OMA commissioned for the essence financial building, shenzhen

‘essence financial building’ by OMA, shenzhen, chinaimage © OMA

it has just been announced that the new ‘essence financial building’ adding to shenzhen’s skyline will be designed by acclaimed practice OMA.in straying from the typological office building, the new scheme will plug into the city’s several transit systems and provide a more sensitive social approach to the relationship with the general public in response to a rapidly shifting focus from the manufacturing to the service industry occurring in the area. the simple extruded form contains many subtle characteristics that make each facade very unique.  gradated apertures on the southern faceare a direct result of solar gain studies, optimizing views in each direction while maintaining an acceptable level of natural illumination and eliminating problems such as glare or excessive heat gain. the east and western facades are in turn more porous to accept indirect light. the structure’s typicallycentral core is translated to the edge of the floor plate which frees the entire level and offers a high degree of adaptability and flexibility with today’sconstantly changing communication systems. the ubiquitous curtain wall is also broken towards the top, where a cube-like volume seems to float over the base, creating a sliver of a void that serves as a lookout area over the city.

in contextimage © OMA

overlooking the golf courseimage © OMAimage via architizer

approach from the streetimages © OMA

gradated openings on the southern facadeimages © OMA

observation level looking out over golf courseimage © OMA

interior atrium and work areasimage © OMA

work desksimage © OMA

meshed facade during the dayimage © OMA

meshed facade during the nightimage © OMA

elevationsimage © OMA

program diagramimage © OMA

concept evolutionimage © OMA

floor plan and core placement diagramimage © OMA

office building typologiesimage © OMA

project info:

project: essence financial buildingstatus: design developmentclients: essence securities company limited; mintaian insurance surveyors & loss adjusters company limitedlocation: futian cbd, shenzhen, pr chinabudget: n/asite: lot number b116-0077, 4,813m2program: offices (64,550m2), commercial (5,450m2)building height: tower 180m, podium 13.5m

partners in charge: david gianotten and rem koolhaas (review)project architect: bauke albadateam: lingxiu chong, chee yuen choy, charles lai, federico letizia, jue qiu, takehiko suzuki, andreas viglakis, with byungchan ahn, kevin chan, helen chen, jocelyn chiu

local architect: sadi: wu chaosustainability: yrg: arpan bakshi, yetsuh frank, josh radoff, lauren yarmuthlandscape: swa: sean o’malley, xiao zhengfacade: inhabit: ron bertoli, hugh brennandsmep & traffic: aecom: eric kwok, w l leung, martin wu, jason w. k. yuenmodel: rj modelsnight & aerial view: silkroad