Dongjiang Star Vanke Shouzhu Plaza is located in Wanjiang, Dongguan District at the intersection of the three main roads, Hongyuan Road, Harbor Avenue and Hongfu West Road. It is the centre of Wanjiang. The government hopes there’ll be a landmark sculpture to indicate its orientation. Therefore, when this project is being conceived, it is required to respond to the local history culture and the expressions of place names. Dongguan Vanke Group as the contractor of the project does hope the expressive form could be as contemporary as possible.

▼night view of the installation 

▼concept sketches

Based on the two requirements and the research of the history data of Wanjiang region, the abstracted map and the most important “river” in Wanjiang District were used as the theme elements to respond to the site, and the preliminary concept of “Rising Tide” was formed.

▼night view of the installation 

▼top view of the installation at night

▼exploded axon

Finally, the art installation is 17.5 meters long, 8 meters wide and 9 meters high. The surface of the base is made of corrugated stainless steel. The upper part of the device was composed of more than 100,000 rods to shape the abstract outline of the map of Wanjiang. There are 1600 round stainless steel air moving slices with a diameter of 210 mm supported by stainless steel rods with a diameter of 8 mm. When the wind sways, the light and shadow reflected by the air moving slices form a flowing blue light sea. The sound also gives the effect of wind chimes.

In the design of the logo word “Wanjiang”, we break the conventional presentation. We scatter the texts and use the deconstruction concept to place them in different frame layers. In the front elevation, it is the complete word “Wanjiang”. As the view point shifts, the visual effect presents a more abstract pixel-like change.

▼top view of the installation, the topic of “Wanjiang” is expressed from the top

▼the logo word “Wanjiang” created by the deconstruction

▼the rods and the round stainless steel air moving slices

▼the surface of the base is made of corrugated stainless steel

The installation was officially completed in November 2019. It was focused on the experiential perception of space, evoking the relationship of local humanistic elements and using the sculpture as a method to communicate emotionally between the regional topic and humanities. A new attempt was made in the formal language of landmark art installations.

▼bird-eye’s view of the installation at night