Landscape

SWA group provided landscape architectural services for the Shanghai Tower. The gross property area is about 30,368 square meters. The design creates Tower Park to complement the building’s iconic form and function, connect the mixed-use project with its urban neighborhood, and provide a variety of beautiful settings for public gatherings and celebrations. The project’s LEED-Gold certification requires 33% green cover - a unique challenge demanding on the size of the building and amount of hardscape involved. SWA designed an informal greenbelt and a park connecting to an adjoining property. Features include an event-center roof garden, a sunken garden that includes a bamboo island within a water pool, and dramatic sky gardens for each atrium that repeat plantings in a vertical pattern to draw the eye skyward and accentuate the tower’s unique open-ended spiral form.

Nearly about 1/3 of project areas are covered with plants, a great amount of greenery can greatly reduce the urban heat island effect on environment. Irrigation system is typically efficient and in low energy consumption under BIM technologies design and calculation.

Fig 2. Landscape master plan of Tower park (SWA Group, 2010)

Green Ratio Calculation:

Gross Property Area: 30,368 square meters

Building Canopy: 12,921 square meters

Vent + Stairs + Utilities: 1,535 square meters

Vehicular: 3,605 square meters

Pedestrian: 2,297 square meters

Total Hardscape: 20,358 square meters

Total Green Area: 10,010 square meters

Total Green Ratio: 33%

Fig 1. Landscape design rendering picture of Tower park (SWA Group, 2010)

Fig 3. Landscape space districts (SWA Group, 2010)

Shanghai Tower’s entry-level retail podium welcomes visitors with an approachable and transparent gateway to the tower’s mix of neighborhoods, and serves as the super-high-rise precinct’s transit-served destination for shopping and gathering. The circular sunken garden in the foreground provides access to the podium’s lower levels and to elevators serving the top-level observation area.

As for the landscape lighting design, the light source combined with LED system to relatively lower building external energy consumption.

Fig 4. Circulation diagram of Tower park (SWA Group, 2010)

Fig 5. Landscape lighting design of Tower park (SWA Group, 2010)

The building contains a double skin facade that create nine atrium sky vertical gardens. Cylindrical buildings that stacke one atop another, that could be used as plazas and reunions. The varying angles of the second skin create 21 landscaped atriums, each 12 to 14 stories heigh, which will feature in retail and meeting spaces with sweeping views of the city.

The greenery of these gardens in atrium is integrated to a vertical system based on natural vegetation in different altitude conditions that can improve plants diversity indoor.

Fig 6. Atrium level 08 - Tropical garden design with plants species (SWA Group, 2010)

Fig 7. Atrium level 22 - Dessert garden design with palnts species (SWA Group, 2010)

Fig 8. Atrium level 52 - Woodland design with plants species (SWA Group, 2010)

Fig 9. Atrium level 68 - Moutain design with plants species (SWA Group, 2010)

Fig 10. Vertical greenry design on atrium of Shanghai Tower (SWA Group, 2010)

Fig 11. Internal atrium greenery of Shanghai Tower taking after construction