OMA has won the design competition for the Essence Financial Building in Shenzhen. The project, led by OMA Partners David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas, and designed as a new generation office tower for Shenzhen, was selected from entries by four competing international and Chinese architectural practices.
The Essence Financial Building, located in the Financial Development Area of Shenzhen, reflects on how the emergent forces in business and society could shape a contemporary office tower typology. The building challenges the many conventions that govern office tower designs, in particular the prevailing central core plan and curtain wall systems.
David Gianotten commented: “OMA is very excited about its continuous and deepening participation in Shenzhen’s development, especially as the city makes its latest evolution: from a manufacturing city into a services hub. This next generation of urbanism calls for a new generation of office towers, of which the Essence Financial Building could be one.” The Essence Financial Building will be OMA’s second building in Shenzhen: the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, for which OMA won the competition in 2006, will be completed in April this year.
The Essence Financial Building shifts its core to the edge of the floor plate, resulting in large unobstructed plans that allow a variety of office configurations—and therefore working styles—that meet the demands of the contemporary services industry. Direct and open additional connections between floors can be created to cater for visual and physical contact between departments. The building rationalizes programs into unique volumes, which are then maneuvered to create the distinct form of the building, as well as a viewing platform overlooking the Shenzhen Golf Club, and shaded outdoor recreational spaces for staff.
The façade of the building is an architectural translation of the sun and solar gain diagrams, as well as to the views from each side of the tower. Each face thus takes on a unique pattern. The East and West facades are less penetrable, in response to the low-hitting sun, while the South façade has gradated openings: the size of the windows increases down the building in proportion to the decrease of solar penetration. The North façade opens toward Fuhua First Road.
The project was developed together with SADI, YRG, SWA, Inhabit, and AECOM.
About OMA
OMA is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA’s buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. AMO, a research and design studio, works in areas beyond architecture that today have an increasing influence on architecture itself: media, politics, renewable energy, technology, publishing, fashion.
OMA is led by seven partners—Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, David Gianotten and Managing Partner, Victor van der Chijs—and sustains an international practice with offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing and Hong Kong, employing a staff of around 350.
OMA Asia was established in 2006 in Beijing, with the main task of overseeing the construction of the (now completed) CCTV Headquarters. OMA’s Hong Kong office, established in 2009, oversees the construction of several projects: the Taipei Performing Arts Center, the Chu Hai College of Higher Education in Hong Kong, and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Projects led by OMA Hong Kong vary in typology and scale, ranging from interior projects to buildings and large scale masterplans. Completed works by OMA Hong Kong include the Edouard Malingue Gallery (2010), McKinsey’s new Hong Kong office and Malahon 13 Dental Practice, (both 2011). Ongoing projects include the design of the new Tencent Headquarters in Beijing, the SSI towers in Jakarta and the YLBX masterplan in Hanoi.
OMA Asia is led by OMA partner David Gianotten and associates Dongmei Yao, Adam Frampton, Ravi Kamisetti and Michael Kokora, and has around 85 employees.
Related Stories
Architects | Jan 26, 2016
HOK promotes Bill Hellmuth to chief executive
Hellmuth is set to replace Patrick MacLeamy, who will remain as the firm’s chairman.
Mixed-Use | Jan 25, 2016
SOM unveils renderings of dual-tower Manhattan West development
The five million-sf project includes two office towers, a residential tower, retail space, and a new public square.
Office Buildings | Jan 21, 2016
Nike reveals design, first images of planned 3.2 million-sf expansion to its world headquarters
The expansion looks to combine design elements inspired by human movement, speed, and the strength and energy of competition.
Market Data | Jan 20, 2016
Architecture Billings Index ends year on positive note
While volatility persists, architecture firms reported healthy performance for 2015.
Architects | Jan 18, 2016
EHDD’s Monterey Bay Aquarium wins AIA Twenty-five Year Award
The aquarium set new technical standards for the building type, which still influence today, such as the flow-through seawater-based heat pump system, naturalistic exhibitions, and corrosion protection.
Architects | Jan 15, 2016
Best in Architecture: 18 projects named AIA Institute Honor Award winners
Morphosis' Perot Museum and Studio Gang's WMS Boathouse are among the projects to win AIA's highest honor for architecture.
| Jan 14, 2016
How to succeed with EIFS: exterior insulation and finish systems
This AIA CES Discovery course discusses the six elements of an EIFS wall assembly; common EIFS failures and how to prevent them; and EIFS and sustainability.
Market Data | Jan 13, 2016
Morgan Stanley bucks gloom and doom, thinks U.S. economy has legs through 2020
Strong job growth and dwindling consumer debt give rise to hope.
Architects | Jan 13, 2016
‘Socially engaged’ architect Alejandro Aravena named 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate
Known for his inventive social housing initiatives in his native Chile, Aravena epitomizes the revival of a more socially engaged architect, the Pritzker jury stated.
Architects | Jan 12, 2016
Dear Architecture: It's time to create a level field for female designers
If architecture took one moment to be introspective, it would discover appalling imbalances between the opportunities for women and men, as Perkins+Will's Vershaé Hite and Brittany Eaker-Kirkland wrote in an open letter.