We flipped the grid into the vertical, so it became a section. By overlapping, squeezing and stretching the grid according to the programmatic needs of residences, retail and offices, we created three very different spatial organisations for the mixed use-tower. Retail got sqeezed, commerce overlapped with a smaller grid and residences got overlapped plus stretched. As the connected grid appeared very complex, but worth being legible, we designed a slick, straight facade so that you can read the distribution in it. The final prototype consists of two parallel slabs with a slightly different distribution. Retail forms a heavy compact base, then there are two slabs of offices, then residences, which grow around the corners using crossed elements, and higher up again all three programs are mixed together. The retail area high up in the tower would have more a recreation character and open its façade to the marvellous view. The strength of our project is its clear concept – one simple geometry led to compressed complexity.
