This project is located in Shanghai, on East Nanjing road’s Century Square, the most famous and glamorous pedestrian street in the “heart” of the city center. The essence of this street is its commercial status, which was historically developed as a link between East and West, connecting directly the port with the city, therefore used as the principal trading platform, becoming a cultural and social active axis.

100architects presents his interesting proposal for Plaza Century: The Red Carpet. The project serves as a unified platform for socialization, where the common dream of a luxurious life becomes true; transforming common experiences into particular desired ones. The Red Carpet can modify social dynamics, transforming traditional spaces into particular valuable ones.
 

Description of project by 100architects

These features and its consequences on space have remained till now, being today the commercial street in Shanghai per excellence, constantly receiving thousands of pedestrians, locals and tourists, enjoying the existing multicultural mixture and its commercial stores.

Currently, the Century Square is a flat car-free open area that also contains a small performance stage rarely used during most of the year. It is the only area with this condition in the whole east Nanjing road but it lacks of an attractor, a landmark for its urban scape.

The project offers a different relationship with the public performative activities, engaging with the original function, but also related with a circulation corridor and exposing its seats as a massive inclined plaza towards Nanjing road.

This produces a very intense segment in the pedestrian Nanjing road. The object’s shape contains the space adding new properties.This actiontransforms this segment of East Nanjing ina highly stimulating space, engaging the proprioception of the passersby.

The Red Carpet is a space platform that incorporates the dream of fame and recognition into the existing social dynamics in East Nanjing road. It is an open amphitheater, where the show is massified, inviting passersby to enjoy vibrant shows in a surreal atmosphere of design, jewelry and glamour. The red landscape offers strong identity and therefore remarkable experiences.

This atmosphere is achieved through the aesthetics of the project, which resembles a red carpet of giant proportions, folding from the store fronts of the building at the north, top to bottom generating a cavity in the same commercial axis. The covered space on the south, under the seats structure, has two different uses. A more exposed area in direct contact with the passersby, works as an open marketusing the structure itself as sunshade protection. While the inner area under the structure is used as a small bar, with public toilets and others amenities.

The structure is made of metal trusses that generate the support for the precast concrete blocks that builds the horizontal seating. While the remaining elements are built on red wood and red metal panels.

In the front part, the vertical metal structure is covering the buildings with perforated metal panels allowing plenty of light and air flows from the exterior, which enables to gain this massive surface for public amusements, projections and background for performances.

In the first 2 levels there are openings providing accessibility to the existing retail; even increasing its market value.

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100architects is an online-based architecture studio that operates by means of hyper-connectivity, constantly broadcasting public ideas for developing cities.

100architects was founded in January of 2013 in Shanghai, China by the architect Marcial Jesus (Chile) who soon invited Madalena Sales (Portugal) and Pablo Juica (Chile) to participate as the main co-founders.

The main offices are located in Shanghai (China) and Santiago (Chile), however we experience high mobility; 100architects is not permanently attached to a specific ground.

The practice develops Exposed Architecture: Highly proprioceptive, designed for public interaction; a typology of architecture to be openly used from the exterior by the masses. Exposed Architecture aims to offer experiences and to encourage the production of social dynamics.

The studio pursues innovation by 3 main core functions: Design-100architects is a design studio; Broadcasting- 100architects is constantly broadcasting public ideas and remarkable works worth spreading through its channels and Endorsing-100architects is a research-focused practice.

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Published on: February 17, 2015
Cite: "Red Carpet by 100architects" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/red-carpet-100architects> ISSN 1139-6415
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