Tianjin R&F Guangdong Tower

Occupying a central parcel in the Tianjin’s newly planned CBD, the Guangdong Tower will be one of China’s tallest buildings at 488 meters. The complex features Class A office space, a five-star hotel, luxury condominiums, and retail. The tower is designed to establish a signature visual profile in the city skyline and provide a unique destination for the people of Tianjin and beyond.

The building’s design responds to the programmatic needs of each function, as well as to the decreasing size of the core. The tower unwraps around its vertical axis as it ascends, similar in nature to a shell or ancient scroll. In this manner, the form relates to the historical context of the site’s location in the Tanggu district, a point of sea trade. The unwinding form also creates unique opportunities to introduce multi-story atria into the program in each vertical zone. These landscaped interior spaces provide ideal circulation for multi-floor tenants, daylighting for deeper lease spans, and inviting social meeting spaces within the building’s upper floors. The landscaped interiors are an instrumental part of the overall environmental sensitivity to the new downtown’s iconic centerpiece.  Additionally, the design promotes material and façade approaches that are integral to the performance of the building systems, not decorative.

Fundamental to the building concept as well as the overall sustainable strategy for the tower, the multi-story atria underline a belief in a holistic approach to sustainable design.  The atria not only enhance the availability of natural ventilation and sunlight in a super tall tower, they also provide opportunities for social gathering spaces within the vertical stacking of the tower.  These spaces emphasize a balance of building performance with human comfort and well-being that aims to move beyond the metrics of engineered sustainable solutions.  In this way the atria are seen as an extension of the urban realm; spiraling up the tower and creating dynamic, multi-faceted spaces which equally sustain both our natural resources and our human spirit.