Leeza Soho by Zaha Hadid Architects

The Leeza Soho tower in Beijing, China, made the world record to become the only building that contains the tallest atrium twisting through its centre.

The 45-storey skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid, the late founder of Zaha Hadid Architects before her death in 2016, is located in the Fengtai business district.

Commissioned by Soho China, the same developer of Galaxy Soho and Wangjing Soho, the Leeza Soho skyscraper contains a mix of shops and offices surrounding the mind-boggling atrium.

Beijing's multi-modal urban plan is aimed at accommodating growth without impacting its existing infrastructure networks in the centre of the city. The new Fengtai business district plays an integral role to complement the city’s greater vision, explained Patrik Schumacher who took over Zaha Hadid Architects firm.

The completed Leeza Soho has 45 floors above ground, and four floors under ground.

It is positioned on a site adjacent to the precinct’s main railway station, and straddles an underground subway service tunnel.

Its position over this tunnel led Zaha Hadid Architects to divide the building in two halves, which resulted in the formation of a giant atrium at its centre.

This atrium runs the full height of the building, which at 194.15 metres makes it the world's tallest atrium, overtaking the previous record held by the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.

As it rises, the Leeza Soho's void twists by 45 degrees to appear as though the two sides of the tower are moving together in a beautiful dancing motion.

The dynamic shape of the atrium creates convex openings on either side of the tower, which allow natural light into the interiors and provide views out over towards the city from each floor.

The lowest level of the atrium has been designed to act as a public square for the business district, and is directly linked to the interchange beside the site.

The two parts of the Leeza Soho are linked internally by elevated walkways that project across the void from four different levels, while externally they are fused together by a curtain glass facade.

This glass facade is double insulated, and is made up of a number of glass panels that are angled to aid ventilation. The intention is to help maintain a comfortable indoor climate in Beijing's variable weather conditions.

In a bid to enhance the building's environmental performance, the tower is fitted with heat recovery from exhaust air and high-efficiency pumps, water-collection facilities, grey water flushing and an insulating green roof with photovoltaic panels.

There are also 2,680 bicycles parking spaces with lockers and shower facilities, alongside charging spaces for electric or hybrid cars to encourage users to travel sustainability.

Conrad Hotel Beijing

Architects: MAD Location: Beijing, China Structural Engineers: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) Mechanical Engineers: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) Façade/cladding consultants: King General Engineering, SuP Ingenieure GmbH Interior Designers: Lim.Teo + Wilkes Design Works Pte Ltd Landscape Designer: Earthasia Design Group Site Area: 7,779 sqm Constructed Area: 56,994 sqm Building height: 106 meters Images: MAD

The CBD of Beijing was built according to the west standard set up around the industrial revolution of the early 20th century, when high-rise building was the symbol of the capitalism. But far from the ambition of more than one hundred year ago, when people tried to challenge themselves with modern technology and future dreams, the contemporary CBD buildings are the concrete machines, copy of the copy in mass production. They are meaningless, crowded and soulless.

Situated among those buildings, Conrad hotel is the outcome of the slow-design. The façade element, which looks like the nervous tissue, is planted into a simple cubic. It is the toxin that destroys and transforms the surface into an organic envelop. The whole building is turned into a melting box, a starting point for the urban grid to change from the solid efficiency into the liquid idea. The standard product of the production line is therefore replaced by the digital craft of difference.

During the architecture evolution, people of different historical time tried to create organic buildings by their hand-made crafts. Their works are the representation of the worship of nature, the courage to break the heaviness of building and the passion of life. It is the spirit of sublime that became the culture icon of the era and the city. Conrad hotel is the design that appreciates the slowness in the fast urban development in China. The product of architecture is like the growing process of urban dwellers in the city, it is the evolution of energy and identity. The new urban efficiency is the difference precisely controlled and produced by the high-tech modern industry, and it creates the new possibility for people living in the city to discover their own new experience.

