The bottom two-thirds of the tower is occupied by office space, while the 20 floors in the top third are reserved for the InterContinental’s Hua Lux luxury hotel. The change in program is marked by the “Great Window”—a large angled aperture recessed into the building facade. “Formally, the great window transitions the floor plates to a suitable size and layout for the hotel function,” writes SOM. “Aesthetically, it marks the tower with a strong design, distinguishing it from the other towers that compose Nanchang’s urban fabric.” A low-level retail building wraps around the tower to bring the project down to a pedestrian-scale on the ground plane.
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The LEED Silver glass skyscraper is covered with aluminum triangular sun-shading fins that shade the building and prevent excessive solar heat gain and glare to the interior. Integrated white LEDs are embedded at the structural node of the fin intersections and make the tower’s distinctive diagrid pattern light up at night.
+ SOM
Via ArchDaily
Images via SOM
