TWISTING STRUCTURE

CANTON TOWER

•Architects: Mark Hemel + Barbara Kuit•Location: Guangdong, China•Engineer: Arup•Height: 600m•Area: 114000 sqm•Project Year: 2010•Type: Mixed use-Restaurant, Observation, Telecommunications

•HEIGHT-•Top - 595.7 m (1,954 ft)•Roof- 462.1 m (1,516 ft)

PROJECT DETAILS

Comparison of the Canton Tower with the world's seven tallest towers

A ring of building integrated photovoltaics on the Canton Tower in China uses two shapes of solar modules: the triangle-shaped modules consist of seven cells connected in parallel, but all at the same height and same voltage; the parallelogram-shaped modules consist of six cells connected in serial and parallel, but all at the same height.

Floor plan for the Canton Tower in China.

STRUCTURAL CONCEPTThe waist of the tower contains a 180 m (590 ft) open-air skywalk where visitors can physically climb the tower. There are outdoor gardens set within the structure, and at the top, just above 450 m (1,480 ft), a large open-air observation deck.

The interior of the tower is subdivided into programmatic zones with various functions, including TV and radio transmission facilities, observatory decks, revolving restaurants, computer gaming, restaurants, exhibition spaces, conference rooms, shops, and 4D cinemas.

A deck at the base of the tower hides the tower's functional workings. All infrastructural connections – metro and bus stations – are situated underground. This level also includes exhibition spaces, a food court, a commercial space, a parking area for cars and coaches. There are two types of lifts, slow-speed panoramic and high-speed double-decker.

•ArchitectsInformation Based Architecture•LocationGuangdong, China•EngineerArup•Height600m•Area114000.0 sqm•Project Year2010•PhotographsCourtesy of Information Based Architecture

TWISTING CONCEPT

The idea of the tower is simple. The form, volume and structure is generated by two ellipses, one at foundation level and the other at a horizontal plane at 450 metres. These two ellipses are rotated relative to another. The tightening caused by the rotation between the two ellipses forms a ‘waist’ and a densification of material.

The waist itself becomes tight, like a twisted rope; transparency is reduced and views to the outside are limited. Further up the tower the lattice opens again, accentuated here by the tapering of the structural column-tubes.

February 2007 November 2007 August 2008

June 2009 Post-construction – 2010 Asian Games opening ceremony

Post-construction – March 2011

CONSTRUCTION HISTORY

STRUCTUREThe structure consist of a open lattice-structure, built up from 1100 nodes and the same amount of connecting ring- and bracing pieces. Basically the tower can be seen as a giant 3 dimensional puzzle of which all 3300 pieces are totally unique. Architect Mark Hemel comments: “Recent State of the Art fabrication and computerized analysis techniques allow designers to create much more complex structures then ever before.

Similar to a biological system's strategy for producing a spectrum of offspring instead of focusing all hope and energy on the production of a single specific, type we produce a range of possibilities, some of which will prove to be redundant, others which we hope will have the strength to survive.

ROOFTOP OBSERVATORY

The indoor public observatory is 449 m above the ground, which takes the form of a terraced elliptical space, roughly half the size of a standard football field. Opened in December 2011, the rooftop at 488 m was the highest and largest outdoor observation deck in the world, taking over the title from the observation deck of Burj Khalifa at 452m.

This remained the case until 14 October 2014, when the record of highest outdoor observatory was retaken by Burj Khalifa when it opened its new observatory called At The Top - Sky, at a height of 555m.

On top of the world: An elliptical track has been constructed around the edge of the tower's roof, and the 16 transparent 'crystal' pods take between 20 and 40 minutes to go round the track.

Passengers set to ride in see-through capsules perched on top of the 450-metre-high Canton Tower, also known as the Guangzhou TV Tower. The 16 pods - which hold a total of 96 thrill seekers - each measure just over three metres wide.

At night, the tower glows and emits light, rather than being uplit. Every node in the lighting design is individually controllable to allow for animations and colour changes across the entire height of the tower. As all lighting is based on LED technology and all fixtures are located on the structure itself, the lighting scheme consumes only 15% of the allowed maximum for façade lighting.

ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING

THANKYOU

ASTHA AGARWAL4-CB.ARCHSSAA