Basic HTML Version
12
E.
THE SCALED GRID AND THE CLUSTER
Linked Hybrid,
Beijing, 2003-09
The general strategy for this project is the ‘sewing’ of a group of buildings
by connecting bridges. This way of designing big structures shows the
strong influence that architects like the Smithsons and the rest of the
Team X had on Steven Holl while thinking these cities within cities. The
Linked Hybrid shares the idea of the elevated street of the Robin Hood
Gardens and it also works with different volumes tight up together by
bridges like in the Trellick Tower.
Steven Holl uses the idea of Parallax -the change of position of the differ-
ent planes reframing new spatial fields- in this project. He also claims that
in the modern city it is the void between the grid and not the buildings
themselves which hold the spatial inspiration.
3
In a crowded city as Beijing,
these concepts are present in the project, which makes the visitor feel the
surrounding space and be part of it. The images that he takes from the
central space change depending on each view.
In this proposal the main tension is between the grid of the skin that cov-
ers each vertical box and the bridges which are more sculptural and ca-
pricious. It is in the intersection of these two elements that the variations
appear and Holl puts his artisan skills.
The hybrid building with diverse programs replaces the old format of one-
building-one-program for the periphery. Holl searches for the program-
matic richness and ‘fertilizes’ the place by gathering and juxtaposing a
wide variety of activities which is crucial for the good quality of urban life.
The scheme for this project is not vertical nor is it horizontal but a combi-
nation of both, following a conceptual morphological -and cultural- merging
between Beijing before and after its great expansion, triggered by Chinese
economic development.
3 Steven Holl in “Edge of a City”, El Croquis 78+93+103”, 2003.