Project HuntImage ©Seth Powers88 Glass Bulletin | January - March, 2020
glaston• 2Tianjin’s 7th highest glass wonderA Sustainable Original In Glass And SteelReaching toward the heights of where China plans to grow its business fortunes stands theshiny-new Tianjin Finance Centre in the north-eastern port city.High-performing glass buildingsare a specialty for thearchitecture firm Skidmore,Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM) based inChicago. They have been chosen forcountless projects that bring an iconicstructure into being, enhancing itssurroundings and adding efficiency tothe building’s purpose.All façade glass for the building wassupplied by CSG Holding, the largestarchitectural glass manufacturer inChina.Integrating architecture andengineeringThe Tianjin Finance Centre is one ofthe most recent testimonials to SOM’scommitment to excellence, innovationand sustainability. According to SOMConsulting Design Partner Brian Lee,the result has been right on target.The Tianjin Finance Centre representsa very original concept of what a tallbuilding should be. This was basedon the fine integration of architectureand engineering to produce an optimalform from a structural and buildingenclosure point of view, at the serviceof very efficient and desirable interiorspaces.“The worst is when cities often lookso much the same, because buildingsare just copies of each other. So whatwe’re trying to do is build a veryoriginal, unique form with each andevery one of our buildings. We wantthem to be memorable, functional andefficient,” Brian Lee emphasizes.SOM held a workshop with theclient to discover his visions for thebuilding. The team presented differentmodels in various shapes to see whichimagery resonated most.“Each shape represented buildingswe knew would work, from anefficiency point of view and from howwe felt a tall building should work,”Lee explained. “In the end, one modelreally caught the client’s eye – a morelyrical form, which was very unusualand evocative. We knew from extensiveresearch that it would have a reallystrong chance to be a very highperformingtall building.”Additionally, the building neededto fit well in its surroundings in theTianjin Economic-TechnologicalDevelopment Area (TEDA), one of thefirst national economic developmentareas in the country, gaining approvalin 1984. TEDA is located 50 kilometreseast of the over 15-million-inhabitantTianjin port city and 30 minutes byfast-speed train from Beijing.Three-part programmeThe building’s strict programmedictated its three sections: office,residential and hotel. Each spaceneeded to be of world-class quality,with a functional floor plate and anefficient core – and offer a sense ofconnection to the outdoors.“These sectional requirementsactually helped us form the shapeof the building. The client was anexperienced builder. He didn’t wantanything frivolous, but rather waslooking for the innovative. Somethingiconic, with a landmark quality – andat the same time, highly efficient,” Leedescribes.Efficiency in every detailBack at the studio, the SOM teamworked on the program in the mostefficient way. By combining thetapering shape with a visually softaerodynamic quality, the resultingshape fit the program perfectly. Ahybrid stepped-core-in-core structuredesign with a sloped perimeter columnsystem reinforced the building againstearthquakes and high wind loads.“We knew a tapering tower alwaysperforms well in wind,” Lee says. “Alsorounding off the corners of the towerhelps reduce wind resistance.”And the team continued finetuningthe design, creating a poroustop and using concave surfaces. Eachelement was developed to optimizethe structure’s performance. Amoment frame was selected with anadded brace to form a curving frame,which also enhanced the building’sperformance.“So, then we had this beautiful, fluidlyrical shape. But we needed to thinkabout what kind of enclosure to use,”Lee explains.Extraordinary glass curtainsaves costs, enhancesperformanceThe unconventional shape of thebuilding required a unique glasscurtain. The idea was to use staggeredglass panels and aluminium mullionsto create an elegant skin-like texture tocatch the eye and glisten in the sun.The team started to work on thesurface, mapping it out parametrically.Then, they tweaked the surface toreduce the number of unique glasspanels needed, even though readilyavailable glass panel sizes had beenselected. “Initially, we had over 1,000,but we got this down to around 476unique panels for greater efficiencyand ease of replacement,” Lee adds.SOM presented two differentschemes to the ownership – cold-bentglass and offset flat glass panels – andthey chose to go with the less risky flatglass scheme. This added complicationto the design. But Lee’s team wasable to accommodate this by addinga make-up aluminium piece to themullion system and metal frames. Thismakes a beautiful effect, looking almostlike the building is sheathed in metalbecause of the spectacular way that theGlass Bulletin | January - March, 2020 89