The Energy of Shanghai Skyline

 

Singapore Office Tower That Looks Like A Crystal

The design intent of 18 Robinson is to create a signature, boutique, sustainable retail and office tower. It is a product inspired by the urban, environmental and cultural context of contemporary Singapore.

Located at the intersection of Market Street and Robinson Road, the form of this building is the result of the odd shaped site. There are two primary volumes ~ a crystalline office tower that appears to be floating in the air and a retail podium below it. 

Singapore’s Landscape Replacement Area policy dictated that the building must offer publicly accessible green space that is equivalent to the site area. The solution to this authority’s requirement is to create a landscaped podium and rooftop Sky Garden featuring planted trees and natural ventilation. These areas also provide stunning views across the city.

The podium is elevated above the street, enhancing the spaciousness and continuity from the ground level entrance into the atrium garden. The angled composition of the tower allows more natural light into the building’s interior and mitigates direct views into adjacent towers.

这座高楼的设计理念是创建一个具有标志性，精品店和环保的办公大楼。设计灵感来自于当代新加坡城市，环境和文化背景。

位于新加坡两条主要大道的交汇处，这座建筑由两个主要部分组成 - 一个似乎漂浮在空中的水晶办公楼和下面的底层建筑。

新加坡政府的政策规定，该建筑物必须提供与场地面积相等的绿色空间。满足此要求的解决方案是创建一个天空花园，其中种植树木促进自然通风。民众还可以在这里观望新加坡市的美丽风景。

New Tower At Greater Bay Area

Stands at the estuary of the Pearl River, the iconic 339-metres Hengqin International Financial Centre tower has added to the skyline of the region overlooking Macau across the other side of the water. It is designed by the award winning architectural firm Aedas. Statement from the architect states that: “The spirally rising volume invokes the Chinese myth of flood dragons emerging from the sea – a perfect metaphor for the strength and power of the region.” What a bold and strong statement for a building!

Located in Zhuhai’s Hengqin Island, a future financial district connecting Hong Kong, Macao, and other major cities in the Greater Bay Area. The city, surrounded by the sea and mountainous terrain and positioned at the heart of this world-class city cluster, is set to become the catalyst of growth highlighted in China’s latest national development strategies.

“The site possesses powerful momentum for future developments. So we imagined this unique building to express the quality of speed, growth, and vitality. It resembles prosperity of the new district and rise of the country,” explains Dr. Andy Wen, Aedas Global Design Principal. The development comprises mixed programs including Grade-A office, conference and exhibition amenities, commercial apartments, and retail space. Conventional and retail spaces are placed in the podium to allow for easy public access. Offices are located at the middle section of the tower while the apartments are placed at the top, enjoying the stunning views of the area.

The design team has to impose high requirements on the tower’s wind load to withstand the strong winds during typhoon seasons due to the subtropical climate of Zhuhai. The building’s orientation is meticulously adjusted to reduce wind drag and improve pedestrians’ experience. The fluid elevations are clad in glass and metal panels, sweeping down to form a huge curtain wall system swept aside and end in horizontally creased envelope surrounding a high exhibition space with a canopy over the entrance. A smooth transition between the tower and the low rise podium is achieved by twisting the vertical elements of the building into the podium roof.

Source: ArchDaily

坐落在珠江口，这座339米高横琴国际金融中心成了该地区的新标志，风水好的地段还可以俯瞰对面的澳门。它由屡获殊荣的建筑公司Aedas所设计。建筑师的声明指出：“螺旋式上升的体积唤起了从海中涌出的洪水龙的中国神话，这是对该地区实力和力量的完美诠释。” 

位于珠海的横琴岛，这是一个未来的金融区，连接香港，澳门和大湾区的其他主要城市。这座被海洋和山脉环绕的城市，将成为中国最新国家发展战略中强调的成长區纽。

该项目包括高级办公楼，会议和展览设施，商业公寓和零售空间。办公室位于塔楼的中部，而公寓则位于塔顶，可让住户欣赏到该地区的壮丽景色。 

Upcoming Futuristic Skyscrapers In Shenzhen

The design competition to build Tower C at the Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base, in China has been won by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA). Their multi-dimensional vertical city design consists of two naturally-lit towers that establish connections to the Shenzhen's urban intersections – namely the north-south green axis and the east-west urban alley.

