The groundbreaking ceremony has been held to mark the start of construction on what will be for now at least, the world's second tallest skyscraper, Shanghai Tower which will be located not surprisingly in Shanghai, China.
Standing at an impressive 632 metres, the tower is the work of American based architects Gensler and together with the famous towers, Jin Mao and the Shanghai World Finance Centre, will complete a supertall skyscrapers that will define the emerging skyline for Shanghai.
The design although codenamed Dragon is actually inspired by Chinese philosophy and the connection betweens heaven, sky and earth and in reality has nothing to do with their famous national symbol.
The tower is a spiraling glazed affair made up internally of nine cylindrical shaped buildings stacked one on top of the other wrapped in a curving inner glaze whilst a second triangular shaped skin forms its outer facade.
Each of these triangular outer floor-plates are arranged to rotate from the one before. With the external façade wrapped around them this creates a spiral affect. The circular inner glass skin will use 14% less glass than what would be used with rectangular floorplates of the same dimensions.
The shape of the tower will not only look distinctive against the backdrop of the city with its smooth organic form, but will help reduce wind loads on the building by being more aerodynamically styled.
With a 24% reduction this is the sort of value engineering that has little overall effect on the quality of materials but saves enormously on the quantity perhaps hinting that the future of towers is organic.
Spaces between the two skins have been used to create nine public atria and along with sky gardens the designers have literally wrapped the building in space for the public, making the tower a beacon for visitors.
These atria, which are used in the same way as other schemes use plazas and sculpted garden areas to provide public space also have the added bonus of creating thermal buffer zones and improve air quality within the tower.
Adding to the openness projected by the design, both skins will be transparent allowing the inner workings of the tower to be observed by those outside. At night the exterior facade treatment is such that the lights illuminating the innards of the building will make it appear to glow.
One thing that is sure to make it a tourist destination is its pinnacle that features the world's highest unenclosed observation deck. There's also the advantage to this of allowing rainwater collection for the building and this will also allow the unencumbered deployment of wind turbines.
Greeting visitors to the tower will be a five storey, curved podium with multiple entrances which is intended to further the connection between the tower and the city. This will house all the fun stuff such as cafes, fine dining restaurants and top brand retail outlets as well as specialty retail spaces.
This will also be the gateway to three levels of parking and connections to the Shanghai Metro giving the tower excellent transport links.
The rest of the tower will be home to premier grade A office space, banqueting and conferencing space along with a luxury hotel.
Work on the tower is expected to be complete in 2014
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Mon Nov 08, 2010 5:01 am
