Archinect - News

SOM's tapering Star River Headquarters project completes in Guangzhou

2024-03-20T17:49:00-04:00

SOM has unveiled the newly completed Star River Headquarters project in Guangzhou, China, which it says is emblematic of the city’s late transformation into a national destination for trade and cultural tourism.

The 918-foot-tall office tower was realized at Pazhou Island and anchors a new block-size development that is helping to revitalize the city’s traditional hub for commerce and financial services.

Image: © Seth Powers/SOM

SOM says its design "represents a new class of office buildings" that are currently reshaping Guangzhou, joining the new Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce and Sany IROOTECH Headquarters from 2020 and 2025, respectively.

Image: © Seth Powers/SOM

From a distance, the tower's tapered parabolic silhouette stands prominently above a landscaped public plaza area and retail establishments below, utilizing a pleated effect that enables unique possibilities for the interplay of light and shadow on its facade.

Image: © Seth Powers/SOM

Vertical mullions running the length...

China will build replacement for Gensler soccer stadium design in Guangzhou following Evergrande debt scramble

2024-03-19T11:51:00-04:00

Chinese state-owned construction contractor will build China’s largest soccer park in Guangzhou on the site where struggling Chinese property developer China Evergrande Group was supposed to build its soccer stadium. China Construction Fourth Engineering Division won the engineering procurement construction contract to build the Guangzhou Football Park with a CNY2.4 billion (USD328 million) bid, the unit of China State Construction Engineering announced on its official WeChat account yesterday.

The site was originally meant for a 100,000-seat stadium designed by Gensler. Evergrande, the developer now embroiled in a Lehman Brothers-like freefall, had already begun construction before the project was halted and eventually taken over by the government in 2021. The new design from the Guangdong Architectural Design and Research Institute has a reduced capacity of 73.000, making it still the largest soccer-only stadium in China.

Previously on Archinect: One of China's largest property developers is roiled in a Lehman-esque debt spiral

The estimated cost of the original design it replaces was $1.7 billion. Gensler, meanwhile, has begun preliminary work assessing the potential for a new stadium on the site of a disused Westfield shopping center in its hometown of San Francisco.

SOM's two-tower office complex in Guangzhou has topped out

2023-08-04T15:36:00-04:00

SOM’s striking two-tower project, the Sany IROOTECH Headquarters in Guangzhou, China, has officially topped out at 669 feet. Situated in the city’s rapidly developing Pazhou business district, the structure was built for construction equipment company Sany’s new cloud technology arm.

Photo: SOM and Mo Peihua

The 1.9 million-square-foot complex is comprised of two Class A office towers. One will serve as the company’s headquarters, with the other being a leasable tenant space. Both structures are united by an external system of five-story steel columns that rise in a diamond grid pattern, which creates a self-shading façade. The diagrid system also contributes to the building’s resilience against seismic activity and strong winds.

Rendering courtesy of SOM

The design allows the floors to be suspended from the structure, ridding the need for interior columns. Landscaped terraces are also featured at five-floor intervals across the façade.

The towers sit atop an elevated podium, which br...

Chinese government takes control of incomplete, $1.7 billion Evergrande Guangzhou Football Stadium

2021-12-06T19:11:00-05:00

Chinese authorities have taken over the Gensler-designed, under-construction Evergrande Guangzhou Football Stadium, commissioned by indebted property developer Evergrande, which was due to become the world’s largest football stadium by capacity, according to Reuters.

The Chinese government will either sell or take over the stadium via the state-owned Guangzhou City Construction Investment Group. As reported by Reuters, construction on the stadium has been halted for at least three months, in which Evergrande has been struggling to meet repayments on over $300 billion of debt.

Previously on Archinect: One of China's largest property developers is roiled in a Lehman-esque debt spiral

The Gensler-designed, 100,000-capacity soccer stadium was planned to be the home ground for professional club Guangzhou Evergrande. Work on the arena began in April 2020, with an estimated cost of $1.7 billion. It was set for completion by the end of 2022.

Guangzhou to build huge quarantine facility in response to Delta variant

2021-07-02T17:58:00-04:00

The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is planning to build a 250,000-square-meter quarantine complex in response to the growing threat of highly transmissible Covid-19 mutations such as the Delta variant.

The announcement was made by Zhong Nanshan, one of China’s top epidemiologists, who played a leading role in tackling the SARS outbreak in 2003. According to Zhong, the complex would contain 5,000 isolated spaces for both international travelers and local residents from high-risk areas. According to The South China Morning Post, Zhong believes the quarantine complex is necessary as simply using hotels as quarantine sites would not be enough to halt the spread of the virus due to how much more transmissible the Delta variant is compared to previous ones.

“In the long term, Guangzhou and Shenzhen must build these kinds of facilities. Otherwise when there are lots of cases in the future and we have to quarantine them in hotels, it will affect the economy and we cannot isolate them ...

Zaha Hadid Architects reveals details of their latest museum project, Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum

2020-12-02T14:36:00-05:00

In true parametric fashion, the design team at Zaha Hadid Architects reveals their plans for a new museum located in Shenzhen, China. The new Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum will be the "pearl" of the city's technology and innovation corridor in the Guangming Science City. The latest visuals showcase voluminous forms and eye-catching undulating terraces, and U-shaped volume.

According to the team at Zaha, "The design is a volumetric response to the distinct conditions of the site. Responding to the city to the east, the design is defined by its solidity and dynamic curvilinear geometries that express the many urban circulation routes."

