Postmodernism revisited, a Play with three Actsby Eva Herrmann | 24.05.2011

SBF TOWER

Act One - Shenzhen

Shenzhen is THE new boomtown. Even for Chinese standards with its daily scheduled city explosions, the city’s rapid growth still makes people shake their heads in disbelief. Not even 30,000 inhabitants in 1979, Shenzhen today is what 12 million people call their home town. A typical planned city in direct neighborhood to Hong Kong with the status of a special economic area – a paradise for investors from abroad. This is also mirrored by the sudden growth of buildings towards the skies and the gathering of famous names. Apart from Steven Holl, OMA, Coop Himmelb[l]au, BIG and Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, another name has appeared on the list: Hans Hollein.

Act Two – The Architect

Hans Hollein, born in 1934, is one of the last generalists, moving effortlessly on the fine line between art, design and architecture. Already in the early 60s, his designs were called utopias, displayed in wild photomontages, something you would call live-happenings today. Furthermore, Hans Hollein is the pioneer of Postmodernism. That’s what he remained throughout the years, whereas his “fantasy, lust for ironic quotes and fearlessness regarding color has even increased over the years rather than decreased“, says the renowned “ Lexikon der Architektur des 20. Jahrhunderts” (encyclopedia of 20th century architecture).

Act Three – SBF Tower

The building – emerged from a competition in 2009 – is part of a new business quarter, the master plan of which by Steven Holl has four towers. With its 43 floors and a height of 200 meters, the SBF Tower is a direct neighbor of Rem Koolhaas’ Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which is still being built. But not only the contrast to the new OMA building, who are not known for dull ideas either, is what people are amazed by. The basic module is a simple one – on 45 x45 meters, the tower’s layout keeps repeating itself. But then two zones take turns in a package-wise manner: the box-floors with six identical office floors with a stringent glass façade each, stacked above each other. And in contrast to this, the sky garden floors, with vertical gardens growing on trellises spread across five floors featuring flexible layouts with deep offsets and wild projections.

Epilogue

The vertical garden idea is not a new one. Norman Foster has left his mark with whole generations of students with his vertical gardens inside the Commerzbank building in Frankfurt. And just recently, the “The Met“ building by WOHA Architects in Bangkok has won the International Highrise Award 2010 for its green highrise concept. So, what’s so innovative and sustainable about this concept?
The solution surprises – the drawing for this highrise was already made when Hollein was in Chicago. Which means he was still a student back then, with the opportunity of realizing his idea half a century later. Another form of sustainability – recycling old ideas from the drawer instead of staring at an empty piece of paper. Learning from Hollein.