TRANSTITCHLINK

Shanghai, China

PROGRAM

Public Transit Hub, Ferry Station, Shopping Center, and Movie Theater

KEY PERSONNEL

Digo Lima
Lyndon Manuel
Geoff Allen

Shanghai is a vastly dynamic, burgeoning, and vibrant international city. Mentioning its name brings to mind cacophonous ambiance, masses of crowds ambling down the streets, and intricate road networks criss-crossing the urban landscape. This sensory experience ranges from the heightened stimulation of Nanjing Road to the serene and meditative Yu Gardens. TranStitchLink takes into account this dynamic sensory exposure and experience one finds in the city of Shanghai and hyperbolizes it in a stimulating underground network.

The proposal is to develop an infrastructural network connecting the Shanghai Railway Station with a ferry landing, three primary metro lines, the largest taxi stand in the city, and a dense collection of bus stops with a newly proposed ferry transit system along Suzhou Creek, uniting all these key but disparate parts into a navigable transportation hub. Over the years, the site has developed as a series of barriers, including dense auto zones with few pedestrian crossings and overpasses blocking direct access from the station to the water's edge. In order to bypass these barriers and embrace the dynamic experience of Shanghai, we chose to go underground where one's relation to the relative grade is completely removed and the environment is boldly artificial.

The infrastructure is designed to produce and embrace several sensory experiences found in the Shanghainese landscape. The "Hyper-Stimulation" space includes the stimulating experiences found on Nanjing Road, while the "Reset" space transitions the underground experience to the outside world, re-establishing one's sense of reality before being reintroduced into a new environment. The "(De)Amplification" space comfortably transitions the user from the "Reset" space to "Hyper-Stimulation". In both an increasing and decreasing direction depending on ones route of travel; while the "Repose" experience provides a space for rest, removal, and solitude amongst the sensorial cacophony of "Hyper-Stimulation".