SLICED POROSITY BLOCK - RAFFLES CITY CHENGDU

Chengdu, China, 2007-November 2012

PROGRAM: five towers with offices, serviced apartments, retail, a hotel, cafes, and restaurants, and large urban
public plaza
CLIENT: CapitaLand Development
BUILDING AREA (SQUARE): 3,336,812 sf
STATUS: completed

In the center of Chengdu, China, at the intersection of the first Ring Road and Ren Ming Nam Road, the Sliced
Porosity Block forms large public plazas with a hybrid of different functions. Creating a metropolitan public space
instead of object-icon skyscrapers, this three million square foot project takes its shape from its distribution of
natural light. The required minimum sunlight exposures to the surrounding urban fabric prescribe precise
geometric angles that slice the exoskeletal concrete frame of the structure. The building structure is white
concrete organized in six foot high openings with earthquake diagonals as required while the "sliced" sections are
glass.

The large public space framed in the center of the block is formed into three valleys inspired by a poem of the
city's greatest poet, Du Fu (713-770), who wrote, 'From the northeast storm-tossed to the southwest, time has left
stranded in Three Valleys.' The three plaza levels feature water gardens based on concepts of time-the Fountain
of the Chinese Calendar Year, Fountain of Twelve Months, and Fountain of Thirty Days. These three ponds
function as skylights to the six-story shopping precinct below.

Establishing human scale in this metropolitan rectangle is achieved through the concept of "micro urbanism," with
double-fronted shops open to the street as well as the shopping center. Three large openings are sculpted into
the mass of the towers as the sites of the pavilion of history, designed by Steven Holl Architects, the Light
Pavilion by Lebbeus Woods, and the Local Art Pavilion.

The Sliced Porosity Block is heated and cooled with 468 geothermal wells and the large ponds in the plaza
harvest recycled rainwater, while the natural grasses and lily pads create a natural cooling effect. High-
performance glazing, energy-efficient equipment and the use of regional materials are among the other methods
employed to reach the LEED Gold rating.

Films on the Sliced Porosity Block are available on Vimeo at the links below:
Sliced Porosity Block - A Conversation with Steven Holl
Sliced Porosity Block
"[Sliced Porosity Block's] sustainable design - including its central Chengdu site, easy transportation access, and
multiple uses and attractions - make it a place to visit. Its poetic design makes it a place for contemplation."
-Clare Jacobson, GreenSource

Source : http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?id=98
LINKED HYBRID
Beijing, China, 2003-2009

PROGRAM: 644 apartments, public green space, commercial zones, hotel, cinemateque, kindergarten,
Montessori school, underground parking.
CLIENT: Modern Green Development Co., Ltd. Beijing
SIZE: 221,426 sm
STATUS: completed

The 220,000 square meter pedestrian-oriented Linked Hybrid complex, sited adjacent to the site of old city wall of
Beijing, aims to counter the current privatized urban developments in China by creating a new twenty-first century
porous urban space, inviting and open to the public from every side. Filmic urban public space; around, over and
through multifaceted spatial layers, as well as the many passages through the project, make the Linked Hybrid
an "open city within a city". The project promotes interactive relations and encourages encounters in the public
spaces that vary from commercial, residential, and educational to recreational. The entire complex is a three-
dimensional urban space in which buildings on the ground, under the ground and over the ground are fused
together.

