Making in China by Samuel Wong (Ng Shi Qi 1001542350)
A public talk by Mr. Samuel Wong Yin Chao. He finished his Bachelor of Architecture in University of Technology Malaysia in 2006. 4 years of working experience at Singapore's RT+Q Architect. After it, he decided to try his luck overseas. He joined Aedas Shanghai for a short stint before 4 years as a Design Manager for CapitaLand's Raffles City in Hangzhou, China.
Before he shared his experience in China he briefly explained the situation in China as he witnessed the Chinese government's effort in embracing sustainable and higher-quality development, the rise of entrepreneurship and the emergence of Chinese architecture voices in this rapid economic growth. After governed by Deng Xiaoping, China developed rapidly as he said The shinkansen is faster than the wind, like its pushing us to run. At this moment, we really need to run.
Mr. Samuel explained the developer decided to develop Hangzhou was because of few points. Before the development, Hangzhou was just a muddy area for paddy field he said. First at all, Hangzhou was not their first choice but due to the featured city, cultural and population they decided to build raffle city here.
The twin towers of Raffle City was designed by Ben Van Berkel, unstudio. He said the Raffle City was designed according to 3 nodes which facing to the main traffic. 2 of the nodes was formed by the base while the last node was facing to the rivers.By this, the axis of the mall and tower has formed. The designer used the node from the site for two towers while the last node which is most interesting facing to the river, the famous river in China, Qian Tang River. Using the higher view of the tower to attract. By using the nodes to emphasize the form of the building and the direction it is facing. The designer created something...
The orientation of the Raffle City is designed with contrapposio to create a tension and dynamic look to the building and to have the maximum view of the river and lake. Raffle City is to be designed as a 24hours city. It is interconnected by having a link in middle. There are 6 programs in the Raffle City which is low zoning office, residential SOHO, high zoning office at tower 2, hotel, residential and retail mall in the middle.
There's are 4 connection bridge in the retail mall which is kind of complication for the construction. They have a mirror finished stainless steel below the bridge and cantilever floor plate. It is interesting that they installed the mirror-finished on the bottom so the bridge when the passenger pass might, they will be attracted by the reflection instead of pass-by while facing to their phone. Another point I like about the bridge is there is less column below it as the bridge is designed as a cantilever bridge. The designer created a pathway on top to convenient the user inside the mall while below the bridge is void lead to the courtyard which is open space.
He claimed that compare to Shanghai Center, Raffle City has more than 13 elevations as the tower is twisting. The building facade is covered with sun-shading panel which reduces the sunlight and the heat transmit into the building. It showed that the designer consider about the sun orientation on the building as less high rise building design with sun shading panel.
For the retail mall, Mr.Samual bought the architecture style into the mall. By this, Raffle City retail mall is different than other as the interior style is very architecture. It is special that he continue the design to the interior instead of design another style for the interior. He makes the design as complete. It is good that Mr. Samual considers about the natural lighting into the mall. He used the transparent material on top of the void area so the sunlight can be penetrated into the building and reduce the usage of artificial lighting.
I like the way Mr. Samual break the space in the mall. From level 1and 2 there only can see smaller void while level3 can see the entire void. He used void to break down the volume of 7 stories. He said the void act as the valley between two towers and it creates a dynamic view.
Question and Answer session :
Q: What is your advice to the younger architects? Is it good that to go overseas?
A: For my opinion, you should spend at least several of years in local to enhance your skills and experiences before going to overseas. In other countries, they are very competitive. They move forward quickly and things change very fast. However, it is good for you to challenge being in overseas.
Q: What programs are widely used at overseas? Can you suggest?
A: In China, there is 'Grasshopper' and 'Rhino' widely being used. It is better for you to learn if thinking of going China. ('Grasshopper is a graphical algorithm editor tightly integrated with 'Rhino' 3D modeling tool)
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