Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
Aerodynamically conceived forms developed with the same design techniques used to make automobiles more energy efficient are deployed to do the same for the Suzhou Center in Wujiang, China. The 76-story-tall tower’s upper 30 floors, comprising apartments and hotel rooms, are organized around an innovative central atrium that acts quite literally as the building’s "lung."
Convex primary facades combined with concave short facades are shaped in a manner that decreases the building’s structural loads while simultaneously increasing the flow of natural ventilation through the windows on the east and west elevations of the tower.
Air flow patterns will vary with changes in prevailing wind patterns from season to season, even hour to hour, but a high performance system of digital controls will meter and direct the flow of air into the atrium depending on specific climatic conditions. This sophisticated system will direct the opening and closing of windows throughout the building and allow the 1,170-feet-tall tower itself to "breathe" in the most energy efficient manner.
This contributes immensely to achieving a 30% savings in energy consumption from an ASHRAE 90.1 2007 baseline.
Project is set for completion for 2016.