The idea is to connect the proposed buildings with the adjacent parks and plazas, fusing them together into a terraced landscape which extends upwards between the two towers. Public are able to walk right into the heart of the building where cultural and leisure facilities are placed. Sweeping bridges link the towers together. These bridges are also designed as vantage points that provide panoramic views of the city.

Thanks to the advance 3D modeling tools developed by ZHA, the architects have better control over the architectural massing, buildings orientations, and façade-to-floor ratios. The final design stands at nearly 400m, wrapped with double-insulated curtain glazed walls. The buildings incorporate natural and hybrid ventilation with environmental control available on each floor.

In line with the district’s smart management systems and the city’s ambition to increase energy efficiencies and public well-being, external and interior conditions of the buildings will be constantly monitored, energy consumption will be adjusted via a smart building system. Other green design features of the buildings include water-collection and recycling, as well as photovoltaics. In addition, the aquaponics gardens situated on the terraces will biologically filter the surrounding atmosphere to reduce pollution.

Once completed, the proposed building will be an important economic contributor to the Chinese city of Shenzhen, serving Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. The project, which will act as a global technological hub that includes clusters of corporate headquarters, is planned to accommodate 300,000 employees every day. In addition to the business facilities, Tower C will also has multiple venues to host international conferences, exhibitions, and cultural programs, as well as residential developments.

著名建筑公司Zaha Hadid Architects（ZHA）最近赢得了在中国深圳湾超级总部基地C座高楼的设计竞赛。

它们的设计方案是将建筑物与邻近的公园和广场连接起来。公众可以直接踏入该建筑物的中心，那里也设有文化和休闲设施。几道桥梁将这两座摩天高塔连接起来。这些桥梁也被设计为可以观赏到深圳市的全美丽景色。

最终的设计高约400m，这些建筑物结合了自然通风和混合通风，并在每层楼进行了高科技环境控制系统。

根据该地区的智能管理策划以及深圳市为了提高能源效率和公共福利的雄心，将不断监控建筑物的外部和内部状况，并通过智能建筑系统来调整需要的能耗。建筑物的其他绿色设计特征包括收集雨水和回收利用，以及光伏发电。此外，位于露台上的花园将对周围的空气过滤，以减少污染。

建成后，这座非凡的建筑将成为中国深圳的重要经济區杻，服务广东，香港和澳门。该项目将每天容纳30万名员工。除了商务设施外，C座还将有多个场地，适合举办国际会议，展览，文化节目以及住宅用途。

Asia Is Now The Skyscraper Epicentre Of The World

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has announced that 2016 saw the completion of a record 128 buildings 200 meters or higher. This is stated in its annual report, the 2016 Tall Building Year in Review. Eighteen of these buildings became the tallest either in their respective cities, countries or regions. Ten of the 128 buildings are 300 meters and above high, earning them the title of supertall buildings.

84% or 107 of these buildings are located in Asia. China topped this list with a record of 84 completions, including the tallest building among those completed in 2015, namely the Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre. The 530-meter mixed-use skyscraper, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, now stands the second-tallest building in China and the fifth-tallest building in the world.

Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre

Shenzhen saw the most new 200-meter-plus buildings of any city in 2016 with 11 completions for a total height of 2,608 meters. 

Ningbo Bank of China

Source: ArchDaily

CTBUH 在2016年宣布一共有128座200米或更高的建筑完成。这都记录在其年度报告《 2016年 高层建筑年度回顾》里。 这些建筑中有18座成为了在各自城市，国家或地区中最高的。此外，还有另外10座是超过300米高，因此获得了超高层建筑的称号 。

其中84％或107座建筑物都位于亚洲。中国以84项完工记录创下榜首，其中包括2015年竣工的最高建筑广州周大福金融中心。这座由Kohn Pedersen Fox设计的530米高综合用途摩天大楼现在是中国第二高的建筑，也是世界第五高的建筑。 

Building Beijing's Tallest Skyscraper

Pearl of the North

In an article for the Wall Street Journal, Dinny McMahon and Yang Jie visit Shenyang - a "chilly industrial town" in north eastern China which was once the country's capital (circa 1600). The city will soon be home to what's being dubbed the 'Pearl of the North', "a 111-floor office tower that will, briefly, be the seventh-largest in the world, dwarfing One World Trade Center." The tower, designed by Atkins, is "symptomatic of China’s edifice complex," McMahon notes - and the city is "just getting started."

