Omniturm, Frankfurt, Germany
Architects: BIG– Bjarke Ingels Group, Copenhagen / Denmark
Client: Commerzbank
Function: Mixed use comprising offices and apartments
Height: 190 m
Completion: December 2019
Location: Frankfurt, Main / Germany
Omniturm with its office, residential and public spaces is Germany’s first mixed-use high-rise building. The tower is designed as a slender, rational stack of floors, with two sculptural movements following the changes in function. The lower floors are shifted back and forth to create terraces and arcades for the public levels, thereby anchoring the building in its surroundings. In the middle of the tower, which accommodates the residential units, the floors slide outwards in a spiral movement following the course of the sun. The ‘hip-swing’ lends the tower lightness and dynamics and marks a turning point in Frankfurt’s city center, which is characterized by office towers that are monotonous regarding their use. This change in the silhouette creates non-public outdoor spaces with impressive views for the residents. The upper section of the Omniturm returns to the simple, efficient addition of floors, and the metal-glass façade rises evenly. This results in flexible floor plans for office use. The tower is to be animated with active (business) life through a mixture of conventional office tower tenants and smaller start-ups.
EDEN, Singapore
Architects: Heatherwick Studio, London / Great Britain
Client: Swire Properties, Celestial Fortune
Function: Residential
Height: 105 m
Completion: December 2019
Location: Singapur
Based on Singapore’s urban development concept of a City in a Garden, EDEN combines high-class apartments with closeness to nature in the central and very popular District 10. In the middle of an exclusive neighborhood, the building literally elevates Singapore’s species-rich landscape. The 20 apartments, all of which have a living space of 282 square meters and a room height of three meters, each extend over an entire floor. Around a large, column-free living room with an adjacent main balcony, the remaining rooms are grouped in three concrete elements. These peripheral cores extend across the entire height of the building, simultaneously providing the supporting structure of the residential tower. Between the concrete elements there are balconies with integrated and generously planted shell-shaped planters, which were partly hand-made by local manufacturers. This arrangement of the building volume allows extensive cross-ventilation, which makes electronic air conditioning redundant. The lush greenery comprising more than twenty tropical plant species, which were extensively researched for this project, completes the feeling of living in a tropical jungle.
Norra Tornen Innovationen, Stockholm, Sweden
Architects: OMA Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rotterdam / Netherlands
Client: Oscar Properties
Function: Residential
Height: 125 m
Completion: December 2018
Location: Stockholm / Sweden
The Norra Tornen twin towers, the “northern towers”, are located at the transition from Vasastaden, a district with residential developments mainly from the 1930s, to the newly emerging district of Hagastaden and create a gate situation to the left and right of the arterial road Torsgatan. In the immediate vicinity of the Karolinska Institute, which annually determines the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Hagastaden is currently Stockholm’s largest urban development area comprising 96 hectares, about three times the size of the famous old town. Norra Tornen marks the transition to the new district and clearly represents a contemporary and sustainable vision for the city. At the same time, the towers are able to incorporate Stockholm’s older architectural structure in their color scheme and rising shape. The sheltered balconies and the cube-like modules alternate in a regular pattern and form a brutalist game of deception. The use of prefabricated façade elements made it possible to continue the construction work even at temperatures below 5°C, when pouring concrete on site would no longer be possible. In addition, prefabrication saved considerable time — one story was completed in one week — and costs, which made the differentiated façade treatment and dynamic surface with its numerous recesses and projections economically feasible in the first place.
The Stratford, London, Great Britain
Architects: Skidmore Owings & Merrill, London / Great Britain
Client: Manhattan Loft Corporation
Function: Mixed use comprising hotel, gastronomy and apartments
Height: 143 m
Completion: October 2019
Location: London / Great Britain
The Stratford is located in the district of the same name, which is currently still unknown to non-Londoners, but is one of the fastest growing and most diverse neighborhoods in the capital city. In the immediate vicinity is the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, where the 2012 Olympic Games were held. With its largest new building project to date, project developer Manhattan Loft Corporation is again focusing on the future development of a previously unknown part of London. At first sight, the tower with the huge billboard might not be located in London but in Las Vegas. However, upon closer examination, one recognizes that this is not a superimposed advertising sign. Rather, the square tower is diagonally divided and recessed at the top. This creates space for a triangular, jointly used terrace. The same applies to the deep recesses at the transition from the plinth to the tower and about half way up the tower. Tenants can choose from a total of 60 different types of apartments, ranging from one-room studios with 40 square meters to two-story maisonettes and spacious four-room penthouses with a floor area of 120 square meters. The unconventional shape is enveloped by a pleated façade, which makes the building shimmer depending on the viewing angle. When looking from above, it becomes clear that these are not shading elements, but that the façade has actually been folded countless times.
Leeza SOHO, Beijing, China
Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects, London / Great Britain
Client: SOHO China Ltd
Function: Office
Height: 200 m
Completion: November 2019
Location: Beijing/China
The 45-story Leeza SOHO tower provides flexible office space for small and medium-sized enterprises and is the center of the new Fengtai business district, a growing financial and transport hub not far from the recently opened Beijing Daxing International Airport in southwest Beijing. Due to its proximity to the local railway station, the tower is, on the one hand, optimally connected to the city’s public transport network, while, on the other hand, a subway line runs directly underneath the tower, diagonally dissecting it on the fourth basement level. This had a lasting influence on the design of Leeza Soho and is the reason why the building volume is divided into two halves, each with its own structural core with external columns and a steel tension ring following the tower’s curved outside structure. The 194.15-meter high atrium of Leeza SOHO is the tallest in the world and serves as a public space for the district. Rotating dynamically by 45 degrees, it divides the building over its full height into two halves that are connected by four sky bridges. The sculptural division brings natural light deep into the building and offers views both across the city and into the atrium. The void acts as a thermal chimney that additionally regulates the indoor climate. Due to their rotation, the two halves of the tower shade the atrium and, in combination with the double-insulated low-e glazing, maintain a pleasant indoor climate.