Source: ArchDaily

This type of buildings are made possible by the advance in computer graphics whereby the architects can now let their imagination go wild with the help of 3D modelling tools. Graphics below is not possible during the time when draftspersons relied on their skillful hand in detailing architectural drawings.

Top 20 Tallest Buildings In The World

 As of August 2020, the ranking of world's tallest buildings are as follow:

1. Burj Khalifa
2. Shanghai Tower
3. Makkah Royal Clock Tower
4. Ping An Finance Center
5. Lotte World Tower
6. One World Trade Center
7. Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre
8. Tianjin CTF Finance Centre
9. CITIC Tower
10. TAIPEI 101
11. Shanghai World Financial Center
12. International Commerce Centre
13. Lakhta Center
14. Vincom Landmark 81
15. Changsha IFS Tower T1
16. Petronas Twin Towers
17. Suzhou IFS
18. Zifeng Tower
19. The Exchange 106
20. Willis Tower

75% of the tallest buildings are located in Asia.

1) Burj Khalifa

2) Shanghai Tower

3) Makkah Royal Clock Tower

4) Ping An Finance Center

5) Lotte World Tower

6) One World Trade Center

7) Guangzhou CTF Finance Center

8) Tianjin CTF Finance Centre

9) CITIC Tower

10) TAIPEI 101

11) Shanghai World Financial Center

12) International Commerce Centre

13) Lakhta Center

14)  Vincom Landmark 81

15) Changsha IFS Tower T1

16) Petronas Twin Towers

17) Suzhou IFS

18) Zifeng Tower

19) The Exchange 106

20) Willis Tower

Source: ArchDaily

Solving Beijing's Smog Problems

The Chinese capital of Beijing is notorious for it air pollution problems. Fortunately technology has caught up and what it seems to be the potential solution if implemented on a big scale.

The idea is actually quite simple, build a giant vacuum cleaner!

Building Beijing's Tallest Skyscraper

China Zun Tower

China Zun Tower will be the flagship building of Beijing’s comprehensively planned 30-hectare central business district core.
The tower’s gently rising and curving form resembles an ancient Chinese ceremonial vessel, called the “zun.” The design concept is that of a transforming shell that gradually bends to create a dramatic form. This concept is also applied to other key elements of the tower, including the entrances, ground-floor lobby, and observation deck. At the base, the tower thrusts into the ground with massive corner supports, while the exterior shell is gently lifted up and stretched forward at the four sides. The design physically extends the lobby outward, forming dynamic drop-off spaces. At the top, the exterior envelope becomes more transparent at the observation deck and allows more visibility to the inner trumpet-shaped business center, which lights up at night, forming a beacon that will be visible throughout the city.
Compared to a typically straight or tapering supertall tower form, the concave tower profile offers more valuable prime-floor spaces and ample space for window washing, as well as other support systems, at the top of the tower. While the large top poses significant structural challenges, the larger base provides an opportunity for structural balance, formal contrast, and preferred core-to-perimeter distances.
In a city with the highest seismic fortification requirement of the major cities in China, the structural system was particularly sensitive to adjustments in the complex form of the building. Architects and engineers utilized parametric modeling to greatly expedite the design and coordination process to ensure that the design achieved both an iconic form and a solid structural system.

Source: The Skyscraper Center

No More Weird Buildings In China Please

The President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, has reportedly called for an end to the "weird buildings" being built in China, and particularly in the nation's capital, Beijing. In a two hour speech at a literary symposium in Beijing last week, Mr Xi expressed his views that art should serve the people and be morally inspiring, identifying architectural projects such as OMA's CCTV Headquarters as the kind of building that should no longer be constructed in Beijing.

With China's construction boom being one of the most talked about features of today's architecture scene - and many a Western practice relying on their extravagant projects to prop up their studios - the Chinese leader's comments have the potential to affect the landscape of architectural practice worldwide. But what is behind these sentiments?

