© 100architects
10
Aug
2020
Shanghai
Asia/Shanghai
Chinese
Population: 27 Million30 million in 2025
GDP: 251 6.6 %
BigMac: 2.74 us dollars
Hidden Garden
Minhang | Shanghai | China
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 semipublic space fully open to the public throughout the day.
Hidden Garden Cheerful| Official Video | 100 Channel
This revamp of this almost abandoned sunken plaza had as a main objective turning the grey and obsolete space into an eye-catching, bold and vibrant public space fostering social interactions, entertainment and a fun immersive experience below the surface of buzzy intersection streets in Minhang.
The project was conceptualized as if we had buried a seed in a colorless ground unleashing a colorful blooming explosion of life, gigantic flowers and entertainment features triggering the occurrence of this wonderful blooming garden.
In order to bring the sunken plaza to life, we colonized all the basement floor with a circle-packing Colorscape, mimicking colorful flower buds perceived from top view, which is the way we figured most of the visitors would get a first glance at the sunken space as they access from the surface.
Many of those circles feature interactive games, graphics and messages in them, encouraging a functional and eventful activation of the floor and the space.
With the aim of enhancing the whole garden experience and immerse visitors in it, 3 oversized flowers sprout up from the ground, serving as playful and resting platforms under comfortable shadows, for kids and adults alike.
Seating features were designed as little colorful sprouts, while the main playful feature is rendered as a meandering flower stem than bends to allocate swings and passages.
Nearby the flowers, and guarded by 4 colorful columns, lies a mini-amphitheater for kids to meet, socialize and play around it.
As a result, the revamped sunken space has been transformed into an attractor and a destination for a diverse group of users targeting families and youngsters.
Commercially specking it has increased importantly the flow of people helping to ensure the success of the commercial scheme in which is immersed.
Hidden Garden Mystery| Explanatory Video | 100 Channel
Credits
PROJECT NAME: Secret Garden
DESIGN: 100 Architects (Shanghai)
DESIGN TEAM: Marcial Jesús, Javier González, Lara Broglio, Mónica Páez, Keith Gong, Cosima Jiang, Ponyo Zhao, Elena Michelutti, Ginger Huang
CLIENT: Capitaland
SIZE: 1,280 m2
STATUS: Built
LOCATION: No 6088 Humin road, Minhang district, Shanghai (China)
About
Hidden Garden
The project is a complete architectural revamp of the sunken plaza. It is inspired in a surreal and colorful blooming garden with gigantic flowers transforming the space into an immersive experience.
To know more click above!
More images
Photo © RexZou
Photo © RexZou
Photo © RexZou
What is an street intervention?
This is the smallest scale of interventions that takes place in the public realm of a city, related to the altering of a portion or a whole street or square, whether vehicular or pedestrian, by adding or installing new alienated elements to the existing configuration of the street.
This typology intervenes existing urban settings by occupying the ground of a given area and by acting as an accessible and multifunctional platform, catalyzing social interactions. It is a tactical intervention with a non-territorial nature, keeping a clear formal and aesthetic distinction from the existing surroundings.
The main objective of this typology is to trigger a massive public interest to the place through a strong visual impact, usually of a temporary nature, encouraging the rise of high public affluence during a specific period of time, becoming a remarkable virtual landmark that attracts customers and cultivates important human dynamics and commercial activity.
Projects
insta100
I love the project but I think it would be even better if the renovation was all over the place. Not just the entrance plaza. Also I think more seating is necessary. But all in all it is a very impressive space. different from anything I have seen before. I took a picture to those chair balls that I found very funny.
Publications
Crystal Pool is a creative public space intervention designed for the grand opening of a new mixed-use complex located in the New Bund, the emerging international business center in Pudong (Shanghai), with the aim of fostering entertainment & social interactions among new visitors, appealing to kids, youngsters & adults alike.
Hi! My name is Kim, I’m an architecture student and would like to enquire about your Hidden Garden project. I was wondering what material you used for the ground component? Was it PVC? How does it adhere to the existing ground surface?
Hi! yes it is a thick layer of PVC that absorbs the impact. It adheres well since it is glued with silicon in all the borders.