Hasta La Ideas

News: Rem Koolhaas’ OMA has won a competition to design a financial office tower in Shenzhen, China, the firm’s second building in the city after the soon-to-complete Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Located in the city’s business district, the 180-metre Essence Financial Building will be cut into two by a large outdoor terrace that will slice horizontally though the facade to open up a view of the nearby Shenzhen Golf Club.

Circulation routes will be sidelined to the edge of the floorplates, creating flexible office plans that can be adapted to suit different layouts and alternative uses.

Each facade will be designed in relation to the movements of the sun, as a deliberate move to minimise solar gain. East and west facades will be the most screened, while the south facade will feature graduated openings and the north facade will have the largest windows.

David Gianotten, partner in charge of OMA Asia, commented: “OMA is very excited about its continuous and deepening participation in Shenzhen’s development, especially as the city makes its latest evolution: from a manufacturing city into a services hub. This next generation of urbanism calls for a new generation of office towers of which the Essence Financial Building could be one.”

OMA’s first project in the city, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, is set for completion in April. Other recent projects by the Dutch firm include plans to redevelop Sydney’s Darling Harbour and a range of furniture for American furniture brand Knoll.

See more architecture and design by OMA, including a series of movies we filmed with partners Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf and Iyad Alsaka at the opening of the OMA/Progress exhibition in 2011.

Here’s a statement from OMA:

OMA has won the design competition for the Essence Financial Building in Shenzhen. The project, led by OMA Partners David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas, and designed as a new generation office tower for Shenzhen, was selected from entries by four competing international and Chinese architectural practices.

The Essence Financial Building, located in the Financial Developement Area of Shenzhen, reflects on how the emergent forces in business and society could shape a contemporary office tower typology. The building challenges the many conventions that govern office tower designs, in particular the prevailing central core plan and curtain wall systems.

The Essence Financial Building shifts its core to the edge of the floor plate, resulting in large unobstructed plans that allow a variety of office configurations – and therefore working styles – that meet the demands of the contemporary services industry. Direct and open additional connections between floors can be created to cater for visual and physical contact between departments. The building rationalizes programs into unique volumes, which are then maneuvered to create the distinct form of the building, as well as a viewing platform overlooking the Shenzhen Golf Club, and shaded outdoor recreational spaces for staff.

Above: section – click above for larger image

The facade of the building is an architectural translation of the sun and solar gain diagrams, as well as to the views from each side of the tower. Each face thus takes on a unique pattern. The East and West facades are less penetrable, in response to the low-hitting sun, while the south facade has graduated openings the size of the windows increases down the building in proportion to the decrease of solar penetration. The north facade opens toward Fuhua First Road.

The project was developed together with SADI, YRG, SWA, Inhabit and AECOM.

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