Super-futuristic Hong Kong Skyscraper

Towering edifices that incorporate agriculture — farmscrapers, if you will — make for solid gold in the eye-popping conceptual design imagery department. Wild and wonderful in concept, these plant-studded structures present a somewhat sobering glimpse into a land-starved future where there’s nowhere for commercial food production to go but up. 

When it comes to multitasking, an aggressively idiosyncratic conceptual skyscraper from Mexico City-based Studio Cachoua Torres Camilletti (CTC) blows other visionary vertical farming proposals out of the water and then some. The World Architecture Festival-shortlisted proposal, simply titled “Hong Kong Skyscraper,” incorporates housing, commerce, cultural programming, public transit, rainwater harvesting, renewable energy production, and fish farming into a giant, plant-clad package that looms precariously above the Hong Kong skyline. 

Front and center, however, is Hong Kong Skyscraper’s futuristic presentation of the terraced paddy field, a staple of rice cultivation that's been a familiar sight in mountainous areas of China and Southeast Asia for thousands of years. 

Rice terraces have an important semiotic and symbolic significance in the culture of countries such as China and the Philippines, and they are cultivated by the need to sow seeds vertically. Throughout history, they have been carved by hand into mountains high above the sea as emphasized contours with built-in irrigation systems. In addition to the formal beauty of these spaces, they are a living example of the respectful change of nature by humans, who do not pose any environmental aggression, and are ultimately both respectful of nature and of man. Studio CTC finds such richness of the meanings and interactions that it was decided that rice should be the crop of choice for the skyscraper.

A grain-centric “urban agriculture system” modeled after the traditional rice paddy can be found atop the larger of the bisected building’s dual rooftops (the other is home to a helipad). As you can see, the volume — designed as an attempt to “envision what a tower should be in the future era” while “letting go of many ingrained preconceptions about the way buildings should be designed” — is not-so-neatly split down the middle; the two halves are connected/supported by a network of angled struts along with several transparent bridges that will accommodate rail and bus traffic.

 

Writing for CityLab, John Metcalfe notes that it would appear the two halves of the "extremely mixed-use" skyscraper, each dripping with vegetation, are posed to “attack each other” in the renderings. It’s a fantastic observation — the larger tower with the rice paddy up top truly appears to be hunched over and ready to lunge at its less top-heavy counterpart — and if this was Tokyo, not Hong Kong, one could easily surmise that Studio CTC has birthed sustainable architecture’s very own dueling daikaiju.  Just don't forget to eat up before running for your life .... 

 

Source: mnn

Will The Next Tallest Building In The World Be Built In China?

Billionaire Zhang Yue grabbed international headlines with his ambitious plan to build the world’s tallest building from pre-fabricated units.

But when his 9-billion yuan (HK$11.5 billion) vision for the 838-metre tall Sky City in Changsha in Hunan province stalled in 2013 amid concerns from regulators, Zhang began to fade from view.

Now he is back in the spotlight following the recent construction of a building dubbed Small Sky City, more than 200 metres tall, in an eyebrow-raising 19 days.

Questioned by reporters at the Boao Forum for Asia last month, Zhang, 55, insisted the ‘big’ Sky City was not a lost cause, despite the local government’s suspension of the project amid controversy over its safety, environmental impact and source of funding.

“[Construction] shouldn’t be far away. We’ll start soon and complete soon,” said Zhang, who is estimated by the Hurun Global Rich List to share a personal fortune of 7.9 billion yuan (HK$11.5 billion) with his wife.

As the president of Broad Group, a company that began life building air conditioners, Zhang was once considered one of the leading entrepreneurs in mainland China. And even now, despite the problems surrounding the would-be world’s tallest building, the keen environmentalist has a style of talking big.

He said the high-profile, energy-saving project had received “too much attention, which scared the officials”, as he explained why at present the project was little more than a big hole in a village in suburban Changsha, where his company is based.

Plans for the building are nothing if not eye-catching.

Not only would it be 10 metres higher than the world’s current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, it would host everything from apartments, offices and restaurants, to supermarket stores and even schools so that its residents could live, work and play in its confines without the need to battle – or add to – the pollution outside.

