Dameisha Wish Tower, China
Over two decades ago, Rob, the owner of Loophole, was involved with a talented core team of architects creating projects throughout China. His involvement in the projects generally involved rapidly interpreting rough napkin sketches into detailed 3D models of buildings and masterplans to create a conceptual vision. These projects ranged from re-envisioning public seating to twelve city blocks in the Shanghai shipyard district, from a mile long pathway in one of the worlds largest ports to a monumental tower on the southern coast. He decided to use google-earth to virtually visit a few projects. Here is one of the projects visited today.
“The most fulfilling architecture project was sculpting the Dameisha Wish Tower. At that time, this 3D architecture process was exciting and relatively new territory for our team. It was a unique opportunity as a product designer to work on these large scale projects. I often took breaks during the day to walk the length of a space or masterplan to experience the shear size of the projects. Transitioning from designing consumer goods to planning mile long experiences was a real paradigm shift in my career. The tower renderings resulted in a client enthusiasm to draft the construction documents directly off elevations and sections exported from FormZ files to allow the team to match geometry between a 3D concept and a 2D construction documentation.”
The Dameisha Wish Tower is the focal point of a tropical beach community nestled in the mountains of southern China. The goal was to create a scenic tower and experiential destination to anchor the beachfront masterplan. Unlike typical architecture, where the optimal view is from the absolute top, the Dameisha Wish Tower took inspiration of traditional Chinese art that portrays figures striving towards the unreachable summit, or a metaphorical ideal. This journey provides visitors a similar experience as they ascend by stair to the glass jewel nested below the tower's peak. From the upper viewing platforms, visitors cast a wish for the new millennium prior to descending in an elevator that penetrates a reflecting pool to the interior commercial space below.
“It is astonishing how the photos available today through social media (Flickr,Google) reflect the renderings and vision crafted with the 3D software available over ten years ago. I wish to some day visit this amazing project in China. If you are reading this and have visited, please get in touch and share your experience.”
