3MIX

Here comes Grain Water season, which means the end of spring and beginning of summer. The news that 3MIX Architecture is selected by Jinmao Group to provide Architectural Design services for the Mall of Splendor mixed-use project in the New Seaside City of Fuzhou has marked a perfect ending of this unusual spring of 2020.

Collaboration between 3MIX and Jinmao started in 2018 with providing Retail Planning and Interior Design services for Nanjing Yuzui Runmao Center which includes the city's tallest building. 3MIX was subsequently selected by Jinmao for providing Retail Interior Design services for the Zhangjiagang Mall of Splendor and the relationship has been further consolidated by the appointment of 3MIX for the Fuzhou Mall of Splendor in February 2020.

The project is a key component of Jinmao’s overall Master Plan for the CBD of Fuzhou Seaside New City. (for details, please refer to China Jinmao public WeChat Journal: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AJI9WICI2w-XzgTcZkn2iQ ). It consists of a five level Retail and Entertainment center of over 100,000 sm and two high-rise office buildings. The 3MIX design team, in collaboration with Jinmao, will further develop the concept, including connectivity with the underground Transportation Hub, and seamlessly blending the exterior design of the development with the surrounding context of the Central Park. The mixed-use project will not only elevate the land value substantially but also define an exciting and vibrant world-class living, shopping, leisure, and business destination for the citizens of Fuzhou as well as a Landmark for the city’s Commercial Center.

...Sketch of the Day, Shanghai...

Never Let a Good Crisis go to Waste
(Repost from :
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/never-let-good-crisis-go-waste-ro-shroff/)


Societal Changes and their Economic Repercussions

Whether the above quote is attributable to Sir Winston Churchill or a version of it to Rahm Emanuel, the sentiment resonates even more during these weird times of Pandemics, social distancing, financial destruction, and death.
If history is of any measure, this too will pass, and everyone will go back to their bad habits (compulsive handwashing may linger a while longer) as the New Normal arrives. But can this once in a lifetime event fundamentally change our DNA and societal habits? Probably not much immediately, but there will be enough residual collateral that will have major repercussions on our social lives as well as the global economic structure. The important thing is that we all learn something from this crisis. It will be a shame if life goes back to its carefree pre-Pandemic indifference and this entire personal and economic devastation has little or no residual effect.

So, what can we learn, predict and anticipate from this debacle and as Thought Leaders of the Built Environment (Architects, Planners, Interior Designers, and Engineers), what can we do to evolve things for the better?
Here are some suggestions, reflections, futurist ramblings and prognostications related to Personal and Public Space with each topic followed by a subjective ranking from 1 to 10, 10 being the worst-case scenario or an absolute occurrence.

The Handshake may be a thing of the past

Sad! The firm handshake exuding warmth and confidence (Dude, you the man! indicative of raging machismo or Good to Reconnect indicative of Soft Power) may have seen its summit as well as nadir. There will no doubt be a reticence to engage in this societal nicety, as virus transmission fear will linger on for months, possibly years. So better get used to its absence. In the scheme of things, it's probably an insignificant loss, but it will be a shame if the substitute is a Wave of hands, a Namaste or the ridiculous Elbow Bump. Ah well! The price we pay for human connection and communication, but hey, we live in weird times.

Ranking: 7

Design and Economic Repercussions of Social Distancing

Will the 2m / 6’ apart “Social Distance” become a permanent norm or will it all evaporate once the Pandemic becomes a thing of the past? And if it continues and becomes the new normal, what repercussions will it have for Assembly type of venues (concerts, sports events, movie theaters, airplanes)? Will the airline industry have to rejig airplane seating and only sell every other seat (much like Business Class on any European Airline) and will movie theaters need to be redesigned to seat a maximum of 50 people instead of 100? The economic impact of this is going to be incalculable with the result that some venues like new Cineplexes and Sports Arenas will massively shrink in size as the majority of viewers resort to watching blockbusters and sports events in the comfort and safety of their own homes on their 60” QLEDs with personal Sensurround systems. “Go Big or Go Home” has a completely new meaning.

