UNStudio is the Netherland architect firm and got the project of Shanghai city Lane 189 design project. Lane 189 project located in the Putuo district in central Shanghai -Lane189 is the combines retail, restaurant and office spaces in an organization that rearranges the typical mall into a vertical city center and provides opportunities for shopping, strolling, eating, gathering and relaxing.

UNStudio is an architect and the design incorporates elements of ‘old Shanghai’ through geometry, pattern, and materialization and combines these with a contemporary urban experience, thereby creating a destination with a distinctly Shanghai feel. The existing qualities of the immediate urban surroundings, which include small-scale restaurants and boutique stores, are reflected in the building where they are stacked vertically to populate the envelope with programmatic destinations that can be seen from street level.

Inside the Shanghai Lane 189 center elements of street life are mixed with lifestyle retail features and are distributed throughout the building. The organisation of the building encourages the visitor to stroll through and explore the different levels of the complex, where retail spaces follow an open layout and are punctuated with small kiosks.  The facade is designed to support the overall design concept of a programmed facade and to create depth for the building envelope. The use of multi-layered components enables a variety of views towards the surroundings, whilst simultaneously providing functional transparency in specifically located areas.

Based on a hexagonal grid, the facade design components follow the articulated geometry of the building and provide constantly changing perspectives. A gradient transition from bigger to smaller facade components regulates the exposure of the inside to the outside and enhances the main entrance of the building. The facade, therefore, becomes an integrated active layer that can be programmed as display windows, vista points or balconies.

Large double-height facade openings present the interior program to the outside world. These ‘urban eyes’ simultaneously create large display platforms for products whilst providing balconies with views of the surroundings. The interior of Lane 189 derives its character from a central void which cuts through the volume from base to top and is punctuated by a series of rounded plateaus. When seen from below the rounded plateaus resemble a cohesive layered organic structure, however, when looking down from above the programs of the plateaus are revealed.  Lower facade, a hexagonal grid consists of diamond-shaped panels that are tied between pins forming a tensioned cladding system. Here the arrangement of the components can change across the facade from single layer to triple layer, up to a depth of 400mm. Constructed from different materials and lit by RGB LEDs these panels create different visual effects: transparent or opaque, colorful or monochrome, reflective or Matt.

These smaller pockets, positioned in a rotational manner, create intimate plazas and are visually connected to the urban eyes of the facade. Ben van Berkel: “The concept for Lane 189 was based on a direct response to urban Shanghai today and the wonderful fragmentation of impressions that you experience there. We wanted to imbed this in the building by creating an urban interior with the feel of a vertical public square. But in order to continue these ideas throughout, it was also essential to connect the interior with the outside and conceptually reflect these impressions in the design of the facade.” The central void further organizes vertical circulation and orientation, creates a view across the different levels and facilitates a clear view column from the second basement level up to the skylight art installation.

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