an article by Damiano Fossati about the design of Sparch architecture office

1. Could you describe Sparchasia and how you see the
company’s future?
We have different studios in London, two offices in
China – in Beijing and Shanghai – the Singapore office
and then we have people in the Middle East and Kuala
Lumpur, each one dealing with the regional work load.
In Shanghai we work on projects in the central area
of China, while the Beijing studio works on the north
and the west area with different levels of expertise. In
Singapore, we have an array of different projects, from
commercial space to a very large residential project in
Malaysia. Right now we are working on an extremely
large shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur called Vision City
that is rather interesting because instead of internal
climate air-conditioning technology we propose a kind
of open air one, linking interior and exterior.
How does the Chinese market differ from the
European and US markets?
Compared to Europe or the US, there are far more
opportunities in Asia at the moment but the main point
of our growth is that we got 10 and more years of
working experience in the Asian Market and unlike
a lot of the growing number of competitors that are
arriving in the belief that this is the great ‘golden goose’
of the moment, we gained a deeper insight into what
is happening and we have been able to establish a
stable business.
With all the directors coming from different
countries, I would like to know how you approach
a project. How do you interact with each other?
I will reply with a simple answer since the directors
have been working together for a quite long time. As
far back as 14 to 15 years. We understand the nature
of what we do and what each other does and we try
to bring all the ideas together.
Every couple of weeks we all sit together and discuss
the projects we are working on. A lesson I learned
long time ago after I had graduated and worked with
Richard Rogers and Partners. Every Friday morning in
that office each project was hung on the wall. We all
discussed together… and that is still what we do now
in Sparchasia every month.
Talking of your projects, you mentioned the Vision
City development and spoke about connections
between interior and exterior.
We made a project to modify the original develop-
ment (dated 10 years ago) from a massive concrete
block into a new retail icon in Kuala Lumpur centre.
The idea was to break through the existing building
to generate a carved-out volume engaging directly
with its immediate surroundings, physically as well
as visually.
We change the spatial sequence lifting the central
garden two levels above the ground, generating an
SparchAsia in Singapore
LOFT’s Damiano Fossati talked to Stephen Pimbley, the Singapore
director of SparchAsia – Stephen Pimbley Architecture – to gain an
insight into what is happening on the other side of the world.
132
in
teri
ors

2. elevated green plane and a series of landscaped terraces
which cascade toward the street to mark the arrival at
the foot of the mall.
From the technical point of view, opening up the
space within the original concrete block and moderating
the climate of this new plaza effectively reduces the
air-conditioning load by at least 30 percent. This creates
a hybrid space, a voluminous garden which is naturally
ventilated but sheltered by the central sculptures that
tessellate vertically from the raised ground to branch
out into a soaring printed filigree canopy.
A different approach has been used for the Starlight
Gallery, which is perhaps Kuala Lumpur’s most iconic
shopping mall. A faceted envelope in crystal and stone,
that embraces the all-sculptural construction and con-
tinues through the interior, providing dramatic visual
connections all around the new building celebrating
the strong relationship with the city.
Is there a project that is really close to the ‘heart’
of your company?
A recent project we are really passionate about is
Fai-Fah Prachautis Learning Centre. Almost every year
we do a charitable project such as the Community
133
in
teri
ors

3. Flower for the earthquake in Sichuan (China 2008).
This year we were invited by the banking organization
TMB to run a community centre in Bangkok.
The banking organization proposed the refurbishing
of two shop buildings located in a residential district
of Bangkok and converting them into an art facility
with workshops and creative programmes for under-
privileged children. It’s a brand new facility and has
been distributed over five floors with several different
functions linked by a central-feature staircase with each
level defined by its own colour scheme.
Architectural design is always trying to give a new
response to the question of the market …do you
have examples coming from your experience…?
The project of the ‘chandelier’ in the Shanghai Cruise
Terminal building is an example. It’s an arch that we
made with a suspended truss. We didn’t want to take
any structural load in that part of the site near the
Huangpu River and we thought about adding suspended
facilities so we didn’t have any. That is the very first
suspended cable construction of its type in the world
and we decided to hang the pods directly on the arch.
The Clarke Quay scheme is a different example:
was a 3-stage project. The first stage was to redevelop
the waterfront with dining facilities and bars, and we
extended the platform to eat with triangulation on the
waterfront; the second stage was the refurbishment
that led on to the third phase when we installed the
canopy. The whole process took four years to complete.
How do you deal with the different environments
you are working in?
We do very different types of projects on different
scales and with different character and function. We aim
to make people live better and feel a little bit happier.
We prepare space that people will enjoy living in. n
134
in
teri
ors