Leeza Soho Tower by Zaha Hadid Architects – All photos by ©Hufton+Crow, courtesy of ZHA.
Architecture – Zaha Hadid Architects inaugurated Leeza SOHO, a 45-storey 172,800m² skyscraper in Fengtai, a growing financial and transport hub in southwest Beijing. “The new business district is integral to Beijing’s multi-modal urban plan to accommodate growth without impacting existing infrastructure networks in the centre of the city.” Explain at Zaha Hadid Architects. “The tower responds to demand from small and medium-sized businesses in Beijing for flexible and efficient Grade A office space.”
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Leeza SOHO tower’s design divides its volume into two halves enclosed by a single facade shell. The emerging space between these two halves extends the full height of the tower, creating the world’s tallest atrium at 194.15m which rotates through the building as the tower rises to realign the upper floors with the road to the north.
This rotation of the atrium intertwines Leeza SOHO’s two halves in a dynamic ‘pas de deux’ with connecting skybridges on levels 13, 24, 35 and 45; its glaced facade giving panoramic views across the city.
“Leeza SOHO’s atrium acts as a public square for the new business district, linking all spaces within the tower and providing varying views due to its twisting, sculptural form; creating a fantastic new civic space for Beijing that is directly connected to the city’s transport network.” Explain at Zaha Hadid Architects.
The atrium brings natural light deep within the building, acting as a thermal chimney with an integrated ventilation system that maintains positive pressure at low level to limit air ingress and provides an effective clean air filtration process within the tower’s internal environment.
Leeza SOHO’s double-insulated, unitised glass curtain wall system steps the glazing units on each floor at an angle, providing narrow ventilating registers to draw outside air through operable cavities where required; creating extremely efficient environmental control for each floor.
The two halves of the tower shade the atrium’s public spaces, while the double-insulated low-e glazing maintains a comfortable indoor environment in Beijing’s extreme weather conditions. With a u-value of 2.0 W/m²K, the glazing has a shading coefficient of 0.4. The tower’s overall external envelope u-value is 0.55 W/m²K.
All photos by ©Hufton+Crow – Courtesy of Zaha Hadid Architects.
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