About

Pixe­land by 100architects brings toge­ther a number of diffe­rent outdoor faci­li­ties, inclu­ding play­ground spaces for kids as well as land­sca­ping and enter­tain­ment for adults and fami­lies. Installed in Mian­yang (5.45 million inha­bi­tants), China, the space features a series of multi-purpose ‘pixel’ spaces which create a unique multi-use public plaza. Mian­yang (5.45 million inha­bi­tants) is a key centre for the elec­tro­nics industry located in the northwest of Sichuan Province.

Pixe­land is a public space beau­ti­fi­ca­tion compri­sing a combi­na­tion of diffe­rent outdoor faci­li­ties in a single space, such as land­scape features, play­scape features for kids and leisure features for adults.

The project is inspired by the digital concept of pixels. While a pixel is the smal­lest inde­pen­dent sample of an image with its own RGB or CMYK color infor­ma­tion, it is the combi­na­tion of nume­rous pixels what results in any given digital image.

Pixels

Trans­fer­ring this idea to the spatial orga­niza­tion stra­tegy of the project, 100architects thought of crea­ting a multi­func­tional public space by the addi­tion and combi­na­tion of smaller inde­pen­dent func­tional pixels. While each of the pixels has its own func­tion and charac­te­ristics and could be read as an inde­pen­dent entity, the combi­na­tion of all of them results in a very eye-catching and playful general multi­func­tional public space.

The result is a 1500-square metre public city plaza in a resi­den­tial district of Mian­yang which aims at crea­ting a multi­pur­pose public space.

The main pixel used in the core of the project is a perfect square of 5 x 5 m, as the minimum space to host func­tions suitable for a group of people, while as we get closer to the borders, smaller pixels of 2,5 x 2,5 m and 1,25 x 1,25 m are intro­duced as a modular approach to solve the accesses, the pede­strian circu­la­tion and the land­scape in the border.

Equipment

Surrounded by small pixels of gree­nery as a border solu­tion to provide privacy and safety confi­ning the play­scape, the plaza is also equipped with lounge resting areas, picnic areas with seats & tables, seating box struc­tures to provide shadow, sunken communal benches, sloped lawns to lay down and small amphi­thea­ters for gathe­rings.

Besides the leisure features, Pixe­land also counts with a wide range of playful features scat­tered around, culmi­nated with a voxel­ated Horse-themed play­ground in the middle of the plaza, for the joy and enter­tain­ment of the younger visi­tors.

The checkered plaza has been deve­loped in a multi­level way, provi­ding an inte­res­ting arti­fi­cial topo­graphy growing in height towards the center, where the voxel­ated horse is stra­te­gi­cally placed on the top.

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