ARCHITECTURE PROFILE
Green Valley of
The former 2010 Shanghai Expo site on the Huangpu River is about to get a whole lot greener By Robert Paschen, Images by schmidt hammer lassen architects, Photos by Adrien Bernard
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schmidt hammer lassen’s Green Valley project is located on the former 2010 Shanghai World Expo site and is scheduled for completion in 2015
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ARCHITECTURE PROFILE
Chris Hardie is partner and head of the SHL’s local office on Wukang Lu
"Regulations and building codes for green and sustainable buildings are constantly improving in China, and in Shanghai in particular we see very ambitious regulations in this area" 24
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The buildings offer modern office facilities with consideration of environmental issues, and low operating costs
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hree years after the 2010 World Expo site in Pudong was China’s world stage, the area sat empty as a vacant sea of concrete. But for the past year, the Pudong site has been transforming into one of Shanghai’s most interesting “green” projects, and part of a larger municipal effort to clean up the Huangpu River districts. On May 31, 2013, Danish architecture firm schmidt hammer lassen broke ground on the Green Valley project, a mixed-use ecolog ic a l ly susta i nable development immediately next to the iconic Chinese pavilion. Set for completion in 2015, Green Valley features a meandering park flanked by environmentally-designed offices, shops and restaurants. According to a brief on the project: “A central open space composed of greenery, water and a soft landscape runs through the middle of the site. It functions as the spine of the Green Valley. This open space splits the site equally into two, with two major buildings located on each side. “The buildings are designed,” the brief continues “to offer modern office facilities
with a high standard of finish, flexibility, consideration of environmental issues, and low operating costs. The design expresses openness and accessibility, with a strong identity. The green hanging gardens inside the open atriums will be visible from the surrounding areas, and the people working in the buildings will be offered a great view to the greenery and city beyond.” Schmidt hammer lassen, or SHL, has offices in Denmark, London, Singapore and Shanghai. Chris Hardie is partner and head of the firm’s local office on Wukang Lu. “We won the international design competition back in 2012,” Hardie said of Green Valley, “and construction is planned to continue through 2015. The Green Valley is a close collaboration with ECADI who are one of China’s leading Design Institutes. Their team are working extremely hard with us to make this project a success." The theme of the 2010 World Exp was “Better City—Better Life.” (Quincy Jones even wrote a song for the expo with the same name.) SHL believes Green Valley honors the spirit of future sustainable development on the very site where it was celebrated by the world four years ago.
“We approach ‘green’ and sustainability as holistic concepts,” Hardie said. “Each project offers different opportunities, but it’s all about designing buildings that can sustain functionally, financially and of course environmentally. In all of our designs [SHL] works a lot with passive measures available to increase the sustainability of a building. Our studio puts a lot of emphasis on the use of natural light; we consider options for natural ventilation; we find ways to increase the thermal mass of the buildings. We design and we consider what a given design will mean for the choice of material with the aim of allowing our client to spend their budget on quality instead of unnecessary complexities.” The Expo site already has strong infrastructure, a Metro station, the China Art Museum (housed in the red pavilion) and the Mercedes-Benz Arena, as well as parks and promenades. “Shanghai has a lot of areas, especially along the Huangpu River, where focus is being placed on the relationship between the buildings, the river and the public green areas,” Hardie said. “The aim is not only to make the buildings ‘green’ but also to con25
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ARCHITECTURE PROFILE
The large, connected structure of the buildings ensures that they are tightly choreographed to set a new scene for urban life
A central open space composed of greenery, water and a soft landscape runs through the middle of the site
"Our studio is currently engaged in seven projects along the Huangpu River and they are some of our most exciting projects"
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The design expresses openness and accessibility, with a strong identity. The green hanging gardens inside the open atriums will be visible from the surrounding areas, and the people working in the buildings will be offered a great view to the greenery and city beyond.
sider the entire urban situation. There is an amazing potential here. The recent JZ Jazz Festival is a great example of the potential for these riverfront areas. Our studio is currently engaged in seven projects along the Huangpu River and they are some of our most exciting projects. “Furthermore, regulations and building codes for green and sustainable buildings are constantly improving in China: In Shanghai in particular we see very ambitious regulation in this area.” The Green Valley project is an example of a second (or third) wave of architecture sweeping over Shanghai and the rest of China, where developers are incorporating vertical city concepts, organic design and environmentally conscious construction. And SHL is one of a new breed of firms building the China of tomorrow. “We’re currently working on approximately 15 projects throughout China, most of them in and around Shanghai,” Hardie said. “They differ greatly in size and typology, but all of them consider sustainability in this holistic way.” For example, SHL’s second project in Ningbo is a new cultural home for the city’s Labor Union. “It’s known as the ‘Home of
Staff,’" Hardie said, and features two buildings “linked as one through a landscape concept that rises from a central public park to become a series of landscaped and accessible terraces. The original brief actually asked for two separate buildings (one housing leisure functions and the other more cultural and education functions). However, our idea was to enhance the overall masterplan of the whole East New Town (which had shown the site as part of a significant landscaped green belt running east from the old town), and conceive the building as one large public park, and simply create one singular building linked through a continuous carpet of landscape.” Hardie said that schmidt hammer lassen’s Scandinavian aesthetic and design philosophy is being received by large government clients in the Middle Kingdom. “Architecture should be closely integrated with its surroundings, with consideration for its functions and social context. Our aim is always to design buildings that are essentially open to the outside world. Although this is a very Scandinavian philosophy, we feel that a lot of our clients in China are very responsive to this way of approaching architecture.”
"Home of Staff" in Ningbo is another "green" project SHL is working on in China
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