The ground level offers a number of open passages for all people (residents and visitors) to walk through. These
passages ensure a micro-urbanisms of small scale. Shops activate the urban space surrounding the large
reflecting pond. On the intermediate level of the lower buildings, public roofs gardens offer tranquil green spaces,
and at the top of the eight residential towers private roof gardens are connected to the penthouses. All public
functions on the ground level, - including a restaurant, hotel, Montessori school, kindergarten, and cinema - have
connections with the green spaces surrounding and penetrating the project. The elevator displaces like a "jump
cut" to another series of passages on a higher levels. From the 12th to the 18th floor a multi-functional series of
skybridges with a swimming pool, a fitness room, a café, a gallery, auditorium and a mini salon connects the eight
residential towers and the hotel tower, and offers spectacular views over the unfolding city. Programmatically this
loop aspires to be semi-lattice-like rather than simplistically linear. We hope the public sky-loop and the base-loop
will constantly generate random relationships. They will function as social condensers resulting in a special
experience of city life to both residents and visitors.
Geo-thermal wells (655 at 100 meters deep) provide Linked Hybrid with cooling in summer and heating in winter,
and make it one of the largest green residential projects in the world.
"Having just completed the Linked Hybrid in Beijing, Steven Holl Architects has established itself among the top
of this ground-breaking pack. Their eight-tower structure, attached by floating walkways, received this year's
award by the International Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat for the best new tall building in 'Asia and
Australasia' and was also designed to qualify for a LEED Gold certification..."
-Marcus Schulz, China Daily

"Steven Holl's Linked Hybrid complex offers an alternative model of residential developments - one that applies
striking, Modern architecture to the age-old patterns of housing mixed with shopping, dining, education, and
entertainment. Holl and his Beijing-based partner Li Hu made a concerted effort to open the 2.37-million-square-
foot development to the surrounding area, welcoming nonresidents to its grassy perimeter and landscaped
central plaza. And throughout the project, the architects employed an impressive set of sustainable design
strategies, pointing this heavily polluted city in a new direction."
-Clifford Pearson, Architectural Record

"Having just completed the Linked Hybrid in Beijing, Steven Holl Architects has established itself among the top
of this ground-breaking pack. Their eight-tower structure, attached by floating walkways, received this year's
award by the International Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat for the best new tall building in "Asia and
Australasia" and was also designed to qualify for a LEED Gold certification, the second-highest LEED rating
obtainable. The Linked Hybrid has one of the largest geothermal cooling and heating systems in the world,
exemplifying energy efficiency in new Chinese developments. ... However, being energy efficient is not the only
aspect to becoming LEED certified, says Li Hu, the partner of Steven Holl Architects and director of projects in
China. The production of building materials, managing construction sites to avoid pollution and dealing with
construction waste also count when earning points for certification."
-Marcus Schulz, China Daily

'(...) a new development designed by the New York architect Steven Holl - a cluster of linked apartment buildings
- displays a boldness that would be unlikely to escape compromise in a Western city. (...) its most notable feature
is a bridge - or, rather, bridges - high in the air. (...) The idea of the street high above the city is intended to
counteract the sense of isolation that high-rise living usually brings, and to create an incentive for residents to
walk around the complex. (...) The bridges are spectacular, inside and out, and one can imagine that there will be
an allure to walking in the air from tower to tower that having a cup of coffee on the ground can't match.'
-Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker

'If the architect's own vision is progressive, can architecture be a vehicle for positive change? (..) Architects like
Steven Holl cast their decision to build in China as a way of promoting a connection between East and West. (..)
Mr. Holl said, "my position as an architect is to work in the spirit of international civilization and cooperation. You
have to make a contribution."'
-Robin Pogrebin, New York Times

"With its eight colourful towers, unusual sky-bridge links, and central diamond-shaped glass structures, Holl's
mixed-use scheme stands out from the skyline's more severe concrete skyscrapers. Ecological, luxurious,
inspirationally designed, with a community feel and great links to the cultural hub of Beijing […] the Linked Hybrid
will mark the city's post-Olympics architectural era - bridging, through design, the East and the West."
-Ellie Stathaki, Wallpaper

'A spectacular complex of eight residential towers with a hotel, cinema and school - all connected by bridges that
will form a street in the sky'.
-Aric Chen, Whitewall, March, 2007

"The Linked Hybrid, on the other hand, true to its nerdy name, has an enthusiastic Erector Set complexity, and
only gets more interesting as you wander through. It's a deeply ingenious piece of architecture, rich with ideas
and virtuoso engineering."
-Kurt Andersen, Vanity Fair

