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c/f Shanghai Architecture - Selection.29 Nov 2008
AMERICAN ARCHITECT MARSHALL STRABALA IN AWE OF SHANGHAI TOWER, CHINA'S TALLEST BUILDING
SHANGHAI, China -- With the groundbreaking of the 632-meter (2070 feet), Shanghai Tower, China's tallest building, Marshall Strabala, the building's Director of Design, will achieve another significant milestone in an illustrious design career.
This will mark the final stretch of Strabala's latest and most important project to date.
With the Shanghai Tower, the Houston-based architectural designer has designed three of the world's 10-tallest buildings, including the 160+-story Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building now under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and the 420-meter (1380 feet) Nanjing Greenland Financial Center in Nanjing China to be completed in 2009.
However, Strabala says Shanghai Tower will be different than the others.
"Shanghai Tower will represent China's dynamic 'future,'" said Strabala. "It will be an impressive building where China looks ahead to both the future of this bustling and ever-changing metropolis, but also to the future of the dynamic Chinese spirit. There will be no other such unique and well-conceived tower like it anywhere in the world," he added.
Featuring a soft triangular shape, the tower rotates as it juts skyward and concludes with an open-top design. As the shape rises, a "strike" or open notch curves up and around the building which is an engineering feature to control the wind up and away from the building.
The 120-story tower will feature office space, luxury residences, a high-end hotel, retail space, restaurants and a public observatory. The development will be separated into nine distinct bioclimatic zones, with each having its own atrium, lush gardens, indoor air controls and panoramic 360° views of China's largest and most populous metropolis.
Green Building Design
Shanghai Tower also will be the world's first super-tall building with a "double-skin," according to Strabala. Part of an environmentally friendly, "green building" approach, the double skin has two glass walls. "Green building" is the practice of improving the efficiency of how buildings use resources such as energy, materials and water, while reducing the impact that buildings have during their lifespan -- on health and the environment.
"With the double skin, the building will function much like a thermos bottle," said Strabala. "This allows us to harvest and use daylight, reduce artificial lighting to a minimum, increase the insulation of the building's interior, and, long-term, dramatically reduce energy consumption and energy costs."
Expanding on the green building concept, wind turbines will be placed on the roof to generate windpower. And, the building will be situated within a 10,000-square meter (107,600 square feet) open green space that will become both a public park and the front entry to the tower.
The project will seek LEED certification from the China Green Building Council, in association with the US Green Building Council. Strabala, who has earned his LEED certification, has incorporated green building concepts in his designs for many years.
"Vertical City"
According to Strabala, Shanghai's central city is running out of space so it is therefore efficient and economical to build super-tall, mixed-use buildings, instead of multiple smaller buildings spread out across the area.
"Shanghai Tower's upward spiraling form will become a 'vertical city," a structure comprised of eight separate neighborhoods that become plazas in the sky," explained Strabala. "The spiral derives from not only the smallest of things, the smallest atom, but also the largest of thing, the collective universe. Every element of the building needs to perform two purposes. It integrates art and science, aesthetics and function, technology and beauty and knowledge and perception."
Shanghai Architecture Treasure
Strabala has no doubt that when it is finished in 2014, the Shanghai Tower will be viewed as a city landmark and treasure.
"Looking ahead, Shanghai Tower will be seen as one of the city's great architectural treasures, and mentioned in the same breath with the city's Yuyuan Gardens, the former French Concession, and theBund."
Shanghai Tower will be located in the Lujiazui section of the city's Pudong district. It will be adjacent to, and taller than, two other super-tall buildings, the 421-meter (1380 feet) Jin Mao and the 492-meter (1614 feet) World Financial Center. Together, the buildings are referred to as the "three brothers," and are situated east and across the Huangpu River from the city's historic Bund area.
Strabala's team of designers from the US-based Gensler architectural firm was selected following an intense 21-month-long competition among local and international design firms. Strabala managed the design team including Jun Xia, principle of the Shanghai office, Xiamomei Lee, project manager, and Grant Uhlir, consultant manager.
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