Installation view of City in a City: A Decade of Urban Thinking by Steven Holl Architects. Photography by Joshua White, 2014.
This exhibition of the work of Steven Holl Architects presented six urban projects in China, designed with particular focus on shaping public space, natural green strategies, hybrid programs, structure and light. Included were three built works: Linked Hybrid in Beijing, Vanke Center/Horizontal Skyscraper in Shenzhen, and Sliced Porosity Block in Chengdu, as well as three then yet to be built works: Porosity Plan in Dongguan, Eco-City in Tianjin, and the Qingdao Culture and Art Center. Concept watercolors of each building were on view along with project models and construction documents. Also featured were short videos of the built works. The exhibition was arranged chronologically from 2002-2013 through the rooms of the Schindler House, making physical Holl’s journey through a decade of thinking.
Holl’s office has taken on work of increasing complexity in China. His designs embrace pressing issues dealing with infrastructure, urban density and overpopulation. The projects featured in this exhibition offered a study of contrasting and nested scales that acknowledge the city-dweller’s ever-morphing perception of urban life – from micro to macro and back again.
Artists
steven holl architects
Steven Holl Architects has realized architectural works nationally and overseas, with extensive experience in the arts (including museum, gallery and exhibition design), campus and educational facilities, residential work and master planning. Steven Holl Architects is a 40-person architecture and urban design office founded in 1976, and working globally as one office from two locations; New York City and Beijing. Steven Holl leads the office with partners Chris McVoy and Noah Yaffe.
