Towers in the Far East                                  

Beijing World Science & Trade Centre - Beijing, China 

T. R. Hamzah and Yeang have been selected to design the Masterplan for the World Science and Trade Centre in Beijing on a site of 9.21 Ha. with a gross built-up area of 700,000 sq.mt. The design successfully responds to the design brief from the H.K.I. Development Company for a “modern comprehensive development of international standards”. The project will comprise of a group of environmentally designed tower blocks containing serviced apartments, business offices, a five star hotel, a cultural center, a convention center as well as shopping and recreational facilities. 

The development is being planned as a self-contained microcosm of the larger city with all facilities being easily accessible through horizontal and vertical linkages. A linear park with continuous landscaping on green ramps and bridges will ensure a stable ecosystem. Further landscaping is planned for the roof gardens and semi-enclosed skycourts. Feng Shui principles will be used in the site and building planning process to utilize the natural forces of the surrounding area. The grand entrance to the development will have twin tower blocks acting as ‘gateway towers’. There will be a weather-protected central plaza for public cultural activities between the apartments blocks and the commercial buildings. 

A thorough environmental analysis of the site was conducted to produce a successful design that brings together a number of established low energy technologies into simple and yet innovative structural configurations. Each tower combines the benefits of wind scoops for ventilation, glazing for daylight, external shading for solar control, wind generators for electrical power and solar collection for hot water. The aim is to achieve a 50% reduction in cooling and ventilation plant and to use 50% less energy than conventional residential hotel or office towers.

The proposals for the project fulfil the following primary objectives: 

• Creative use of standard economic structure components in an innovative and simple way.

• Reduction of peak service loads and therefore the size of plant and eventual running and operating costs and energy consumption.

• Allowance for the maximum use of daylight whilst minimizing solar gain.

• A high level of air quality throughout the year using natural ventilation driven by wind forces and/or solar stack effects.

• Design of facades that respond to the changing climate to ensure that the internal conditions fall within the comfort zone without dependence on building services.

• Offsetting of energy demands with renewable energy sources such as wind, sun and ground water cooling.

Menara Boustead - Menara Mesiniaga, Malaysia

This is an IBM headquarters that applies Ken Yeang’s bioclimatic designs with both internal and external features to create a low energy building ideal for the tropical climate. Planting spirals up the façade and into the skycourts from a three-storey-high planted mound. Planting can also be found amongst the triple height recessed terraces in the upper reaches of the building. These atriums allow natural ventilation of cool air and the planting enhances the shade and increases the oxygen supply. 

On the north and south facades, curtain wall glazing is used to control solar gain and on the east and west facades, external aluminium fins and louvers provide sun shading. The light-green glass and glazing detailing acts as a ventilation-filter without wholly insulation the interior. On all office floors terraces are provided with sliding doors for workers to control the level of natural ventilation. The lift lobbies, toilets and stairwells have natural ventilation and natural daylighting. 

The roof has a sunroof made of trussed steel and aluminium, which shades and filters light on to the swimming pools and gymnasium. This area was also future-proofed for potential solar cells. The building has a circular floor plan, which offers no dark corners. Any enclosed rooms are located near the central core to allow natural lighting and high quality views for the workstations located on the outside edge.  

The tower has intelligent building management systems to reduce energy consumption by equipment and air-conditioning plant.[1]

Menara Boustead - Jalan Raja Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This headquarters building utilises several of Ken Yeang’s bioclimatic signatures. Planted and landscaped terraces and skycourts are located on all corners all the way up the tower. These provide sufficient sun shading to allow full height openable glazing, which in turn provides natural daylight and natural ventilation into the office spaces.

A ventilated rain-check aluminium skin covers the building and this traps heat and dissipates it before it can be transmitted to the interior of the tower. Transitional spaces such as the lift cores and toilets are found on the hotter west and east sides. Windows on these sides are also sun-shaded and the lift lobbies have natural ventilation and natural daylighting.

