One One One Eagle
Street in Brisbane
This 48-story, dark reflective glass tower has meandering
white, inside columns near, and visible through its windows, that
"erupt" into the open near the tower's top to creat a very intriguing
and lovely "bird's-nest" in pinnacle that is one of the global icons of
Deconstructivism.
A "nominee" for best tall building in the Asia and Australasia region,
it was developed by the GPT Group and designed by Cox Reyner
Architects. The book said the design took inspiration from nearby
fig tree groves.
Doosan Haeundae
Zenith in Busan, South Korea
Developed by Daewon Plus Construction,
it was designed by smdp studio. This cluster of three residential
towers, the largest of which is 984 feet tall, has silvery, reflective
facades and cruciform shapes and is surrounded by water on three
sides. It is very slick and handsome and was a "nominee" in the
Asian and Australasia region.
The Zhejiang Fortune
Finance Center in Hangzhou, China
The Zhejiang Fortune Finance
Center in Hangzhou was a "nominee" in the Asia and Australasia region
and was designed by John Portman & Associates of Atlanta. It
consists of two very attractive towers, elliptical in plan, with
scooped tops, each in different directions. The tallest tower is
846 feet high. The developer was Zhejiang Te Fu Long Real
Estate.
The Palm Towers in
Doha, Qatar
One of the most exquisite
high-rise designs was The Palm Towers in Doha, Qatar, developed by DAR
Investment and designed by MZ Architects. The twin,
802-foot-high, reflective glass towers are hexagonal in plan with
circular cores. It was a "nominee" in the Middle East and Africa
region.
These dark totems have three sharply angled teeth at their tops
separated by lower inwardly included angles. The subtlety of the
design is further enhanced by the fact that the sides supporting the
"teeth" have three vertical slightly angled projections providing
visual thrust. Beneath the angled projections are clusters of
tightly spaced and slightly angled facade incisions.
These columns also have very thin light-colored accents.
The book notes that the towers are named after the native palm trees of
Qatar.
The only blemish at this stunning architectural masterpiece is the
light-colored, 8-story parking base connecting the towers.
Tianjin
Global Financial Center in China
The 1,105-foot-high Tianjin
Global Financial Center in China was designed by Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill and has a pleated elliptical plan. Hollow steel tubes,
the book noted, were designed and filled with high-strength concrete to
allow the minimum diameter columns just inside the facade and the
creation of column-free interior space.
The Al Bahar Towers in
Abu Dhabi
Developed by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, the twin, 25-story Al
Bahar Towers in Abu Dhabi were designed by Aedes Architects Ltd.
The book provides the following commentary: "To fully combat the
effects of solar glare and heat gain, the team looked for a method to
shield the glazed towers in a unique and creative way. By
studying the traditional and vernacular architecture of the area, the
'mashrabiya,' a wooden lattice screen used predominantly in Islamic
architecture, became the inspiration for the towers' active skin.
The facade's moveable components are semi-transparent PTFE
(polytetrafluoroethylne) panels, which are combined in arrays much like
umbrellas. Each array opens and closes in direct reaction to the
sun's position, allowing indirect sunlight to enter the building while
blocking the strongest rays to prevent glare and heat gain." This
approach was also honored by the council as inaugural winner of it
"innovation" award. Internal sky gardens exist along the southern
facade of the building which, in addition to the exterior shading, help
alleviate the effects of solar exposure. Antony Woods a juror,
noted that the "umbrella-type 'mashrabiya' facade shade modules are
both simple and technically ingenious." The modules are pale
yellow and thus the overall image of the towers is a bit drab.
The Doha Tower in Dubai
This 781-foot-high tower has
41 floors of offices, a restaurant on the 42nd floor and a private
residence as its penthouse. It was the "winner" of the
Middle East and Africa region and was developed by HBS and designed by
Ateliers Jean Nouvel.
The tower has a dome and slender spire that conjures the solitary horn
of a narwhale. "The cladding system is a reference to the traditional
Islamic 'mashrabiya,' or artistic screen used for shading or room
dividing. The design for the system involved using a single
geometric motif at several scales, overlaid at different densities
along the facade. The overlays occur in response to the solar
condiions: 25 % opacity was placed on the north elevation, 40 % on the
south, and 60 % on the east and west. From afar, the screen
appears as a uniform density, but the intricacy of the layering and
scaling of the screens becomes apprarent at a closer
viewpoint....User-operable solar shades are also available behind the
glazed curtain wall. The overall facade system is estimated to
reduce cooling loads by 20 %. At night, an integrated lighting
system enhances the delicate screen with programmable light shows....A
large....atrium has eight glass lifts.
The Leatop Plaza in
Guangzhou, China
The 993-foot-high Leatop Plaza
in Guangzhou, China, was developed by the Guangzhou Leatop Real Estate
Investment Co., Ltd., and designed by Murphy/Jahn of Chicago.
Helmut Jahn, the head of the architectural firm, was awarded the
council's Lynn S. Beedle Award for Lifetime Achievement this year. His
best-known works include the Xerox Center in Chicago, the Liberty
Towers in Philadelphia, the Messe Turm in Frankfurt, the Veer Towers in
Las Vegas and 425 Lexington Avenue in New York. The Leatop Plaza
tower is his tallest project and has a slanted top, a motif repeated in
the tower's diagonal lighting system for the facade.
