The project we’re going to picture now is based on the principle of the “groundscraper”, developed, in part, by Le Corbusier, when he felled his skyscraper project at Chandigarh toppling it into the unstable abyss. Charles Jencks, in a slightly macabre way, called it “a skyscraper that has met a fate worse than death.”
The groundscraper idea is obvious in Constant’s New Babylon and Candilis and Wood’s 1964 1964 Berlin Free University project, before being reworked by Steven Holl. His name is also known for the “horizontal skyscraper” completed in Shenzhen during last year.
The Intercontinental Shimao Shanghai Wonderland goes literally down into the earth, within an abandoned quarry at the foot of Tianmashan Mountain, around 45 km to the southwest of the city center. The challenge of building the 380-room luxury hotel, a significant part of the 428,000 sq meter theme park, was planned and designed by a British engineering brand named Atkins.
Out of its total of 19 stories, the building goes 16 stories deep, towards the floor of the quarry, as a graft on the side of the 100-meter deep pit. An underwater restaurant, a 10-meter-deep aquarium and an athletic complex designed for water sports are planned to reserve the two deepest stories.
Reportedly similar to a waterfall, a 60-meter tall curtain made of glass descends adjacently to the rockface. Extreme sports enthusiasts will feel at home here, because the surrounding cliffs are designed for rock-climbing and bungee jumping.
As the construction of this impressive park has begun, we found out that its costs have been estimated to a mind whopping $555 million, although they are expected to grow as the building process progresses. The hotel rooms will reportedly cost around $320 per night.
[Architizer]
