Local Inspiration for Super-Tall Towers
Experienced designers of tall buildings John Portman & Associates (JPA) have been selected by Chinese developers Greenland Group to conceptualise a pair of super-tall towers for Yinchuan Yuehai Bay Central Business District. The pair of buildings will comprise of office, hotel and boutique retail units across 3,293,757 sq ft of prime development space. As usual in JPA projects, sustainability plays a strong role in this concept as Gordon Beckman, Principal and Design Director for the Greenland Super Tall Project explains: “We brought the entire design team together early in the design process to coordinate our efforts and to establish strategies for efficiency in construction, function, materials, water, energy, daylight and site usage to achieve the project goals. The result is what we consider to be a constructed aesthetic – an integration of design, structure and energy comfort systems as complete system.” The base of JPA’s concept is inspired by local culture and design aesthetic. Chinese Hui, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, presents a blend of Islamic and Chinese influences which JPA used as a reference point in the design of these two buildings. There is also a nod to the literal meaning of Yinchuan or ‘silver ring’ as a gleaming podium base links the pair of towers to one another. As with many tall towers, this scheme is glass-rich, the rendering to the left showing a highly transparent façade system. Low emissivity glazing is to be used throughout, with horizontal blade sunshading on the south and west faces and vision and patterned frit glass to the east and north, supplying the necessary daylight control in response to solar orientation.
John Portman & Associates