SOM, an international design firm, has hit another high score with its completion of the 56- storey Jiangxi Greenland Zifeng Tower, located in the rapidly expanding high-tech district of Gaoxin, Nanchang in China. Lucy Wang, who wrote about this new skyscraper in Inhabitat, describes the mix-use tower as "gorgeous and is particularly eye-catching due to its prominent diagrid shading fin system." In fact, the tower, according to Wang, has been voted as this year's "favorite completed high-rise building" by the Greenland Group, which is China's leading development company.
Two thirds of the bottom part of the building is devoted to office space, while the upper 20 floors have been reserved for Hua Lux luxury hotel, a member of the InterContinental hotels group. The change in program is marked by the "Great Window "which is a large angled aperture recessed into the building façade. "Formally, the great window transitions the floor plates to a suitable size and layout for the hotel function," the design firm writes. "Aesthetically, it marks the tower with a strong design, distinguishing it from the other towers that compose Nanchang's urban fabric," adds SOM.
"A low-level retail building wraps around the tower to bring the project down to a pedestrian-scale on the ground plane," Wang describes. She goes on to describe the LEED Silver skyscraper as covered with aluminum triangular sun-shading fins which give shade to the structure. The fins also help prevent the building from gaining excessive solar heat and glare to the interior. The structural node of the fin intersections are embedded with integrated white LEDs and such make the unique diagrid pattern light up at night.
LEED or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design is a rating system that offers four certification level for new construction .It has a corresponding number of credits based on five green design categories: energy and atmosphere, indoor environmental quality, materials and resources, sustainable sites and water efficiency. These certification levels are: Certified: 40-49 points, Silver: 50-59 points, Gold: 60-79 points and Platinum: 80 points and above.