Linked Hybrid," is one of the most innovative housing complexes anywhere in the world: eight asymmetrical
towers joined by a network of enclosed bridges that create a pedestrian zone in the sky. [..] Take Holl's Linked
Hybrid in Beijing, for example, which has a surprisingly open, communal spirit. A series of massive portals lead
from the street to an elaborate internal courtyard garden, a restaurant, a theater and a kindergarten, integrating
the complex into the surrounding neighborhood. Bridges connect the towers above ground and are conceived as
a continuous ring of public zones, with bars and nightclubs overlooking a glittering view of the city and a
suspended swimming pool.
-The New York Times - T Magazine

'Beijing's most innovative new residential project - dubbed Linked Hybrid by its architects, New York-based
Steven Holl - connects eight 22-story towers at their upper floors with pedestrian bridges. ... The 2.4-million-
square-foot complex is also linked to the surrounding city, thanks to shops, restaurants, a movie theater, and a
central park, all open to the public.'
-Condé Nast Traveler

'One of the ten coolest eco-friendly buildings in the world - One of the largest geothermal projects on earth'.
-GQ, September, 2007

Cool Complex: The climate of the Linked Hybrid housing project is controlled by circulating groundwater from 328
feet down.
-Dec 1, 2006

Source : http://www.stevenholl.com/project-detail.php?id=58&type=&page=0
Porosity: The Architecture of Invagination

A publication by Australian artist and architect, Richard Goodwin, aims to change our view of cities as collections
of individual buildings.

Richard Goodwin has dedicated over thirty years of research to speculating on the boundary between art and

architecture and the complex relationship that exists between the two professions. He sees current urban

architecture as failing humanity. Cities shape social and political bureaucracies as well as each and every

individual, and with this in mind, Goodwin repeatedly states that we must accelerate change: we don’t have time

for current architectural styles because they are redundant by the time they evolve. Goodwin sees public space

as the oxygen of the city and in Porosity: the Architecture of Invagination (2011) he presents research on an

architecture driven by interiority and its direct connection with external public spaces. Goodwin’s porosity

paradigm thus views this spatial act, which he calls public art, as a very powerful mechanism for change in the

city. Goodwin’s theories become something beyond architecture but something not quite urban planning.

His work is also beyond visionary. As Lebbeus Woods defines it, the term “visionary” generally refers to a person

who exists somehow apart from the real world – as in “having visions.” Goodwin doesn’t believe he is practising

speculative or visionary architecture. He states: “Some of us just can’t build what we want to but we are serious

about what we theorize. I’m an artist architect – I like to make stuff, some of my parasites take six years to go

through court. I’m not a paper architect.”

As an artist practising in London during the 1970s, Richard Goodwin began to explore his ideas through the

rejection of the restrictions placed on him by the profession. Goodwin perceived the art spectrum as horizontal,

with many professions along this line. This stance finds Goodwin in a constant whirlwind of curiosity, entering and

exiting the world of architecture in an attempt to find the cure for his metaphorical itch. This constant search can

partly be identified as the beginning of the search for balance within the virtual versus actual realm in which

Goodwin has posed.

During his undergraduate studies, Goodwin’s practice started to manifest as performance art that provoked
reaction to action and simulated human life and death. An iconic image for Goodwin was, and still is, Yves Klein’s
performance Leap into the Void(1960), which demonstrates the power of the act (the leap) in comparison to the
rendered vulnerability of architecture (the void).

