Edited by: Enrico Mancini @Enrico_Mancini
Where: Shenzhen, Quantung, Cina
Architects: OMA
Translation Assistant: Bianca Baroni
//Loud/Architecture
With the winning of their proposal for the Essence Financial Building, OMA has the chance to tie definitely their name with the fast-growing city of Shenzen.
This is, in fact, the second tower they’re going to build in the Chinese city after the stock exchange building that’s going to be completed in April.
The strategy is kind of simple, at least compared to how we get used to Rem Koolhaas way of thinking in the last years; the first action was to “shift the building’s core from the center 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.”
The second move was to reject the already misused curtain wall in favor of facade pattern that follows the sun and its solar gain diagrams, in order to let less light in on the Est and West facades, in response to the low hitting sun; meanwhile in the South facades the size of the windows increases down in proportion to the decrease of solar penetration, and the North facade opens wide toward Fuhua First Road.
The final act is to split the massive tower volume in two, detaching the two parts and creating a huge terrace overlooking the Shenzhen Golf Club.
This viewing platform will be the distinctive sign of the building itself, hoping that the Chinese wind will never blow too much to bother the white-collar workers.