And another vestige of the previous era, the Shopping Mall, already going through an identity crisis, will redefine itself in new hybrid models infusing workplace and residential uses. Also, the fundamental DNA, size, and shape of such facilities will continue to evolve and morph into smaller venues and footprints. Fewer people go to these facilities today primarily to buy apparel or goods anyway, preferring e-commerce with next day delivery by Amazon or Alibaba. As it is, current and future designs are trending to go less on Fashion venues and more into the Experience-driven mode with mini arenas and climbing walls, basketball courts and fitness centers, showrooms and museums, urban farming and art workshops, expansive restaurants and the ubiquitous (although smaller) Cineplex. “Placemaking” initiatives, transit connectivity and inclusion of residential and hospitality components will continue to be absolute essentials.
The prognostication here is that, in time, all such facilities will eventually overlap, hybridize and blur into indecipherable nodes of activity and also shrink in size. It does not necessarily sound the death knell of the Urban Marketplace or Mall or Social Gathering Forums, just more targeted, compact, flexible and visceral urban environments, with a variety of uses but also with more surveillance and crowd control. All this also posits major conundrums for Developers and Designers if Social Distancing norms continue for a while. Economic repercussions of such change are potentially going to be enormous but also hard to predict. Assuredly smart minds will figure out ways of changing the dynamics and providing alternative avenues of profitability.

Ranking: 5

The Workplace will change radically

There will definitively be a paradigm shift in the planning and design of the office space as we know it. The Pandemic forced everyone from New York to Shanghai, and Mumbai to Sydney to work and communicate remotely, share virtual celebratory events and maintain the obligatory distancing. This extreme isolation may have a reversal of sorts in the short term where everyone is starved of social connectivity (as the human being is ultimately a social animal) and the pent-up demand may see a short resurgence of life as we knew it. But the longer-term proposition may portend other priorities. This could manifest by the contraction of required physical environments and smaller real-estate investments for many organizations as may be up to 30% of the workforce may work remotely, from home, the neighborhood Starbucks or Timbuktu at any given time. And within the typical space, endless lines of “benching” or Dilbert style workstations will become an artifact of the industrial age. Assigned space will constitute maybe only half the total amount of available desks, the remainder being “hot desks” in industry jargon. This phenomenon itself is not yet universally accepted as a panacea either and there have been several vocal detractors within the industry, citing issues of belonging, visual and acoustic privacy. Also, new models of the Co-working and Collaborative Workplace (the WeWork debacle notwithstanding) will become more economically viable to corporations that are reticent to invest major funds in the constantly evolving arenas of work habits and physical spaces.

The bottom line is that the traditional Office Space as we know it will change considerably, with new models of future office buildings morphing into smaller configurations with clusters of reduced sized floor plates connected by common vertical cores and interspersed by sky decks and gardens promoting a biophilic approach to design. The current universally accepted models of hermetically sealed 2,000 sm / 20,000 SF floor plates with central cores may become an antique notion while smarter climate-sensitive façade systems, better indoor air quality, sophisticated and ultra-fast connectivity aided by 5G and No-Touch and Disease Prevention strategies will become de rigueur in the design process.

Ranking: 6

Drones will rule

Six years ago, when Jeff Bezos touted Drone technologies for delivery on a 60 Minutes episode, it was regarded as an experiment in science-fiction. But with the exponential growth in the delivery business, during and post-pandemic, and the shortage of drivers and warehouse personnel, it is inevitable that drone technologies will fill in the void not only for deliveries but for logistics and automation, not to dismiss peripheral uses like aerial photography, fighting terrorism and wars. Much of it is already in existence today and the volume of such technology will get more visceral, universal and hopefully safer and cheaper.

Ranking: 7

Conclusions

A word of caution and maybe even comfort. All this is not going to happen overnight. Built Environment industry Futurists and Thought Leaders expect the change to be relatively gradual, yet inevitable. It takes almost five years from initiating an idea, validating it, designing it, evolving new technologies and the plodding construction process itself. The process will be measured, but the paradigm shift is an absolute given.
There is always the danger of over-reaction and mandatory edicts. Being social animals, the need to congregate, fly to exotic destinations for pleasure or business, and enjoy a movie or ball game together is not suddenly going to go away or vanish. There will be incremental changes over time and possibly well-deserved, albeit for different reasons. But it’s doubtful if there will be a sea change in attitude or business in the near future.
All of this will also have huge economic repercussions and the Real Estate sectors globally will have to do a lot of strategic soul-searching in terms of returns and competitive pricing, which may go up even as the amount of space consumed is less.
Prognostications, in a way, are easy to fabricate and have shock value (the new book After Shock, 50 years after Future Shock, is a must-read). No one saw the Coronavirus coming and it has been the proverbial Canary in the Coalmine, accelerating change and completely redefining aspects of life. Notwithstanding such Black Swans (metaphors that describe an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact, with the benefit of hindsight), life as we know it will go on as human beings are fundamentally resilient and malleable.
Change though is always Inevitable. The question, whether we embrace it and benefit by it remains to be seen.
Ranking: 10

（NOTE: The opinions expressed here are solely author's own)

...Sketch of the Day, Nanjing...