PACIFIC PLACE
HDA
GUANGZHOU, CHINA
HDA : DESIGN CONSULTANT & ENGINEER CLIENT : SWIRE PROPERTIES LTD. ARCHITECTS : WONG AND OUYANG LTD. LEAD DESIGNER : HEATHERWICK STUDIO DATE : 2005-2008
Pacific Place, in the heart of the central district of Hong Kong, comprises four mixed-use towers with hotel, offices and serviced apartments atop a shopping mall. It was constructed by Swire Properties in the late 1980’s with the architects Wong and Ouyang, and became an icon of modern shopping and Hong Kong urban culture. Swire Properties engaged the Londonbased designer, Thomas Heatherwick, to modernise the mall and adapt it to current fashion trends in response to public demand. Internal facilities were upgraded and a new restaurant was created at vehicle-access level. The design by Heatherwick Studio arranges sinuous vertical ribbons as terraces wrapping around the restaurant columns, and revealing a central void for a skylight. HDA were brought in as specialist design consultants to Swire Properties to provide conceptual and technical design assistance to the Heatherwick Studio team. HDA proposed a construction concept using steel ribbons to constite a
HUGH DUTTON ASSOCIÉS
shell structure for the roof and an ETFE pillow for the central skylight. Our work involved structural analysis and detail development of all structural and glazing components, including the restaurant’s envelope, the long canopy, a footbridge and a skylight. The canopy, designed but not built, extended the theme of steel ribbons as structural members that support a glass cover, in a sinuous movement following the curvilinear drive of Wong & Oyuang’s initial plan.
- NEW SKINS -