Silver A' Design Award in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Goes to The Exo Towers Office Building by United Units Architects

The Work

Project

The Exo Towers Office Building

Function

Office Building

Category

Architecture, Building and Structure Design

Discipline

Spatial Design

Industry

Architecture

Colors

Light Blue, Dark Gray, Slate Gray, Light Slate Gray and Gainsboro

Images

5

The Recognition

Laureate

United Units Architects

Country

China

Recognition

Silver A' Design Award

Edition

2022 - 2023

Design ID

#142721

Credits

Team

Yongzheng Li, Tim Mason, Qizhi Li, Qian Lu, Yanfeng Lyu, Teng Jiang, Liang Xu, Yuan Tian and Jessie Millar

Image Credits

Photographer / Lian He

Design Details

Unique Properties

The Exo Towers is comprised of two towers and linked together by a 70m-high central glazed atrium. As the digital finance center of the Bank of Ruifeng, the building utilizes an external structural system that greatly reduces the number of columns of the typical floor, creating large and open office space, allowing for the ongoing flexible division of functional layout to cope with the banking business adjustments brought on by new digital challenges. The Exo Towers therefore derives its architectural language from the manner in which the space and structure are completely integrated.

Inspiration

Around the same time as the project began in 2013, the nature of banking underwent a rapid transition, with mobile payments and cashless transactions from Chinese Internet companies becoming the norm. To cope with this rapid change, there was a pressing need for financial institutions to cope with new digital challenges through business adjustment and organizational restructuring. To allow for future changes in working patterns, the design principles of flexibility and versatility were central to the design of the office layout.

Research

In order to effectively organize all architectural elements, the Exo Towers adopts an integrated design approach. A 1.5m x 1.5m modular grid system is utilized to regulate the architectural form, position and define the spatial layout, structural form, building envelop and MEP services, facilitating mutually dependent and defined systems. Due to the highly prefabricated design and construction methods, the average number of daily workers on the site was about 80 people, which is a reduction of a third when compared with a conventional construction site of a similar scale.

Challenge

The project team was faced with a number of significant structural challenges, seeing numerous of vertical components not touching the ground combined with diagonal braces. This not only means an increase in the design difficulty and workload, but also requires extra time and effort to apply for an Irregular High-rise Building Review to verify the seismic and fire safety of the building from a technical point of view. Fortunately we had the complete support of the client to follow our original aspiration to design an excellent landmark building with structural authenticity.

Realization and Technology

The Exo Towers adopts a hybrid system of steel structure and concrete structure. The central concrete core and the external steel frame jointly constitute a supporting system. Rising up from a unified pile and raft foundation, the two towers are connected by two sets of large trusses at the top of the atrium. The external structure is clad with linen patterned stainless steel plate. The main canopy are prefabricated in factories and bolted on the site. The cable-net glazing shows an extraordinary transparency and clarity by hiding the anchors and spring assemblies in an ingenious way.

Operation and Interaction

The 70m full-height glazed atrium between the two towers is the spatial core of the whole building. Along the west facade, six sky bridges span between the two towers and enhance the building's horizontal connections. Cloud-shaped sunshades are suspended at the top of the atrium. A full height cable-net glass curtain wall is used for the east facade of the atrium. The atrium spaces are flooded with natural daylight, thus every floor in each tower receives daylight from two directions, outside and inside, considerably enhancing the internal ambience and working conditions.

Project Duration and Location

Located in the central position of Jinghu New District, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, the Exo Towers was started in April/2013 and completed in June/2021.

Specifications

Having a gross floor area of 74,000 m2, the Exo Towers is comprised of two towers, being 15-storey (94m) and 21-storey(121m) high respectively, and linked together by a 70m-high central glazed atrium.

Keywords

Headquarters, Bank, Office, Towers, Hi-Tech, Atrium, Structure, Cable-Net Facade, Sky Bridges, Sky Gardens