The Chinese city of Shenzhen is often used as an example to illustrate the rapid transformation many Chinese cities have undergone in the past few decades. At one time a small fishing community of about 30,000 people, Shenzhen has become a massive city with a population exceeding 12 million. As the population began to rise, so too did the buildings. At the end of 2016, Shenzhen had eight buildings over 1,000 feet tall already constructed or topped out and dozens more over 500 feet tall.
While it may not be quite as rapid anymore, Shenzhen’s transformation is still taking place, and now, courtesy of Chicago-based architecture firm Goettsch Partners, the Chinese city will be getting two more skyscrapers in the form of the COFCO Qianhai Asia Pacific Headquarters complex.
Goettsch Partners recently won the design competition that was held for the complex with its two-tower design comprising 1.4-million sf of space in the Qianhai district. One tower will stand 200 meters and has been dubbed the COFCO Asia Pacific Tower. It will serve as the headquarters for the company’s Asia Pacific group. The second tower, named the Aviva-COFCO Financial Tower, is slightly shorter at 180 meters, and will provide space for the Aviva-COFCO Life Insurance Company.
Each tower is composed of several slender bars that step back to reveal a series of internal atria and a sky terrace in the upper zones. Both of the towers’ glass curtain walls are designed specifically for the buildings in order to accentuate their verticality, according to the architect. The curtain walls also provide solar shading and natural ventilation via operable windows hidden behind perforated metal panels.
The complex is designed to link the green belt to the east with nearby office towers, using both interior and exterior paths to allow the public to easily pass through the site.
Each towers’ upper zone is reserved for use as COFCO headquarters. Each floor in this zone is connected by a large internal atrium from the main lobby up to the 300-sm sky terrace that offers outdoor amenity space at the top of each tower.
Construction on the complex is scheduled to being this summer.
Rendering courtesy of Goettsch Partners.
Rendering courtesy of Goettsch Partners.
Rendering courtesy of Goettsch Partners.
Related Stories
High-rise Construction | Mar 23, 2017
This speculative skyscraper would be suspended from an orbiting asteroid
Clouds Architecture, a New York-based architecture firm, has created a design to invert a skyscraper’s traditional earth-based foundation and replace it with a space-based supporting foundation from which the tower is suspended.
High-rise Construction | Mar 22, 2017
Porsche Design Tower is, unsurprisingly, a car lover’s dream
The idea behind the residential tower was to provide residents with a full single family home in the sky, complete with a private garage and pool.
High-rise Construction | Mar 20, 2017
The world’s longest skyscraper
As supertall skyscrapers continue to pop up around NYC, an architecture firm based in New York and Athens asks, ‘What if we substituted height with length?’
High-rise Construction | Mar 3, 2017
Detroit's tallest tower to rise at site of former J.L Hudson's Department Store
SHoP Architects and Hamilton Anderson Associates will design the 52-story building.
Mixed-Use | Mar 1, 2017
New hotel and residential tower coming to San Francisco’s Transbay neighborhood
The ground-up development will feature 255 hotel rooms and 69 residential units.
Mixed-Use | Feb 27, 2017
Tallest tower in Miami to begin construction in January 2019
The tower will reach a height of 1,049 feet, the maximum height permitted by the FAA in Miami.
High-rise Construction | Feb 17, 2017
What makes a supertall tower super?
As new technologies fuel the race to build higher, three primal drivers simultaneously enable progress and keep it in check.
High-rise Construction | Feb 17, 2017
Zaha Hadid Architects-designed building to have the world’s tallest atrium
A 190-meter atrium will rise the full height of the building between two twisting sections.
High-rise Construction | Feb 8, 2017
Shanghai Tower nabs three world records for its elevators
The second tallest building in the world is officially home to the world’s fastest elevator, the tallest elevator in a building, and the fastest double-deck elevator.
Office Buildings | Feb 8, 2017
London office building employs transitional forms to mediate between the varied heights of surrounding buildings
Friars Bridge Court will provide a transition between the unvarying height of the buildings to the south and the more varied heights of the northern buildings.