East side of the museum © Zaha Hadid Architects. Visualization by BRICK

Shenzhen Science & Technology Museum © Zaha Hadid Architects. Visualization by Slashcube

The museum is approximately 1,345,483 sq. f (125,000 sq.m) in size and is set to be a focal point for...

HENN stacks hybrid medical programs in Guangzhou

2020-06-23T13:45:00-04:00

Located in the heart of Guangzhou's bio-tech district, HENN is developing the Medview Regenerative Medicine Innovation Center, a hybrid office and laboratory building set to function as a headquarters and communication center, as well as a development and production platform for start-ups.

The functional arrangement of the floors.

Interplay between one- and two-story spaces.

The company specializes in the development of high-precision products for the repair and reconstruction of human tissue, including cranial, jaw and facial tissue, as well as artificial skim, veins and ligaments. The institutions research has already been recognized worldwide, and it holds 130 patents.

Ground Floor Plan.

Floor Plan with Sky Gardens.

Floor Plan with Labs and Project Spaces.

HENN's design concept builds on an X-shaped form with three stacked zones separated by two "sky gardens." The first zone, located at ground level, is the public "testing" area and has its own laboratory. The second zone, at the mi...

Take a look at the rapid urbanization of China's Pearl River Delta

2016-05-10T15:23:00-04:00

The region where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea has seen some of the most rapid urban expansion in human history over the past few decades – transforming what was mostly agricultural land in 1979 into what is the manufacturing heartland of a global economic superpower today.

Shenzen (1964)

Shenzen (2015)

Macau (1991)

Macau (2015)

Hong Kong (1964)

Hong Kong (2015)

Guangzhou (1949)

Guangzhou (2015)

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'Cool roofs' substantially reduce temperatures during a heat wave, according to new study

2015-12-22T19:39:00-05:00

It is well established that white roofs can mitigate the urban heat island effect, reflecting the sun's energy back into space and reducing a city's temperature. In a new study of Guangzhou, China, researchers found that during a heat wave, the effect is significantly more pronounced. Reflective roofs, also called cool roofs, save energy by keeping buildings cooler, thus reducing the need for air conditioning.

According to a new study by Berkeley lab researchers Dev Millstein, Ronnen Levinson, and Pablo Rosado, alongside Meichun Cao and Zhaohui Lin of the Institute of Atmospheric Physic in Beijing, so-called "cool roofs," or roofs painted white, substantially reduce the urban heat island effect during a heat wave.

Prior research had shown that cool roofs could mitigate the urban heat island effect, but the new study shows just how drastically this can make a difference during a heat wave. Heat waves affect both public health and energy resources, requiring massive amounts of air conditioning and other cooling systems that can overtax the electric grid.

"The hotter it is, the more cooling you get with cool roofs--and it is a significant difference, compared to the margin of error," Millstein told ScienceDaily. "We found that the stagnant conditions of a heat wave, where the air is just sitting over the city, was one of the main factors."

The research was conducted in Guangzhou, a large city ...

This Guangzhou skyscraper still stands unfinished after 16 years

2015-04-07T15:12:00-04:00

An abandoned skyscraper still stands incomplete in the bustling capital of Guangdong Province after 16 years because no one is brave enough to ask for it to be torn down. The 46-story building looks strange as it towers over Guangzhou, a commercial hub in southern China with a population of more than 12 million. Its location just behind a golden high-rise building -- popular in China -- and luxury hotels makes the concrete shell look especially creepy and eerie.

China's Pearl River Delta: Tying 11 Cities into a Megaregion

2014-09-22T14:18:00-04:00

Today, on China’s southern coast, the integration of the Greater Pearl River Delta (PRD) is turning fiction into fact (sans the harsh lawman), with 11 cities linking to create an urban area of 21,100 square miles (55,000 sq km) and a population of up to 80 million. The nine cities of the PRD, plus the special administrative zones of Hong Kong and Macau, are becoming increasingly linked by a series of bridges, tunnels, roads, and high-speed rail networks.

New U.S. Consulate General by SOM officially opens in Guangzhou

2014-03-05T19:03:00-05:00

U.S. and local Chinese officials gathered to host the ribbon-cutting of the new U.S. Consulate General today in Guangzhou, China. Perceived as a symbol of the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China, companies from both countries collaborated on the $267 million project, which broke ground in October 2009 and was completed in June 2013.

Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill's San Francisco office designed the complex while BL Harbert International, LLC, of Birmingham, AL and China Huashi Enterprises, Ltd., of Chengdu, China were the project's contractors.

Located on a 7.4-acre site in Guangzhou's blossoming Business Center District near the Pearl River, the seven-building complex includes a 4-story main consular building for visa services and public events, an office building for 400 employees, a residence for U.S. Marines, a warehouse with service shops, three entrance pavilions.

Building façades and landscaped areas integrate local stones from the Fujian province as well as trees and...

Guangzhou International Finance Center Wins 2012 RIBA Lubetkin Prize

2012-10-15T15:43:00-04:00

Guangzhou International Finance Center in China by London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects has won the RIBA 2012 Lubetkin Prize for the best new international building. Now in its sixth year, the RIBA Lubetkin Prize is awarded to the architects of the best new building outside the European Union.

Goettsch Partners Wins Master Plan Competition for Guangzhou, China

2011-06-17T13:41:00-04:00

A master plan by Chicago-based architecture firm Goettsch Partners has been selected as the winning scheme in the design competition for a prominent site in the new Pazhou district in Guangzhou, China. Three urban parcels form the triangular site, which is planned for seven buildings totaling 428,000 square meters. Set along the Pearl River Delta, the Pazhou district anchors the city’s expansion to the east.