October 30, 2006

STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS

A floating horizontal skyscraper is the centrepiece of a competition-winning design for a mixed-use complex in China.

Architecture

Design features ‘floating’ horizontal skyscraper

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

New York’s Steven Holl Architects has won a competition to design a sustainable, mixed-use complex in Shenzhen on the South China Sea. Its submission features a “floating” horizontal skyscraper.

The firm, which has won numerous awards and is a proponent of a sustainable approach to architecture, was selected from an international short list which included MVRDV from the Netherlands and China’s HAE.

Ground is to be broken next April on the Vanke Center project, planned for a 60,000-square-metre site. The facility will house a conference centre, hotel, serviced apartments and offices.

Rather than create a series of building shapes that address the various uses within the complex, Steven Holl Architects’ design combines all the various programs “into one grand vision.

“Hovering over an inventive ‘sea scribble’ garden, the collision of buildings appears as if they were once floating on a higher sea, which has now subsided, leaving them propped up high on glass and white coral-like legs.

“The open plan provides space for the intricate multi-faceted daily life at the ground level to evolve and change.”

STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS

The buildings appear to hover over the landscape.

As a vision of tropical sustainability for the 21st century, Vanke Center incorporates several new sustainable elements designed specifically for the development, the architects said.

The floating buildings create a flexible area of shaded landscape underneath, allowing sea and land breezes to pass through the site. A special geothermal-cooled waterscape in the form of radiative cooling lakes creates a microclimate. Moveable facade screens made of special composites protect the inner glass against high solar and typhoon forces.

China Vanke Co. Ltd., China’s largest publicly traded property developer, will have its main office at the centre.

Founded in 1976, Steven Holl Architects has offices in both New York and Beijing, and a staff of 48. Currently under construction in Beijing is a linked hybrid mixed-use complex, which contains 600 geothermal wells and employs a “gray water” recycling system.

STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS

A shaded landscape area is created beneath the centre.

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