Skidmore, Owings & Merrill completed a new 518-foot-high (157-meter-tall), 33-story tower located on the edge of a public park in the center of one of Shenzhen’s main business districts. The building will serve as the new headquarters of the Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank.
The façade of the tower is defined by an external box spring, which serves both as the structure of the building and as an important element of solar protection. At its base, the box spring expands to create framed openings and views of the surrounding park and the South China Sea.
The building’s lobby is surrounded by a reflecting pool and features a wall of rippling water adjacent to the main entrance. A rain curtain, with water droplets cascading down small translucent filaments, lines the transparent glass walls of the lobby. In hot weather, these water features provide an evaporative cooling effect for the entire building.
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