Olympia | 100architects

Design team: Marcial Jesus, Javier Gonzalez, Anshuman Roy
Production: Hong Yang Advertising
Client: Life Hub @ Daning, (Chongbang Group)
Location: Daning Road, Jin’An District, Shanghai, China
Built area: 350 m2
Completion: June  2018
Photographer: Amey Kandalgaonkar 

Olympia is a playscape inspired in sports due to the celebration of the FIFA World Cup during the same period. Designed to attract customers and enhance the World Cup experience, Olympia was strategically located at the intersection of 2 newly renovated pedestrian streets in the commercial district called Life Hub @ Daning.

Life Hub @ Daning, a 250,000 sqm mixed use development, is one of the hottest commercial areas in Shanghai, due to its condition of open-air retail street.

The intersection had been recently turned into pedestrian road and therefore a public space project was commissioned to 100 Architects in order to promote it and re-activate the area after the renovation works.

Scheduled to be open to public in July 2018, it was coinciding with the FIFA World Cup celebrated in Russia at the same time, which was reason enough to inspire the installation in sports. Not only football though, the installation was actually composed of 2 sports: Football & Tennis.

The two surreal pitches would collide creating a world of colors and playful shapes, slopes, tunnels and bubbles at the service of children’s entertainment. Both areas were surrounded by a running track, to enhance the multisport narrative and to add fun features to the playscape.

A red object plaza was added right adjacent to the playscape, designed as a lounge platform for adults to rest and take a break while watching their kids having fun. A huge umbrella would protect them from the summer sun heat.

The INNOVATIVE playscape by itself turned the new pedestrian streets into an attractive and busy “SPACE”, where their customers could bring their kids and families, spending some quality time interacting with other kids and families, as well as reactivating the pedestrian circulation at that spot.

During the summer period, the newly renovated pedestrian intersection became one of the hotspots of Life Hub @ Daning’s open-air retail street, gathering kids and adults alike.