Shanghai's Century Square Revitalized with Light and Landscape

- The project's lighting scheme is sensor-based for energy efficiency, with paving that becomes illuminated at night with glittering lights to evoke an undersea world. Audiovisual systems are also integrated to enhance the green open space at night and support various events. - Sustainability is a core principle, utilizing green roofs, climbing plants, and shaded areas to mitigate the urban heat island effect. The central kaleidoscope structure contains an air-filtering system that responds to climatic conditions and crowd density. - The design lead, Benedetta Tagliabue of EMBT, is a Pritzker Prize juror and has held visiting professorships at Harvard and Columbia University, known for a design philosophy that is context-sensitive and emphasizes material experimentation. Her firm operates offices in Barcelona, Shanghai, and Paris. - The central kaleidoscopic building is designed to host shows and features facades that reflect the surrounding lights, images, and greenery, much like a water's surface, fragmenting and recomposing the urban scenery. - The project won the international competition for the square's renewal in 2020 and was developed for the New World Group. The design aims to connect key city points, The Bund and People's Square, transforming the area into an "urban living room". - To enhance the ecological and human-centric aspects, the design introduces significant green topography with wooden terraces and grandstands for seating, using natural materials like wood for benches. - The lighting design aligns with human-centric principles by creating a dynamic, visually engaging environment intended to support well-being, a concept that often involves mimicking natural light patterns with adjustable color temperature and intensity. While not explicitly stated for this project, such an approach is a growing trend in urban spaces to enhance mood and comfort. - The use of sensor-based controls points to an integration with smart building technologies, likely utilizing protocols such as DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface) which allows for precise, individual luminaire control, energy monitoring, and integration with broader building management systems (BMS) and IoT platforms.