Sliced Porosity Block, Chengdu, China. Architect: Steven Holl Architects, 2013. Typical urban street scene and towers in distanc
New York firm Steven Holl Architects has completed the Sliced Porosity Block, a cluster of five towers around a public plaza in Chengdu, China. The buildings, designed by Steven Holl in 2007, were conceived as an alternative to the "towers and podium" approach commonly adopted for large mixed-use developments. Instead, the five towers were imagined as an integrated complex, with a central public space that wraps up over a shopping centre. Holl explained: "In our time of iconic object buildings, the Sliced Porosity Block offers an alternative - realising three million square feet of mixed uses with the public space coming first." Staircases lead up to the central plaza, which comprises three terraces with seating areas, trees and large pools of water. These pools also function as skylights for the shopping centre below. White concrete frameworks are expressed on the exterior of the towers and reveal diagonal braces that protect the structure during earthquakes. Each building is heated a
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