The butterfly effect...

As part of a 20 sq km masterplan, this community, entertainment and municipal building is one of six primary focus buildings intended to engender a sense of place to six sub sectors of the overall master plan. CK Designworks envisage the building as a piece of architectural sculpture, derived from the narrative of the indigenous rain flower pebbles, which were said to have fallen from the clouds as flowers and solidified as jewelled pebbles when they touched the earth, in some stories the rain flower are likened to butterflies, The sculptural form of this building seeks to encompass the moment of transmogrification where the ephemeral element solidifies into an object.




The building will provide retail, entertainment, municipal, theatre, cinema, lecture and function spaces for the immediate community in the Lao Shan District but also service the wider community. It stands some 60 m at its tip and would be visible at the base of the mountain at some distance. The form provides generous wings cantilevering over the surrounds to welcome and draw in the community, The raked walls of the theatre and civic floors are lined with an intricate mosaic suggestive of water ripples and underscoring the moment of flux, touching the earth lightly despite the weight of the building above.




On the inside a series of light shafts bring sunlight into the spaces, where circulation clings to the outer edges of the floor plates and six towers provide an egress as legs balancing the form. The internal voids and atria would provide a wonderful sense of light and shade, a rich and versatile play of spaces.