I visited the observation deck of the Shanghai World Financial centre while I was in Shanghai for the World Expo. I was not so impressed by the view from the 100th floor, I have already seen many similar views in my life. I was much more interested by their lift. They built around the lift a kind of theme park queuing experience between the 2001 Space Odyssey and the Omni Company from Robocop.
I did recently a study on verticality called ‘Welcome to Hong Kong’ that explores the imaginary of the lift in 3 vertical configurations: the lift as a ‘teletransporter’, as a ‘carriage’ and a ‘cable car’. The queuing experience and the lift itself at the SWFC are fascinating because they use extensively the lift as a symbol. According to my classification, it was treated both:
- As a high-tech ‘teletransporter’ that transports you into the future, a feeling induced by these visual 3D effects using stroboscopes for example.
- As a ‘cable car’ as I call it, that emphasizes the vertical movement and altitude. In this case, the number of meters above the ground was indicated in the lift. They also used a psychedelic visual effect simulating a kind of sci-fi tube in which the lift was moving up.
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