Shanghai Tower

Interview One - Design Experience of the Shanghai Tower

 

In the Shanghai Tower project, the demands from the owner are to build a building that not only contains culture and tradition, but also has mental image as a landmark. In addition, it should be attached with vision. As designers, after investing and studying all the project conditions, we decide to solve this issue from the perspective of the concept of “Limitation” in philosophy. 

 

In consideration of the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center nearby, which represent the memory of Shanghai and flourishing foreign trade, we hope the Shanghai Tower is dynamic. Therefore, we propose trinity design - the three buildings stand for past, present and future respectively, which reflects the vision of the Shanghai Tower: “ China, an everlasting future.”

 

The Shanghai Tower project is the first time for us to integrate a digital design platform in depth, especially apply BIM. BIM provides an optimized platform for deep design, and helps the whole team to improve working efficiency drastically. Aimed at this project, we set up a BIM team specially; team members regard BIM as their eyes.

 

We adopt the double skin curtain wall structure. Through a series of scientific verification, we define the façade as a 120° torsional geometrical shape, and the circle shrinks as the height increases. We fully consider the effects from the wind engineering to this shape. Make the corners as circular bead can reduce air friction, and the circle shrink enables the building become light and stable.