IndiaAIFounders — paul clemence on how skyscraper crowns become landmarks of shanghai

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” – Italo Calvino / “Invisible Cities”

When we arrive at a new city, we instinctively try to locate ourselves and feed our inner GPS with points of reference. If there is a river or coastline, surrounding hills or mountain ridges, that makes it easy. In addition to these natural markers, the built environment can also function as a reference: an open square, an ancient religious structure, an arena, an extensive, long public throughfares, bridges, and buildings. Within this last category, naturally, towers (of all purposes and heights) stand out, given their piercing vertical presence in the landscape. While this is true of most cities, in Shanghai, with its massive scale and accelerated development speed, this need for some sort of guiding post takes on an even more important significance: How do we locate ourselves in a densely built, maze like metropolitan area of approximately 14k km2?

As sailors navigating on a dark night, we look up and into the distance for some sort of North Star that could lead the way and position us within the city’s complex urban fabric. We consider scanning the horizon for a high-rise skyscraper, that we could see from different vantage points, like a lighthouse, but in a city with about 200 such skyscrapers (492 feet high and up) a tall building structure over here, doesn’t necessarily distinguish itself from that other similar tall building structure over there. Height alone is not enough. But, fortunately, the designers of many of these soaring towers were as dedicated to how to top of their designs as they were about how to make the buildings the tallest they could be, carefully considering that element that often is the defining factor on making a building memorable (sometimes even iconic) or not: its crown.

Pudong skyline seen from the Bund, Shanghai waterfront | © Paul Clemence

THE CROWN AS COMPASS

Staying under one such crown at the 81st floor of the Park Hyatt Shanghai, nestled inside the Shanghai World Financial Center ( 2008,architets Kohn Pederson Fox), gave me quite literally a sky box view from which to observe and ponder this idea. First, there was the duality of being on the lookout for these crowns, while staying right under one such crown. And then, surveying the city from up there, being able to gaze at the cityscape at all hours of the day, was fascinating to watch the city from an early light glow at sunrise to a Blade Runner like dusk, scanning the horizon for which of these unique crowns would stand out against the sky, the scenery making for a very rich experience, at once insightful and meditative.

“The catalogue of forms is endless: until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born. When the forms exhaust their variety and come apart, the end of cities begins.” – Italo Calvino / “Invisible Cities”

Contemplating the sprawling city below, it was clear (even through the veil of some smog) that there was absolutely no shortage of crowns. Some cool, some cutting edge, sophisticated, some novelty, bordering on kitsch, – altogether, an eclectic mix making for a futuristic architectural tableau that spoke to the many influences, styles, tastes and eras that informed how that skyline (and could be said that country) has developed.

Eclectic crowns, with Ping An Financial Tower at center | © Paul Clemence

SYMBOLS ON THE SKYLINE

Two of the most emblematic such crowns were designed by John Portman & Associates, one of the first American architecture office to start working in China. Known for his ambitious towering glassy (and often glossy) projects, for these two projects the design direction veered towards a more elaborate geometry, symbolic direction. The Tomorrow Square tower (2003), which, curiously, hosts the world’s highest library on its 60th floor, features a pointed apex composed of four pyramid corners inclined towards the center inching towards the center but stopping just short of meeting. Clad in aluminum, the crown is a gleaming presence as it reflects the Sun light (even in a cloudy day).

Centrally located within the city, the Tomorrow Square metallic peak is an ideal geo locator. Portman’s other prominent contribution to the Shanghai skyline is the Bund Center (2002). Here, the architects drew inspiration from the Lotus flower, a respected symbol of purity and spiritual integrity in Chinese culture. So atop the cream terracotta and glass wall sheathed tower, a 58 meters wide, 582 tons Lotus petals garland was placed. Whether in the daytime or nighttime, when the petals are lit in a golden glow, it’s impossible to miss this imaginative crown, bringing a lyrical touch to the urban horizon. But perhaps, for me at least, it was the Jin Mao Tower crown, with its glistening stainless steel pinnacle spire piercing the sky, that spoke the most to my eyes and camera.

Lotus flower inspired Bund Center crown, architecture John Portman & Associates | © Paul Clemence

JIN MAO AND THE LANGUAGE OF HERITAGE

Completed in 1999, the Jin Mao kicked off the transformation of the Pudong area into a full-fledged high-rise district. It was China’s first entry into the supertall buildings arena, so it was important that the design both pointed towards an optimistic future while also celebrated the country’s heritage. Thus, when Adrian Smith team (then at Chicago’s Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), approached the project they looked for inspiration from the traditional Chinese pagoda typology and used assorted patterns stemming from the number 8, considered a symbol of prosperity in China, in both the design and the engineering system. The result was a towering tiered structure that asserted itself to its unique place in Shanghai’s history (at completion it was the tallest building in China), while respectfully gesturing to the city’s past.
It was absolutely awe inspiring to every morning stare at that spire atop the Jin Mao crown, glistening against the backdrop of the megalopolis cacophony behind it, that sword in the sky being as much a symbol of a certain time and direction in the city’s path as a place maker.

This contemplation taking place from high on the Shanghai World Financial Center also offered an insightful opportunity to consider two very different approaches to the so-called architectural crowning. While the Jin Mao went for a more literal regional reference, the former opted for a more abstract approach, creating a crown from the negative space left by a large inverted trapezoid opening above the building, that opening (originally meant to be circular) a reference to the traditional “moon gates” found in Chinese gardens. Though quite different, both designs share a sensitive use of symbolism, each on their specific style, to gesture towards the context, and in that process creating two of the most iconic crowns of Shanghai.

Tomorrow Square pyramidal crown, architecture John Portman & Associates | © Paul Clemence

FROM ORNAMENT TO IDENTITY

Slowly, once the views became more familiar, the feeling of architectural wanderlust began to blend with the notion of how much that variety of crown designs told us about the culture and the DNA of the city. After all an actual crown is not merely an embellishing ornament, but also an identity statement and a tool for commanding awe. Thus, that mix of styles, sometimes drawing on Chinese heritage, sometimes radical contemporary, other times pure technological exhibitionism as if catching up for the years of isolation, reflects perfectly well the Shanghai of today.

The word “landmark” is supposedly derived from the merging of two words from Old English, land and mearc, “to mean a physical boundary marker”, a way to delimitate a certain area. But as time went by “landmark” went from that simple, direct physical meaning to also become associated with historical moments of change and transition (“a landmark case”, “architectural landmark”). The Shanghai crowns can be considered landmarks in both these meanings of the word: they are both a geographical marker and each of them a marker of their respective era.

Of course, buildings (super tall or not) and their idiosyncratic crowns alone are not the only factor on “getting” a city. For that we need to walk it, move through it, feel the energy at a street level, have a meal, engage and interact with the locals, – live it. But undoubtedly, these idiosyncratic crowns, in the same vein as Italo Calvino’s selective mentions of architectural elements in his classic book Invisible Cities, have certainly much say on our experience of a city and can tell us a lot about its evolving genius loci.

Lan Sheng Building, left, and Golden Bell Mansion, right | © Paul Clemence

expansive view out into the city from Park Hyatt Shanghai with Jin Mao Tower in the foreground | © Paul Clemence

This guest essay is part of designboom’s MODES OF HABITATION chapter, exploring how the spaces we inhabit can reshape the ways we live together. Discover more stories rethinking domesticity, shared living, and the many forms a home can take here.

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