One of the UK’s premier design firms has been appointed to regenerate a historic industrial site in Nanjing, adjacent to the iconic Yangtze River Bridge, in a move that has some wondering whether an item of clothing may feature prominently therein.
Originally built in 1915, the new development is a former cold-storage warehouse now destined to be a unique commercial destination, read “mall”, by Benoy, whose website touts themselves as a “global family of design specialists committed to delivering world-class solutions for the built environment”. As reported by East Midlands Business Link, the project shall “evoke the memory of the area’s industrial heritage through a new mixed-use, retail and cultural experience for the community”.
Construction of the “experience”, named Nanjing MCC World, after its real estate developer, is due to commence this year.
So far, so good. Yet, this is where it is worth looking into exactly what else Benoy has recently been up to, and almost on our very doorstep, at that.
For November of last year saw the city of Suzhou, famed for its classical Chinese gardens, complete its visit to, not a topiary centre, but a tailor.
It was back in 2016 when the Gate of the Orient, by the shores of the city’s historic Jinji Lake, opened for business. It was imagined, by some, to be China’s answer to the Arc De Triomphe. Such an idea was scuttled when, almost overnight, locals had given it the name “The Pants”. And for obvious reasons.
The name was wildfire. Even UK tabloid the Daily Mail, never short for an imaginative headline, chimed in with “Architectural triumphs or just plain pants?”
Fast forward to the present, and adjacent to The Pants, at its base, is now what could be termed, from one angle at least, “The Shoes”.
Yet, these are not any old shoes. These are nothing less than court jester shoes.
To be more factually correct, the Suzhou Centre Mall that is a Benoy masterpiece and now the largest mall in the city has a gently undulating roof that is also the world’s largest free-form monocoque roof, at over 36,000 square metres. It is this undulation, along with The Pants as a backdrop, that give rise to its association with medieval clothing.
Whether Benoy is up to the job in Nanjing is not the issue. The firm boasts in impressive portfolio of developments the world over; Changi Airport Terminal 4 in Singapore and The New Bund World Trade Centre in Shanghai being but two world-famous examples.
Nevertheless, the computer generated designs for the new mixed-use facility in Nanjing are arguably bland and not suggestive of any item of clothing. It could be surmised that this the beginning of a trend, whereby architecture firms tone down their designs for China in order to avoid the public giving their carefully thought out plans embarrassing names.
On the other hand, the more likely explanation is to be found in the mall’s exact location, lying directly adjacent to the main south piers of the Yangtze River Bridge that is due to reopen, after ongoing renovation, later this year in time for the bridge’s 50th anniversary.
It is hardly likely that the authorities would find it fitting that the direct neighbour to a structure with such an important place in China’s history be called “The Socks”.
