Inhabitat

China’s Spiraling Shanghai Tower Breaks Ground

Recently Gensler broke ground on a soaring sustainably skyscraper that is set to become the tallest tower in China. The slender, elegantly spiraling Shanghai Tower will rise 632 meters, making it the latest super-tall to spring up in China’s rapidly developing Luijiazui Finance and Trade Zone. A beacon for a more sustainable future, the skyscraper will feature a high-performance façade that shelters no fewer than nine sky gardens, a rainwater recycling system, and a series of wind turbines perched beneath its parapet.

gensler sustainable skyscraper, gensler shanghai tower, china

Gensler’s latest skyscraper will grace the skyline of Shanghai’s Luijiazui Finance and Trade Zone, an area that was predominantly farmland just eighteen years ago. The region is now poised to become China’s first super-tall district as the Shanghai Tower joins the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Finance Center.

The Shanghai Tower is composed of a set of nine cylindrical buildings stacked on top of each other and surrounded by an inner façade. A triangular outer façade encloses the entire structure, creating room for nine sky gardens, which serve as public spaces. The mixed-use structure will house businesses, restaurants, cafés, coffee shops and convenience stores.

The skyscraper’s twisting, asymmetrical envelope features a carefully considered structure and texture that work together to reduce wind loads on the building by 24%, saving building materials and construction costs. The building’s spiraling parapet collects rainwater to be used for the tower’s heating and air conditioning systems, and wind turbines situated below the parapet generate on-site power. Additionally, the gardens nestled within the building’s double-skin façade create a thermal buffer zone while improving indoor air quality.

The Shanghai Tower is slated to be completed in 2014, and Art Gensler, Chairman of Gensler has stated: “We hope Shanghai Tower inspires new ideas about what sustainable tall buildings can be . . . We’ve lined the perimeter of the tower, top to bottom, with public spaces, and we’ve integrated strategic environmental thinking into every move. The tower is a stage that comes to life through the presence of people.”

+ Gensler

4 Responses to “China’s Spiraling Shanghai Tower Breaks Ground”

AbleBobby Says:

December 1st, 2008 at 8:05 pm

Wow dudethat is like MAJOR cool! I like it.

jess
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linds-o-rama Says:

December 2nd, 2008 at 11:23 am

Jeez, will they ever stop building in Pudong? Is there really a need for yet another enormous high-rise in Shanghai? Development in China is out of freaking control.

Inhabitat: I’d be curious to know if there are any conservation groups trying to preserve the remaining architectural heritage in Shanghai. Every time I’m there, more old buildings have been torn down to make way for shiny new towers. That would be a great story, if it exists…

professorzed Says:

December 8th, 2008 at 2:05 pm

“I’d be curious to know if there are any conservation groups trying to preserve the remaining architectural heritage in Shanghai. Every time I’m there, more old buildings have been torn down to make way for shiny new towers. That would be a great story, if it exists…”

This was the topic of a photo-essay book called something like ‘Disappearing Shanghai’, which came out about five years ago. The author described how a sleeker, Ultra-modern version of Shanghai was burying the old city like a steam roller. It is almost as though one world was invading, and physically removing another world which is in it’s place. The author of the book was taking photos of all of the charming old buildings, businesses, and residences of Shanghai which were being swept away by a Chinese government intent on modernizing. I recall a very interesting photograph of what might have been a slum, with the futuristic skyline in the backdrop.