Designed in 2016, the Shanghai Cofco Cultural and Health Center aims at being a social condenser, fostering community among the residents of the surrounding new housing blocks with a public space and park along an existing canal. While the adjacent housing blocks are repetitive, here the architecture is of spatial energy and openness, inviting the whole community in for recreational and cultural programs.
Shaping a central public space, the Health Center and Cultural Center are exoskeletal concrete construction. Subtractive cuts in the concrete structure carry on the space shaping architectural language.
“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.”
- Steven Holl
The landscape and two new public buildings are merged by the concept of “clocks and clouds.” The landscape is organized in large, clocklike circles forming a central public space, and the buildings are cloudlike in their porosity and openness. The Cultural Center hovers over a transparent glass base that exposes a café and game and recreation rooms. A curved ramp, climbing gently up to the second floor, creates a continuous experience of overlooking.
The Health Center is also shaped by the curves of the landscape. Both buildings have green sedum roofs, which merges them further with the landscape when seen from the surrounding apartment buildings.
The Cultural Center, built out of light grey concrete, hovers over a transparent glass base which exposes the café, game and recreation rooms. A curved ramp, climbing gently up to the second floor creates a continuous overlooking experience.
The Health Center, also made of light grey concrete, is shaped by the curves of the central landscape space, developing a strong relationship between its “cloud-like” parts and the whole of the landscape. Both buildings have green sedum roofs merging further with the landscape when seen from above and in the surrounding
apartment buildings.
The complex’s main sustainability measures include increased greenery and open space, use of 30% recycled materials, centralized heating and cooling systems, CO2 monitoring, thermal storage and grey / rain water retention and recycling, among others.
Program
Health Center: health education area, pharmacy, consultation rooms, exam rooms, physical therapy room, ultrasound and x-ray rooms, nursery, admin and doctor’s
lounges
Cultural Center:exhibition area, table game area, café, library, gym, community & youth activity areas
Cultural center area: 6,030 m2
Health center area: 1,490 m2
Site area: 7,520 m2
Sustainability
Shanghai Silver Green Certification. Maximized open space with enhanced landscape (water features and use of local planting species), thermal storage, gray water and recycled water systems, use of at least 30% recycled material
content in construction (by weight), centralized heating and cooling, CO2 monitoring, reduced overall carbon footprint during construction phase.
Structure
- Cast-in-place load bearing concrete facades
- Prefabricated steel interior structure encased in cast-in-place concrete