The impressive CCTV building by OMA has been nicknamed 'Big Pants' by Beijing's residents. This shows exactly how the Chinese do not appreciate the innovative design of this building which is conceptualized to revolutionize the typology of skyscraper worldwide.

Perhaps the most simple reading of Mr Xi's pronouncement on architecture is that it is an extension of his mission to crack down on corruption and extravagance within the Chinese Government, having removed 51 officials from government as of August. Though high-profile and popular with the international press, CCTV Headquarters has been criticized for being a number of years late to complete (it was originally intended to be open for the 2008 Olympics), and has been nicknamed "Big Pants," by locals thanks to its unusual shape. 

In particular his statement that art should "inspire minds, warm hearts, cultivate taste and clean up undesirable work styles" seems to link art with moral purity, and it is this kind of attention-grabbing extravagance that Mr Xi perhaps wants to avoid, particularly in state-owned buildings such as CCTV.

Zaha Hadid's Galaxy Soho also come under fire for its impact on Beijing.

Another interpretation, offered by Wolfgang Georg Arlt in Forbes Magazine, links Xi Jinping's comments to architectural tourism, saying: "Chinese outbound tourists used to be impressed by futuristic buildings they encountered in places like Dubai and recently also London, but with more and more of such projects realised in Beijing... the pull factor of contemporary architecture for them is diminishing."

Arlt also notes that the number of foreign tourists visiting Beijing has steadily declined in recent years, but while he concludes that "maybe this argument will help to sustain future projects by world-class architects," it could also have the opposite effect: perhaps Mr Xi realizes that the draw of "weird architecture" is not strong enough to sustain China's tourism industry, and therefore not worth the financial and reputation risks it poses.

However, maybe the strongest interpretation is that Mr Xi's comments on art reflect his tendency towards Chinese nationalism (part of what some people last year rather hastily referred to as Xi Jinping's 'Maoist turn'). The New York Times quotes one section of his speech where he says that Chinese art should "disseminate contemporary Chinese values, embody traditional Chinese culture and reflect Chinese people's aesthetic pursuit." It is not such a stretch to equate his criticisms of "weird buildings" with either Western architects or even simply a Western style of design, and his speech has reportedly been met by support on Chinese social media with people saying that "China is not foreigners' test field."

Wang Shu's architecture has been praised for his intelligent combination of Chinese and Modernist elements in his buildings.

Previously it had been thought that Chinese culture was simply not strong enough to support its building boom without the help of foreign architects: in early 2012, Mr Xi's predecessor Hu Jintao wrote that "the international culture of the West is strong while we are weak." However, mere months later, the Pritzker Prize was awarded to Wang Shu, the first time it had been awarded to an architect both born and working in China. Furthermore, Wang Shu has been noted for his Critical-Regionalist approach, combining Western modernism with traditional Chinese influences.

Wang Shu is currently being joined by a new generation of Chinese architects such as Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, whose Shanshui City concept is explicitly inspired by traditional Chinese painting. With this renewed interest in traditional inspirations for Chinese architecture, perhaps Mr Xi sees now as the time to take action on Hu Jintao's call to "take forceful measures to be on guard and respond" to the "ideological struggle" between Chinese and Western culture.

MAD Architects' Shanshui City inspired by Chinese landscape paintings.

Source: Archdaily

China's 3 Megacities

BEIJING

SHANGHAI

HONG KONG

CWTC Beijing by SOM

Name: China World Trade Center (CWTC)

Architect: Skidmore Owing and Merrill LLP

Location: Beijing, China

Height: 280 meters

Unique Features:

• The bamboo shoot or pagoda like form is driven by practical factors. The exterior curtain wall is deliberately slanted at 3 degrees off vertical in order that the facade of this immense building could be self cleaned in the dusty Beijing's environment. It also helps to reduce glare to occupants within the tower and the reflection of light away from the interior contribute to 8% of energy load reduction.