PAINT DROP

Paint Drop
LifeHub | Daning Road | Shanghai, China

It is a public space intervention that was designed to join two separate blocks of a retail street that is going under renovation. The project is located in the heart of Shanghai, in a retail street in Daning Road. The concept that inspired the project was a surreal imaginative event: someone dropped a bucket of painting on the streets, splashing all around with colors.

Official Video | 100 Chanel
Oaint Drop Video

Paint Drop is a creative public space intervention designed to create a visual link between the main plaza and a newly open retail space, to firstly make the new space noticeable, and secondly attract customers dragging them through a color splash corridor.

It is composed of 8 catenary arches that spread across a pedestrian intersection in a commercial district in Shanghai. Every time the arches touche the ground, a small seating feature is created.

Life Hub @ Daning, a 250,000 sqm mixed-use development with 110,000 sqm shopping mall, is one of the hottest commercial areas in Shanghai, due to its condition of the open-air retail street.

As the installation was intended to call the attention of pedestrians and drag them to the desired area, it had to be both, eye-catching & permeable allowing pedestrian circulation through it.
To comply with both requests, a tunnel of splashing color paint was proposed as theme.

The solution consisted of a system of 8 catenary arches linked to each other spreading along the intended path, rendered as paint dropping on the floor from above. As the paint arches reach the floor, a splash of color occurs, leaving a functional trace in the form of seating features and resting areas accompanied by immersive floor graphics to enhance the experience.

The 8 arches from the colorful tunnel were equipped with an interactive lighting system. Movement sensors were placed at the bases of the arches, which would activate flexible LED strips of light embedded in the arches every time a person would pass by.

During the summer period, the vortex of color became one of the hotspots of Life Hub @ Daning’s open-air retail street, gathering kids and adults alike, and successfully increasing the pedestrian circulation at the desired spot.

CREDITS:

Project Name:Design: 100architects (Shanghai)
Design Team: Marcial Jesus, Javier Gonzalez, Anshuman Roy
Production: Hong Yang Advertising
Client: Life Hub @ Daning, (Chongbang Group)
Location: Daning Road, Jing’An District, Shanghai, China
Area: 650 m2
Completion: June 2018
Photographer: Amey Kandalgaonkar

It is a remake of our playful urban intervention “Olympia”, done back in 2017

Olympia on Tour is a remake of our playful urban intervention “Olympia”, done back in 2017, inspired by sports for the activation of different public spaces. This time, driven by a “plug & play” strategy, it is intended to be itinerant throughout several cities in China. It has been installed first in the city of Ningbo, in the fall of 2021, and early next year will be moving to Hangzhou, with several other cities in the pipeline.

A sunken access plaza inspired in a surreal and colorful blooming garden

Hidden Garden is an exterior renovation of a sunken plaza giving access to a mixed-use complex in Minhang, the suburban district in the South-West of Shanghai.
Besides serving as access plaza to the commercial and office buildings, the sunken plaza is also an open-air public space fully open to the public throughout the day.