Penggiran Apartment Towers 1 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This tower marked a new stage in the Hamzah and Yeang’s research, design and development agenda through the investigation of upper level high-velocity wind for ventilation and energy conservation. The residential units have maximum external wall surfaces to increase cross-ventilation and passive cooling. The standard floor plan has minimum party walls for each apartment, which are separate elements that are connected by bridges. The skycourts are large atria that are cut out from the facades. These allow more sunlight and ventilation to the bridges and walkways attached to the apartments as well as promote community interaction as leisurely green spaces. The hotter east and west facades have adjustable sun shades and louvered screens to control the solar gain. Wind is channelled into the ceiling plenums through ‘wind-wing walls’ to provide natural ventilation inside the apartments. 17

Ho Chi Minh City Tower - Ho Chi Minh City ,Vietnam

The design was based around the idea of a ‘boulevard in the sky’. The tower includes skycourts, trellis planting around glass lifts and a planted penthouse in order to integrate into the surrounding landscape as it is at the end of a tree-lined boulevard. The lift lobbies, toilets and stairwells are naturally ventilated and naturally daylit. There are transitional bridges between the lift lobbies and skycourts. Terraces and sun-shading are on the western side of the tower to reduce the air-conditioning loads. The terraces also have sliding doors for inhabitants to control the level of natural ventilation of the office spaces when air conditioning is not in use. 17 

IBM Plaza - Kuala Lumpur ,Malaysia 

 The design and building form of this 24 storey office tower was created in response to the local tropical climate. The floors are aligned north-south in relation to the path of the sun and site geometry. The service cores are on the hotter east and west sides. The top of the tower is pitched like a traditional Malay house. Local landscaping and planting is vertically and diagonally integrated through planter boxes and trellises up to the roof terraces. On the ground floor the lift lobby is open to the external environment and therefore naturally ventilated.

Tokyo - Nara Tower - Tokyo / Nara ,Japan

This project proposal utilises vertical landscaping that spirals around and throughout the tower. This is used to cool the building as well as control air movements through strategic planting. The large mass of planting works symbiotically with the mechanical systems. Mechanical devices would maintain this landscaping, as well as external fixtures, glazing and cladding. 

The built form of this design allows the displaced radial floor plates to shade themselves as they spiral up. This pattern utilises the advantages of hanging gardens, inter-floor bracing and ventilation systems whilst providing variation of form. The vertical spaces are punctuated with private gardens, terraces and internal courts. Large skycourts at regular intervals will provide plenty of oxygen. The floors have atrium spaces that are connected by walkways and stairwells. 

Lift and service cores are on the east-west axis and these facades are clad in cast and perforated metal. The cooler north-south facades have glazing, Louvres and tiered sun shades as well open atrium spaces.

China Tower 1 - Haikou ,Hainan,China

 This tower is part of the Yeang’s progressing exploration into the use of wind in building design, looking at north-easterly and south-easterly winds.

 The hotel tower has an oval floor plan shape with an atrium accentuated on either side. Cut-out skycourts with sun scoops reflect sunlight into the atrium. The tip of the oval is aimed towards the prevailing winds, which will exploit the aerodynamic shape to channel wind through ceiling plenums to naturally ventilate the interior of the tower. Intelligent louvres that adjust themselves accordingly, use sensors and monitoring systems to control this wind. A wind-powered generator at the top of the building produces electricity to provide water heating and lighting for the main stairwells and the fire escape stairwells as well as for emergency lighting.

