OMA: the shenzhen stock exchange construction

the shenzhen stock exchange topped out this week

the shenzhen stock exchange (SSE) designed by OMA as the new home for china’s equivalent of the nasdaq exchange for hi-tech industries – topped out this week at 246 metres. the building consists of a raised podium suspended 36 metres over a public plaza and projecting 54 metres from the tower base. the shenzhen stock exchange has one of the largest cantilevers in the world.

the generic rectangular form of the tower obediently follows the surrounding homogenous towers, but the SSE’s façade is an innovative merger of two conventional building envelope typologies: the window wall and the glass curtain wall. the tower’s structure is a robust exoskeletal grid overlayed with a patterned glass skin – the first time such glass has been used for an exterior at this scale. the patterned glass reveals the detail and complexity of construction while creating a mysterious crystalline effect as the tower responds to light: sparkling during bright sunshine, mute on an overcast day, enigmatic at dusk, glimmering during rain and glowing at night.

SSE officials, shenzhen mayor xu qin and shenzhen vice-mayors lu ruifeng and chen yingchun, joined pritzker prize-winning architect rem koolhaas of OMA at a ceremony earlier this week at the construction site. koolhaas commented: ‘we are extremely happy and honoured to have the opportunity to create here a building that can be both subtle and staggering at the same time.‘

facade construction has already begun on the tower’s 46 floors, and the building is scheduled for completion in august 2011.

adjacent to the city’s government offices and facing shennan road, shenzhen’s main artery, the shenzhen stock exchange is planned as a financial centre with civic meaning. raising the podium not only subverts the traditional architectural necessity of connecting a podium to the ground; it also creates a dramatic public plaza by liberating the ground around the tower. the three-story floating podium is built with 27,000 tons of steel and a single joint in the supporting truss work weighs as much as 172 tons.

beginning construction stages

beginning construction stages

the shenzen stock exchange at night

the plaza at night

the plaza at night

the atrium

the trading floor

the trading floor

project info: status: competition: 1st prize 2006 completion: april 2011

client: shenzhen stock exchange

site: 132,000m2 in the downtown area of shenzhen at the meeting point of the north-south axis between mount lianhua and binhe boulevard, and the east-west axis of shennan road, shenzhen’s main artery.

program: total 200,000 m2: rental offices, registration & clearing house, accessory area, securities information company, sse office area, trading floor, technical operations area.