and architecture and the complex relationship that exists between the two professions. He sees current urban architecture as failing humanity. Cities shape social andpolitical bureaucracies as well as eachand every individual, and with this in mind, Goodwin repeatedly states that we must accelerate change: we dont have time for current architectural styles because they are redundant by the time they evolve. Goodwin sees public space as the oxygen of the city and inPorosity: the Architecture of Invagination(2011) he presents research on an architecture driven by interiority and its direct connection with external public spaces. Goodwins porosity paradigm thus views this spatial act, which he calls public art, as a very powerful mechanism for change in the city. Goodwins theories become something beyond architecturebut something not quite urbanplanning.His work is also beyond visionary. As Lebbeus Woods defines it, the term visionary generally refers to a person who exists somehow apart from the real world as in having visions. Goodwin doesnt believe he is practising speculative or visionary architecture. He states: Some of us just cant build what we want to butwe are serious about what we theorize.Im an artist architect I like to make stuff, some of my parasites take six years to go through court. Im not a paperarchitect.As an artist practising in London during the 1970s, Richard Goodwin began to explore his ideas through the rejection of the restrictions placed on him by the profession. Goodwin perceived the art spectrum as horizontal, with many professions along this line. This stance finds Goodwin in a constant whirlwind of curiosity, entering and exiting the world of architecture in an attempt to find the cure for his metaphorical itch. This constant search can partly be identified as the beginning of the search for balance within the virtual versus actual realm in which Goodwin hasposed.During his undergraduate studies, Goodwins practice started to manifest as performance art that provoked reaction to action and simulated human life and death. An iconic image for Goodwin was, and still is, Yves Kleins performanceLeap into the Void(1960), which demonstrates the power of the act (the leap) in comparison to the rendered vulnerability of architecture (the void).During his undergraduate studies, Goodwins practice started to manifest as performance art that provoked reaction to action and simulated human life and death. An iconic image for Goodwin was, and still is, Yves Kleins performanceLeap into the Void(1960), which demonstrates the power of the act (the leap) in comparison to the rendered vulnerability of architecture (the void). GoodwinsBirth Ritual(1975), presented when the artist was twenty-two, was an unusual yet significant performance in his career. Using a rag doll twisted in cloth and an old acoustic guitar, Goodwin gave birth to his practice: the process of birth and the associated trauma represented Goodwin emancipating himself as an artist. To Goodwin, architecture, usually considered solid and perpetually strong, now became weak and plastic in comparison with the act represented via the performance. This idea is further illustrated in Porosity where Goodwin states that he is interested in the immense fragility of architectural fabric in relation to the act of a single body. This apparent paradox between architecture and performanceart has allowed him to establish his ideas aboutporosity.Lebbeus Woods identifies at least three essential attributes that all visionary architecture addresses; GoodwinsPorosityexplores them. Firstly, Goodwins porosity research proposes a new and radical conception for the vision of cities. Porosity, which he has defined as the permeable edge between public art and private space, deals with existing structures to create three-dimensional complex public systems. Secondly, the proposals are total: all scales, from the individual to the urban field, are addressed. Goodwins practice is tied back through the scales of tools that he uses to deploy his theories.Exoskeleton, the first in the scale of tools, is where Goodwin challenges the body with constructions using ready-made objects that trace the obscure point at which the body ends and architecture begins. The second tool, Parasite, operates at the scale of installation and the city. This is where architecture and public space is challenged with parasitic structures that cling onto existing buildings like leeches onto the skin; hence, questions around the facade or skin of architecture are raised. And the last tool, Porosity, is at the scale of the urban infrastructure. It is here where the boundaries between public and private space are blurred andredefined.It is this third attribute that deals with singular interventions (the parasite) as the potential answer for the urban catastrophe that Goodwin speaks of that most illustrates the above-mentioned gap within visionary architecture. From a users perspective, Porosity becomes a tease within the urban space; a meandering trail through anything from moments of transition and connection to endless empty foyers, back streets, toilets or sewer pipes. Goodwins text sets out to prove the Porosity hypothesis, where the city becomes the laboratory for the testing of ideas and plays the possible role of catalyst. The Porosity project, conducted from 2003 to 2005, involved a series of experiments where a porosity researcher enters three unknown private sites including Zone 1: 345363 George Street, Zone 2: World Square and Zone 3: Aurora Place, Governor Phillip and Macquarie towers, attempting to remain unnoticed for as long aspossible.The mappings and findings through what Goodwin calls the chiastic spaces were recorded and a porosity index was produced, which gave a figure for comparing the degree of the publicness of a building. With this index and a tri-part series of models/diagrams a series of provocative rendered images was produced that explores the potential of connection from inside out and vice versa. The problem with this conclusion is that the representation, through red explosions as renders symbolic of the new linkages, takes a fictional form. From a designer or critics perspective Goodwin may be considered to have put the reader at a distance that may only enable us to interpret the image with critical eyes. In that sense the porosity index and its mappings represent aprovocation.When questioned about these red explosions Goodwin states: The explosions are simply unused spaces, at a time that have gathered together, they are brothers and sisters of public space; they represent a patch which might become something else. Even though the porosity index is a clever and new way of analysing the publicness of a building, there still seems to be a step missing from these images and from the index itself to the stage of the parasite. When interviewed, Goodwin commented on this missing step and about how he tried to narrow the gap between the physical and performative through quantifiable metrics so one can do a fairly objective analysis. Evidently, theres a gap between playing with that and the physicality of doing it, but in actuality it may be impossible to ever close that up theres a healthy oscillation going on between the mentioned virtual concepts and the physicality of the actual model within urbanism. It is vital, in this sense, that an understanding of this oscillation is embedded into the design process where the gap stands today. Goodwin provokes really good thinking about urbanism as a series of problems understood from first principles. Therefore, within architectural criticism these principles or virtualrealities play as transitions, and throughthe questioning of ones perception the actual, in time, will berevealed.