I know what you’re thinking; did Heatherwick Studio just design a literally-mountainous mixed-use plan for the main arts district in Shanghai. If so, then yes, I AM a psychic and I CAN read your mind in great detail. Their project, called M50, is a roughly-3.3 million-square-meter “piece of topography” taking the shape of “two tree-covered mountains” populated by “400 terraces” and “1000 structural columns.” WOW!
Thomas Heatherwick told Architectural Digest:
Normally, the large-scale projects that we are quite used to seeing have big boxes, and the role of the designer is figuring out what pattern of architectural wrapping paper to put on these boxes. We wondered if there was a way to make better working spaces by also making access to outdoors.
The 15-acre development, next to a public park, is currently under construction and its completion is scheduled for 2018. The project is split by a narrow strip of government property and has incorporated a number of nearby historic buildings. The project had been exhibited at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York as part of “Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio.”
[Thank Heatherwick Studio, AJ, Architectural Digest]
