o debajo del mar… Tenemos claro que nuestro competidor directo son las pantallas y nuestra misión es hacer que los usuarios prefieran estar en los espacios públicos que nosotros diseñamos, nuestros proyectos le tienen que ganar a un iPad o tienes que poder usar tu iPad en ellos”, explica Marcial Jesús. Con esta misma lógica hoy se está construyendo uno de los playscapes más grandes de 100Architecths en China, Lotus Pond, un proyecto de renovación de la plaza principal de la ciudad de Wuxi. El encargo consistía en modernizar la plaza y convertirla en un hito urbano que simbolizara el crecimiento y desarrollo de la ciudad. La propuesta se inspiró en las pinturas tradicionales chinas de estanques de loto y utiliza patrones geométricos y líneas en el diseño del pavimento que parecen ondulaciones de agua. Dos grandes áreas verdes en forma de lirios se situaron frente a las calles principales para aislar el interior de la plaza de las calles ruidosas y crear un oasis tranquilo. El espacio central cuenta con un núcleo principal de actividades de 2.400 m 2 para grandes eventos públicos y un anfiteatro. “Este proyecto marca un salto de cero a cien en cuanto a impacto y tamaño. Usamos los conceptos de la flor de loto y del golden fish, que les encanta a los chinos, y diseñamos este proyecto como un mundo que tiene elementos como canopies, barcos de papel, piedras, flores de loto, submarinos, piedras, instrumentos, juegos para niños, lugares para descansar… Pudimos volcar todos lo aprendido con los años de experiencia en este lugar”. Hoy, la oficina, liderada por otros tres socios además de Marcial Jesús: Javier González de España, Matías Hernández de Chile y Jenny Fan de China, cuenta con veinte empleados y está desarrollando proyectos en San Francisco, Málaga, Barcelona, Australia y Arabia Saudita, llevando el concepto de la ciudad playground a una escala sin precedente. Además, próximamen- te abrirán oficina en Dubai para poder hacerle frente a todos el interés que hay en Medio Oriente hacia su arquitectura. !
designed to challenge users' physical and cognitive skills, and a yellow strip that winds around three circular squares providing a quiet space for adults. Following this project came a series of commissions to revitalize urban spaces such as The Nest in Chengdu (2020), Over The Rainbow in Changsha (2021), and Under The Sea in Chongqing (2022), to name a few. “Each of these works is a world unto itself. We can imagine the craziest things that make sense. The backbone of our concepts has to do with immersive experiences, pop designs, color, the world of fantasy, and surprise and that leads to the final image, an image that seeks to be part of the collective imagination, like playing over the rainbow, or under the sea... We are clear that our direct competitor is screens and our mission is to make users prefer to be in the public spaces we design, our projects have to beat an iPad - or you have to be able to use your iPad in them," comments Marcial Jesús. With this same logic, one of 100Architects' largest play- scapes in China is being built today, Lotus Pond, a renovation project for the Wuxi City Main Square. The assignment was to modernize the square and turn it into an urban landmark symbolizing the city's growth and development. The proposal was inspired by traditional Chinese paintings of lotus ponds and uses geometric patterns and lines in the pavement design that resemble water ripples. Two large green areas in the shape of lily pads were placed in front of the main streets to isolate the plaza's interior from the noisy streets and create a quiet oasis. The central space has a 2,400 m2 main activity nucleus for large public events and an amphitheater. “This project marks a leap from zero to one hundred in terms of impact and size. We used the concepts of the lotus flower and the golden fish, which the Chinese love, and designed this project as a world that has elements such as canopies, paper boats, rocks, lotus flowers, submarines, stones, instruments, children's games, places to rest... We were able to pour all the experience that we have learned over the years into this place”. Today the office, led by three other partners in addition to Marcial Jesús: Javier González from Spain, Matías Hernández from Chile, and Jenny Fan from China, has twenty employees and is developing projects in San Francisco, Málaga, Barcelona, Australia, and Saudi Arabia, taking the concept of the playground city to an unprecedented scale. In addition, they will soon open an office in Dubai in order to respond to all the interest in their architecture in the Middle East. “I don't know if I like our architecture because I do it well and it sells, or if it sells and I do it well because I like it. We really found a niche and a very distinct place in the market, a niche where there are no competitors. Suddenly, we fell in love with this idea,” concludes Marcial Jesús. !
R “We believe that we all deserve to play in the city, in different ways depending on our ages. We want to change the concept of the playground, where children play and parents wait in a confined space. We believe in the concept of playscape, where the city itself is transformed into a play space, and real urban toys appear on a metropolitan scale, where the boundaries between the traditional urban space and the play space are blurred and, above all, we all play together. And that is exactly what we like, we "sell happiness”.
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