Dive Brief:
- London-based PLP Architecture is redefining skyscraper design, according to Curbed, with a 124-story, "tripod-like" tower dubbed The Nexus Building and planned for the Pearl River Delta in China. The skyscraper ignores traditional core-based design and uses the pivot points of shifted rectangular floor plates to provide the building’s support, as well as to create open views. See renderings of the design here.
- With no central core, the interior space remains open, free from space-grabbing columns and supports. Each level features 15-foot floors with the ability for tenants to easily change layouts by removing dividers between floors to create atriums within office space.
- The Nexus would serve as the focus for a larger development, including a smaller building, the Platform for Contemporary Arts — with a series of theaters — and the Concourse retail gallery connecting all three. The client has not yet been named, but, if allowed to proceed, the completion would not come before 2020, according to Dezeen.
Dive Insight:
"Our point of departure was to find a new typology for super high-rises that didn't rely on a central core," Andrei Martin, a partner at PLP, told Curbed.
The elevators that transport workers to their offices are set up like a metro system, with express cars taking riders to the central floors where the system intersects and provides links to other elevators. At these meeting points, the plans call for startup spaces and urban gardens, taking advantage of the ledges formed by the building's shape.
This is the latest addition to a string of attention-grabbing skyscrapers planned for China, many of which will be completed this year.
The 1,965-foot Ping An Finance Center in Shenzhen, China, will be the tallest office building in the world and the fourth tallest building in the world when completed. The building, which experienced concrete-related construction delays, made headlines last year when Russian-Ukrainian daredevil Vitaliy Raskalov and his friend Vadim Makhorov climbed to the top in defiance of local authorities.
The 1,959-foot Goldin Finance 117 in Tianjin, China, is another tower scheduled for completion this year, as is the 1,738-foot CTF Finance Center in Guangzhou, China. The 1,437-foot Wuhan Center Tower in Wuhan, China, designed to resemble a ship’s sails, is also set for a 2016 opening, as is the Eton Place Dalian Tower 1 in Dalian, China — Dalian’s 12th skyscraper over 656 feet tall.