During his undergraduate studies, Goodwin’s practice started to manifest as performance art that provoked

reaction to action and simulated human life and death. An iconic image for Goodwin was, and still is, Yves Klein’s

performance Leap into the Void (1960), which demonstrates the power of the act (the leap) in comparison to the

rendered vulnerability of architecture (the void). Goodwin’s Birth Ritual(1975), presented when the artist was

twenty-two, was an unusual yet significant performance in his career. Using a rag doll twisted in cloth and an old

acoustic guitar, Goodwin “gave birth” to his practice: the process of birth and the associated trauma represented

Goodwin emancipating himself as an artist. To Goodwin, architecture, usually considered solid and perpetually

strong, now became weak and plastic in comparison with the act represented via the performance. This idea is

further illustrated in Porosity where Goodwin states that he is “interested in the immense fragility of architectural

fabric in relation to the act of a single body.” This apparent paradox between architecture and performance art

has allowed him to establish his ideas about porosity.

Lebbeus Woods identifies at least three essential attributes that all visionary architecture addresses;

Goodwin’s Porosity explores them. Firstly, Goodwin’s porosity research proposes a new and radical conception

for the vision of cities. Porosity, which he has defined as the permeable edge between public art and private

space, deals with existing structures to create three-dimensional complex public systems. Secondly, the

proposals are total: all scales, from the individual to the urban field, are addressed. Goodwin’s practice is tied

back through the “scales of tools” that he uses to deploy his theories. Exoskeleton, the first in the scale of tools,

is where Goodwin challenges the body with constructions using ready-made objects that trace the obscure point

at which the body ends and architecture begins. The second tool, Parasite, operates at the scale of installation

and the city. This is where architecture and public space is challenged with parasitic structures that cling onto

existing buildings like leeches onto the skin; hence, questions around the facade or “skin” of architecture are

raised. And the last tool, Porosity, is at the scale of the urban infrastructure. It is here where the boundaries

between public and private space are blurred and redefined.

It is this third attribute that deals with singular interventions (the parasite) as the potential answer for the urban

catastrophe that Goodwin speaks of that most illustrates the above-mentioned gap within visionary architecture.

From a user’s perspective, Porosity becomes a tease within the urban space; a meandering trail through

anything from moments of transition and connection to endless empty foyers, back streets, toilets or sewer pipes.

Goodwin’s text sets out to prove the Porosity hypothesis, where the city becomes the laboratory for the testing of

ideas and plays the possible role of catalyst. The Porosity project, conducted from 2003 to 2005, involved a

series of experiments where a “porosity researcher” enters three unknown private sites including Zone 1: 345–

363 George Street, Zone 2: World Square and Zone 3: Aurora Place, Governor Phillip and Macquarie towers,

attempting to remain unnoticed for as long as possible.

The mappings and findings through what Goodwin calls the “chiastic spaces” were recorded and a “porosity

index” was produced, which gave a figure for comparing the degree of the “publicness” of a building. With this

index and a tri-part series of models/diagrams a series of provocative rendered images was produced that

explores the potential of connection from inside out and vice versa. The problem with this conclusion is that the

representation, through red explosions as renders symbolic of the new linkages, takes a fictional form. From a

designer or critic’s perspective Goodwin may be considered to have put the reader at a distance that may only

enable us to interpret the image with critical eyes. In that sense the porosity index and its mappings represent

a provocation.

When questioned about these “red explosions” Goodwin states: “The explosions are simply unused spaces, at a

time that have gathered together, they are brothers and sisters of public space; they represent a patch which

might become something else.” Even though the porosity index is a clever and new way of analysing the

publicness of a building, there still seems to be a step missing from these images and from the index itself to the

stage of the parasite. When interviewed, Goodwin commented on this missing step and about how he tried to

narrow the gap between the physical and performative through quantifiable metrics so one can do a fairly

objective analysis. Evidently, there’s a gap between playing with that and the physicality of doing it, but in

actuality it may be impossible to ever close that up – there’s a healthy oscillation going on between the
mentioned virtual concepts and the physicality of the actual model within urbanism. It is vital, in this sense, that

an understanding of this oscillation is embedded into the design process where the gap stands today. Goodwin

provokes really good thinking about urbanism as a series of problems understood from first principles. Therefore,

within architectural criticism these principles or virtual realities play as transitions, and through the questioning of

one’s perception the actual, in time, will be revealed.