From the street, the urban façade encloses the parking. Since the parking is outdoor and naturally ventilated, the façade is perforated to let it “breathe.” By perforating the traditional aluminum plates in six different sizes, the façade creates a rasterized image of Mount Everest. What appears at close to be a pattern of transparency and opacity becomes a crystal clear image at a distance. Façade as artwork.
The units are experiments in communal living. While each resident has their own bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, they share amenities like a courtyard, kayak landing, bathing platform, barbecue area, and roof terrace. Decks and staircases connect the apartments. Inside, the units are well appointed with modern finishes and ample daylighting; floor-to-ceiling windows let the students take in panoramic views.
The simple manipulation of the archetypical space-defining garden wall creates a presence in the Park that changes as you move around it and through it. The north-south elevation of the Pavilion is a perfect rectangle. The east-west elevation is an undulating sculptural silhouette. Towards the east-west, the Pavilion is completely opaque and material. Towards the north-south, it is entirely transparent and practically immaterial. As a result, presence becomes absence, orthogonal becomes curvilinear, structure becomes gesture and box becomes blob.
Like a Danish city, the Danish pavilion was best experienced on foot and by bike. The exhibition could be experienced in two speeds, as a calm stroll with time to absorb the surroundings and as a dynamic bicycle trip, where the city and city life rush past. This way, the pavilion’s theme Welfairytales (Welfare + Fairytales) re‐launched the bicycle in Shanghai as a symbol of lifestyle and sustainable urban development.
Students, professors, staff, and visitors will be able to access the new center from two main entrances at the ground floor and the first floor located at different elevations due to the north-south slope of the campus. Students entering through the south side will be met by a cafe and the open auditorium’s grand staircase that leads up towards the atrium. The full-height atrium with open spaces invite collaborative activity embodying both the architectural and educational approach of the center.