Until China realised that they have their own talent, many developers were intent on having western firms design concepts for their projects, for both the prestige and so that they could be seen as being at the forefront. These concepts would then taken over by a local firm to be detailed and built. Sitting in London, it was an exciting prospect for us in the design seat. Unlike projects in England, it appeared that China had fewer restrictions and allowed much more creativity. This felt like we were back in architecture school!
What we didn’t really have oversight of, was how these designs would develop in reality, whether they would get built, the construction quality and the final outcome (some of the nightmares of Chinese construction can’t help but come to mind!). But putting that aside, it meant we could work with some of the top London engineers to conceptualise the limits of structural design to realise forms that might only be laughed at elsewhere.
The site for this masterplan spanned a kilometre along the main business district of Haikou in Hainan, China. Above a multi-level mall podium for which I was given the task of providing a layout, I was also asked to design the layout for a roof garden that covered the entire length. It would provide a green garden link between the many mixed-use towers that popped up along the length of the development. It reminded me of my love for landscape, and the integral connection of interior and exterior, so critical in our experience of architecture.
As the concept developed, so too did the rendering model that was concurrently being worked on by a rendering company in China. It was impressive to see, an idea, so quickly manifest into something that you could imagine walking through, and yet still with an element of the surreal, to entice the viewer towards it. I cannot tell you what happened to this concept as the local partnering architecture firm then took it under their wing. Perhaps some of it exists now, perhaps not.