The Haikou Tourism and Culture Investment Holding Group has announced an all-star international roster of architects and artists—Sou Fujimoto, Thomas Heatherwick, Kengo Kuma, Bjarke Ingels, and Anish Kapoor among them—invited and commissioned to realize 16 large-scale seaside pavilions that will rise along two distinct coastal areas in the capital and largest city of Hainan, a Chinese province—the smallest and southernmost in the country—scattered across a chain of islands in the South China Sea. (Located across the Qiongzhou Strait from mainland China, the province’s largest and most populous island, home to Haikou, is also named Hainan).
Led by city government-appointed curator Weng Ling, founder of interdisciplinary creative platform Arts China Union, Haikou’s Pavilions by the Seaside project will see all 16 of the permanent, publicly accessible pavilions be completed by the end of this year. Seven of the structures will be erected along 12 miles of coastline in Haikou Bay while the rest will stretch across just under 8 miles of coastline in the city’s Jiangdong New Area.
In total, the pavilions, geared to “create a new vision of future coastal living” while bolstering international tourism per a press release, will span a total of nearly 108,000 square feet of coastal wetlands in Haikou, a historic port city that’s home to roughly 2 million people and is famed for its balmy tropical climes and beachfront resorts. “The development of these 16 pavilions will integrate diverse artistic content and programming and act as multifunctional spaces for public services to educate and support the local community,” reads the release.
The Haikou Bay-spanning pavilions are set to include works from:
- Architect Zhu Xiaodi in collaboration with artist Xue Song
- Bjarke Ingels
- Artist Kimsooja in collaboration with emerging architect Jaeho Chong
- Ma Yansong of MAD Architects
- Sou Fujimoto
- Artist Lin Tianmiao
- the design team AHA Union
Stretching west to east, the Jiangdong New Area pavilions will be created by:
- Anish Kapoor
- Patrik Schumacher of Zaha Hadid Architects in collaboration with artist Shen Wei
- Stefano Boeri
- Architect Liu Jiakun
- Winy Maas of MVRDV
- Thomas Heatherwick
- Kengo Kuma in collaboration with artist Sakamoto Ryūichi
- Architect Ong-ard Satrabhandhu in collaboration with artist Yang Fudong
- Artist Zhang Peili in collaboration with emerging architect Liu Shuo.
The pavilions by Sou Fujimoto and Ma Yansong, both along Haikou Bay, are expected to be the first completed of the bunch this spring. You can track the progress of the structures at the official Pavilions by the Seaside website and Instagram account and we’ll share images of select realized structures as they become available.