At the Boao Forum Zhang demonstrated an air-quality reading machine and passed out business cards that were an environmentally-friendly half-size, as he urged businesspeople and officials to change to greener lifestyles.

Sky City dwarfs the surrounding tall buildings.

Zhang claims to have embraced such change himself.

While in 1997 he became the mainland’s first private business owner to have a private jet, Zhang ditched both his personal planes in 2008 and now drives only Smart and electric cars.

He says he made the decision after finding that a flight from Changsha to Beijing emitted eight tonnes of carbon dioxide. It would take eight trees 60 years to absorb such an amount, he said.

“When the plane took off, I would look out of the window and think [about] the trees,” he said.

However, media reports covering the ground-breaking ceremony of Sky City in July 2013 showed Zhang arriving at the site in a US-made Bell Helicopter.

He co-founded Broad in 1992 with his brother Zhang Jian. The company specialises in four areas: air conditioners, air purifiers, sustainable buildings, and combined cooling, heating and power units. Air conditioners are the company’s biggest source of profit so far.

An article posted on Broad’s website in 2011 was ridiculed for boasting that Beijing’s Zhongnanhai, the central government compound in the centre of the city, had started using its air purifiers and ventilation systems.

This was mocked by internet users who commented that even the air in China’s centre of power was now specially supplied.

Zhang now takes a low-key approach, telling the South China Morning Post: “We have millions of customers and Zhongnanhai is one of the smallest ones.”

Zhang places his greatest hopes for his future business on prefab buildings, which can be constructed speedily block by block using steel modules built off site.

So far, the market appears unconvinced. Broad has six franchises and most of the more than 30 buildings it has constructed were for its own use. Only five or six were built for commercial orders, Zhang said.

“I don’t like making things showy. I’m not willing to build houses according to others’ will. I like them to be upright and foursquare,” he explained. “So there’s often disagreement [with potential clients].”

Modular construction is popular in China and the rest of the world, but Broad was different because of its unusually high-level of factory production, he said.

“About 90 per cent of our payroll goes to workers in factories. Usually it’s 20 to 30 per cent, like in the US and Japan.”

Zhang was reported to have proposed co-operation with Feng Lun, chairman of the leading real estate developer Vantone, who had been promoting a similar venture named GREAT (Green, Relational, Economical, All-Encompassing, Technology) City, but no deal could be made.

“Zhang Yue hails from Hunan. Hunan people won’t stop until they make things extreme,” Feng was quoted as saying by the China Economic Weekly.

“I believe [Sky City] can be handled in terms of technology, but I don’t think the conditions are mature enough regarding economic and social management,” said Feng.

Zhang graduated from a teaching school in Chenzhou in Hunan, before starting work as an art teacher in his hometown more than three decades ago.

He quit the job in 1984 and dabbled in various businesses including selling camera films and motorbikes, decorating, and even ran a café.

In 1992, he and his brother Zhang Jian started making non-electric air conditioners in Changsha. At a time when electricity was in acute shortage the business boomed.

However, the brothers split in the late 1990s as Zhang Jian proposed to diversify the company’s business by merging with Japan’s Mitsubishi, something that crossed Zhang Yue’s principle of “no diversification, no debt and no public listing”.

This prompted Zhang Jian to start his own company, Broad Homes, which has grown into a leading player in precast concrete construction. Years later, Zhang Yue broke his own principle by introducing franchising for his company, Broad Group.

Broad Group’s earnings are unclear. Its spokeswoman Zhu Linfang said that as it was not a public-listed company it was not obliged to disclose the information.

But Zhang has been quoted as saying that the company made about 6 billion yuan in 2012, of which more than 2 billion yuan came from air conditioners.

Most might be happy with such an amount, but it is small change when compared to a city in the sky and a 9-billion yuan dream.

Source: South China Morning Post

Bangkok's Super Tower

Higher than a bird, almost as high as some planes. It's Super Tower. And it's coming to Bangkok.

A Thai property developer has announced plans to build a skyscraper in the Thai capital that will be among the 10 tallest buildings in the world when it is completed in 2019.

The 125-storey tower will rise 615 metres and include a luxury six-star hotel with 260 rooms, offices and an observation deck with panoramic views of the Thai capital and rooftop garden, developer Grand Canal Land Public Company said.

