Flower power. Known as the “Flower City,” Guangdong, China, is a 2,000-year-old city with a balmy climate that stays green year-round. Mimicking the city’s dense natural vegetation, the new 80,000-seat Guangdong Olympic Stadium “grows out of the ground to a sculpted upper edge, like the petals of a flower,” comments Gordon Wood, principal in charge with A/E Ellerbe Becket, Kansas City, Mo. The firm designed the stadium in conjunction with Nixon & Nixon, Oklahoma City.
Instead of using fabric-roof technology, the stadium’s sinuous roof was created from a space frame clad in a smooth, reflective material. The frame is cantilevered from double columns and secured with steel cables.
Completed in time for China’s 9th National Games in January, the stadium also features 108,000 square feet of retail space and a 100-room hotel.(Photo accompanies this write-up)
Ripple effect reflects high-tech client. Reflecting the technical nature of it’s clients work, Leo A. Daly designed of the façade of a 36-story office tower for software developer Goyeah Group, Shanghai, China, to ripple at the top. “This is a metaphor of the digitization process,” says Michael Winstanley, director of design with Leo A. Daly. “The top of the building delaminates and dematerializes much like the process of images and information being translated into ‘1’s and ‘0’s, transmitted through space, only to rematerialize.”
Skyscraper provides breath of fresh air. Chicago-based architect Murphy/Jahn Inc. is re-examining the nature of high-rise enclosures with its design of the 63-story, steel and glass Deutsche Bank Tower in Frankfort, Germany. The building will feature narrow operable windows behind vertical panels of stainless steel and a second glass façade, providing naturally ventilated air space in-between. Construction of the 920,000-sq.-ft. tower is expected to begin next year.