Kisho Kurokawa - Japan

In the 60’s a group of Japanese architects started a movement based on designing buildings and urban centres around a biological process of change and growth. They were called the Metabolist Group and were made up of the architects: Kurokawa, Maki, Otaka, Kikutaki and Kawazoe. They believed that individual buildings were part of a larger order and recognised the importance of the environment in the architecture in terms of a constant cycle of creation and decomposition. These ideas predicted many of today’s concerns with building intelligence, responsive environments and design for change.[1]

The work of these architects attempted to deal with the problems of urban growth and social living and focused on Tokyo. Japan is a small country with a large population and concerns about urban space and related economics were at the forefront of their thinking. But their ideas had a resonance with other global situations and subsequently these concepts have influenced many architects around the world.18

As a Metabolist, Kurokawa was one of the first designers to develop prefabricated capsules that could be stacked on each other to create housing and offices. Kurokawa utilised the mass production technology developed for shipping containers, focusing on the ability to replicate and dismantle the same design.18  This resulted in the construction of the Nakagin Capsule Tower in 1972 and the Sony Tower ‘information tree’ in 1976. 

The Nakagin Capsule Tower was developed in response to the suburban sprawl of Tokyo as a way to revitalise housing in the centre of the city and provide commuters with a place to sleep in the city. The hotel-room-like units were prefabricated and fastened together with high-tension bolts to a central core. The capsules could be removed or replaced over time according to the desires of the residents. The tower establishes a social need for human individuality in a dense urban environment, whilst reducing construction and assembly costs through prefabrication.

Umeda Sky Building - Osaka, Japan 

This two-tower design is 40-storeys high at 173 meters and is located in Umeda, which is a new suburb of Osaka. It marks a new development of the suburb as it is regarded as a beautiful building and has become a major tourist attraction for visitor to Osaka. Completed in March 1993, the most striking feature is the aerial garden connecting the two towers and the 39^th and 40^th floors. The 39th floor features a mid-air restaurant, while the 40th floor offers a panoramic gallery. One of the main aims of the Architect, Hiroshi Hara, is to create ‘City Air projects’, which is a city deployed in the air that would be linked by a whole system of escalators, footbridges and hanging gardens.[1]  

The architect has succeeded in creating social spaces in the air as well as on the ground. The towers provide art centres and restaurants inside and on the outside there is a beautiful garden with sculptures, pools and fountains. There are also two walking courses in the open spaces of the ground-level that are very popular throughout the year. These are called "Nakashizen-no-Mori" on the north side, and "Hanano" on the south side.  

Part of the success of the design of the project could be due to the close collaboration with the clients, Sekisui House Ltd in association with Toshiba Co. and Daihashi Co. They provided an internal team to manage the project from the initial competition to the construction.19

Efficient construction techniques were used to create the aerial garden. The design demonstrates new possibilities for creating social urban spaces whilst being resistant to swaying caused by winds and earthquakes. This helps to instil a greater sense of safety and security for the occupants. The garden is 54 meters by 54 meters and weighs

Moto- Azabu Hills - Tokyo, Japan 

A new 29-storey apartment complex is nearing completion in residential Moto-Azabu in Tokyo's Minato Ward. The controversial design has been referred to as ‘environmental masterpiece’, whilst others are calling it an ‘overbearing monstrosity’.  

It is claimed to have a low impact on the environment but locals and critics say it does not blend in with the local scenery and surrounding buildings. The project consists of a tower and two low apartment blocks on a 1.2-hectare plot and the complex is nearly ready to provide housing for 220 families. The tower is 33 meters wide from the ground to the 16th floor then it tapers out to 40 meters across at the 20th floor and above. 

The design is intended to prevent large shadows over lower surrounding buildings and to minimise the generation of wind gusts. The developers claim that the shadows cast by the lower part of a building are darker and last longer than shadows from the upper reaches. Mori Building officials maintain that a top-heavy building casts smaller dark shadows than a traditional rectangular building of the same floor space, and will have less of an impact on the surrounding areas less.  

The shape of the tower is also designed to alleviate wind gusts that are deflected by high-rise buildings. A rectangular building will cause wind to blow downward toward the ground with great force when it first hits its surface. With this top-heavy design the wind will disperse as it blows down.  