According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which maintains a database of the tallest skyscrapers, the Bangkok "Super Tower" will be the world's ninth tallest if it is built on schedule. It would be the second tallest if built today.

The tower will dwarf the tallest building currently in Thailand, the Baiyoke II tower, which tops out at 328 metres on its 85th storeys.

The tallest building in the world is currently Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which has 163 floors and is 828 metres high. The Petronas twin towers in Kuala Lumpur, the tallest building in Southeast Asia, stand at 452 metres. The tallest building in Hong Kong, the International Commerce Centre, is 484 metres tall.

The Thai developer intends the tower as the centre of a new business, shopping and residential district in Bangkok costing 100 billion baht (HK$24 billion). It will be built on almost 12 hectares of land in the city. A competition will be held to decide the name.

"This skyscraper is going to be the new landmark of Thailand, a world-class attraction that everyone must visit at least once in his or her lifetime," Grand Canal Land chairman Yotin Boondicharern said.

The ambitious plans are a vote of confidence in the Thai economy, which has struggled to grow during several years of political strife.

The military seized power from the elected government on May 22, the 12th coup in Thailand since the end of its absolute monarchy in 1932. Martial law remains in place but business and daily life continues as normal.

Source: South China Morning Post

The Rise Of Asia

A record-breaking 53 skyscrapers over 200 metres high were completed in Asia in 2013, accounting for three-quarters of the year's tallest new buildings, according to the latest industry report.

The annual review from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat reveals that 74 percent of worldwide skyscraper completions in 2013 were in Asian countries - a 19 percent increase on 2012 - and that the region now contains 45 percent of the tallest buildings in the world.

China accounts for the majority of this total, with 37 skyscrapers of over 200 metres spread across 22 different cities, including the lesser-known locations of Hefei and Xiamen that before this year had never contained buildings of this scale.

South Korea also plays a large role in the statistics with nine 200-metre-plus buildings completed in the last year, eight of which are located within a single complex in the growing city of Goyang.

The overall findings of the report were that worldwide skyscraper construction is back on the rise, in spite of a stall in 2012 that saw the total number of tall buildings fail to increase for the first time in six years, and that 2013 was the second-most successful year ever for skyscraper construction with a total of 73 buildings over 200 metres.

"By all appearances, the small increase in the total number of tall-building completions from 2012 into 2013 is indicative of a return to the prevalent trend of increasing completions each year over the past decade," it reads.

"From 2000 to 2013, the total number of 200-metre-plus buildings in existence increased from 261 to 830 - an astounding 318 percent. From this point of view, we can more confidently estimate that the slight slowdown of 2012 - which recorded 69 completions after 2011's record 81 - was a 'blip', and that 2013 was more representative of the general upward trend."

The tallest building of the year was the 355-metre JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai Tower 2 completed in Dubai, the city that now also houses the world's tallest twisted skyscraper, the 307-metre Cayan Tower.

Only one of the 73 buildings over 200 metres was located in north America, while four were in Europe, including Renzo Piano's The Shard in London and the Mercury City tower in Moscow. None were recorded in Australia, Canada or Saudi Arabia, although construction did begin on the proposed 1000-metre Kingdom Tower in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.

Source: Dezeen

Modern Day Cathedrals Of Economics

Malaysian seems to obsess with heights. When the Petronas Twin Towers were overtaken by Taipei 101 as the world's tallest building, the then Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir cleverly reinterpret and reiterate to the world that Malaysia still have the world's tallest twin towers. In fact he is right even up until now and the twin towers have never stop inspire architects, planners and developers to build higher and better building. So far none has managed to surpass the twins...YET. 

KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre) where the Petronas Twin Towers are located, is indeed the heartbeat of Malaysia. It seems like a construction site that never stop. There are more exciting projects coming up around the area. It is an area with high density of skyscrapers cladded in metal and glass. A sea of green, blue, silver and grey is the main color scheme of the area. It is the central business district, the commercial heart of the city and the entire country. It is an area dedicated to the modern day cathedrals of economics. 

Amazing Bangkok

One of the best skyline in Asia!

 

 

China's 3 Megacities

BEIJING

SHANGHAI

HONG KONG

Nanjing Youth Olympic Centre By Zaha Hadid

The Astaka @ Iskandar Johor

Aerial View of The Astaka

Building components of The Astaka

Floor Plan of The Astaka

3D Rendering of The Astaka