COLOURFUL PLAY MAT PIXELAND ACTIVITY ZONE IN MIANYANG
Location Mianyang, Sichuan Province, China Client/operator Dongyuan Dichan Landscape Architects 100architects CN-Shanghai www.100architects.com Design team members Marcial Jesús, Javier González, Stefanie Schramel, Lara Broglio, Mónica Páez, Keith Gong Author 100architects Photos Amey Kandalgaonkar Official opening January 2019 Construction costs 2 million Chinese yuan (EUR 250,000)
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Pixeland is a public space project comprising a combination of different outdoor facilities in a single space, such as landscape features, playground features for children and leisure features for adults. Shanghai-based architecture firm 110architects is brightening up the urban environment of the city located in the north of the Chinese Sichuan Province counting about five million inhabitants. The project brightens up a public plaza in the Chinese city of Mianyang, which is known for the electronics industry. The 1,500 m² public city plaza is inspired by the digital concept of the pixel. A pixel is the smallest independent part of an image with its own colour information, and it is the combination of numerous pixels that creates any digital image. Multifunctional public space Transferring this idea to the project’s spatial organisation strategy, the architects thought of creating a multifunctional public space through the addition and combination of smaller independent functional pixels. While each of the pixels has its own function and characteristics and can be read as an independent entity, the combination of all of them results in a very
eye-catching and playful general multifunctional public space. The main pixel used in the core of the project is a perfect square of 5 x 5 metres regarded as the minimum space to host functions suitable for a group of people. Closer to the borders, smaller pixels of 2.5 x 2.5 m and 1.25 x 1.25 m are introduced as a modular approach to deal with access, pedestrian circulation and the landscape at the perimeter. Composition of different functions Each pixel is a component with its own function. The functional pixels are therefore positioned in different combinations to generate a hyper-stimulating hardscape of leisure activities. sb 4/2019