Steven Holl Architects has completed a cultural and health centre in Shanghai, comprising a pair of concrete buildings punctured by irregular openings that are set within a landscaped park.
The firm headed by architect Steven Holl designed the Cofco Cultural and Health Center in 2016 for a site next to the Punan Canal in Shanghai's Fengxian District.
The Cofco Cultural and Health Center buildings are set within a landscaped park in Shanghai
The area is dominated by rows of uniform apartments blocks, so Holl designed the project as a "social condenser" that helps to bring the community together by providing a new public space.
"While the housing blocks are repetitive and extensive, here the architecture is of spatial energy and openness," the studio said, "inviting the whole community in for recreational and cultural programmes while health needs are provided by the integral health building." Steven Holl intended for the centres to bring the local community together
Holl explained that the project's use of green space and its attempts at maximising fresh air and natural light embody how his firm has adapted its approach in response to health concerns raised during the Covid-19 pandemic.
"To work on architecture for culture and health is a social commitment, much needed in our current moment, as we continue to feel the global impacts of the pandemic," the architect pointed out.
Irregular openings puncture the Health and Culture Centers
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