The shape also allows for more space at the bottom for more trees and eventually a community square. Architect Shozo Uchii, who designed Moto-Azabu Hills, said: ``In addition to there being less effect from wind and shadows, the design will help alleviate heat in the city because we have more greenery in the compound. This is an eco-friendly building that can coexist with the local community.''  

Michihiko Shinozaki, a professor of system engineering at Shibaura Institute of Technology, gives the design high marks for its ``rationality.''  But nearby Architect, Norihiko Dan said: ``It's not a good design at all. It destroys the scenery.''  

Moto-Azabu was known for its temples during the Edo Era. It still retains its old atmosphere because many of the temples and historic buildings survived the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. It is also a residential area of individual houses and low buildings and this tower does stand out. Norihiko Dan said: ``There were probably ways to build a complex with the same floor space by building a number of blocks with fewer stories. Construction lacking harmony with the surrounding environment and respect for history is a crime.'' Dan also questions the claim that the top-heavy shape is environmentally friendly.  

Local residents protested when the construction plans were unveiled in 1994 and prompted a group to form and collect 3,000 signatures to unsuccessfully petition to stop the project. Ward assembly member Akira Yamakoshi expressed local frustration by saying: ``Scenery is everybody's property. We can't have it destroyed.''  

Literary critic Saburo Kawamoto, who has written extensively about Tokyo, commented: ``These sorts of problems related to redevelopment crop up every day and are not confined to Moto-Azabu. People who have always lived in the area will be forgotten and people will come to think the big building was always there.’’ 

(Source: AKIYAMA. Soichiro, March 8, 2002 Love it or hate it-building is here to stay, http://www.asahi.com, Japan)

Sky City 1000- Takenaka Company, Japan 

An engineering company in Japan called Takenaka has been developing concepts for this new type of city that will simultaneously provide an attractive natural environment and thorough services. Like so many contemporary designs, this urban development seeks harmony between technology and nature.

Sky City 1000 will function as a medium-sized city in relation to housing, commerce, education and recreation. As a vertical city for the 21st century it will fuse architecture, transportation, communications, and energy in a highly efficient manner. 

At a height of 1,000 meters above the ground the tower will cover a footprint of 800 hectares (2,000 acres). The Sky City will provide accommodation for 36,000 residents and 100,000 workers whilst existing in harmony with the natural surrounding environment. All facilities will be centralised making the workplace close to home.  

It is a comprehensive concept that will be constructed with a global outlook on environmental concerns by assisting to alleviate land problems and preserve the natural environment. 

(Source: http://www.takenaka.co.jp/takenaka_e/techno/63_sky/63_sky.htm)

Holonic  Tower - Takenaka Company, Japan 

Takenaka has also been working on the design of a superhigh-rise building that will not be able to be achieved until the year 2010.

Increasingly, individual values are becoming increasingly diverse, whilst everyone demands both economic and cultural wealth as well as more contact with the natural world. The Takenaka designers and technicians discovered the "Holon" which is the concept of harmony between individuals and the whole. At the time of their discovery, new technologies were appearing which would mean that building a superhigh-rise was becoming possible. The company’s R&D department eventually developed the concept for the Holonic Tower, which is a composite structure rising 600 meters above the ground.

It is envisioned that this tower will be able to respond to a variety of changes in social life. The Holonic tower HoH  is a ‘supermulti-facility’ where the concept of "holon" is not only used in the design and construction, but is also for the various operation systems. At the same time, the tower would not use every space but would also incorporate voids to allow maximum air and daylight into the building. These voids would contribute to an attractive living space where one could enjoy both the spectacular experience of looking at it or living in it.

The technology behind the Holonic tower can be transferred to a wide variety of global schemes for new urban developments or redevelopments and the relocation of major cities due to environmental threats.

The designers are aiming for an enduring structure that will last at least 500 years. The goal is to minimise the impact on the environment by efficiently utilising construction materials from the planning stage through to operation. This tower will also protect and enhance the surrounding environment by creating large green areas at the base of the tower and by applying wide-ranging energy efficiency and recycling systems.