Joinround Center is a mixed-use landmark project envisioned as a new model for innovative building design and sustainability. The project is situated in Qingyuan, a city in the north of Guangdong province. It boarders with Guangzhou to the south and it is lying in the linking area between the Pearl River Delta and the mountainous region in northern Guandong. Located on the northern bank of the Beijiang River at the eastern edge of Qingyuan, Joinround Center will play an important role as the future gateway to the city. As approach from Qingyuan high-speed train station and points west, the landmark project will be a visitor’s first impression of Qingyuan as an expanding city. The project symbolizes Qingyuan’s continued economic growth, urban expansion and vision for sustainability as a necessary component of urban development. The project represents a shift towards a highly efficient floor plans layout, rational and optimized high-rise structural engineering and performance driven design methodology for tall buildings. At 262-meter height the office and hotel mixed-use high-rise tower and the 158-meter-high service apartment’s tower, Joinround Center is set to become the development with the tallest buildings in Qingyuan when it is completed.
The design approach creates a pivotal connection between the neighbor plots and the future pedestrian promenade of Beijiang River. As the heart of the mixed-use project, it is positioned a decentralized yet flexible multi-layered commercial podium with wide range of artistic, cultural and sport amenities. The podium is a series of interlaced volumes shaped as a reflection of the surrounding site context and the mountain silhouettes that can be observed from a distance. They formed a multi-layered scenery throughout the entire site, which represent and lead into a harmony between man and nature – the main philosophy idea behind the Chinese traditional culture. The ground conditions are envisioned as a landscape utopia in the city of Qingyuan with beautiful scenery that would enriched beyond the public experience.
The buildings retreat through steps and introduce multiple outdoor roof gardens and inner sky gardens in order to create a sense for a vertical urban garden. Thus the overall building volumes appears in a balance and complement each other with the surrounding natural valleys and mountainous landscape scenery. At a closer look of Joinround Center, one can be surprised partly by the simplicity and tension of the building volumes. Positioned as interlocked rock formations that ascends to the sky, the office tower features a simple yet elegant façade that would carry a timeless and sophisticated image character across the entire development. Anodized aluminum bronze color tone has been selected for the overall façade as it carries a bold impression and feeling that it will aged well in time and blends with the natural scenery and context. The curved profile of the façade mullion serves as a sun shading screen for the interior of the tower. Due to its specific length, it helps further to underline the dynamic views from the office spaces and hotel rooms due to the gentle inflamed tower’s floor plate outlines. Below the spandrel panels, it is introduced and underfloor ventilation device that can bring outdoor fresh air directly inside the interior spaces throughout the high-rise. This passive ventilation approach helps to reduce the project’s annual energy demand for fresh air throughout the year.
A large central atrium void has been carved through the upper half of the high-rise tower where is located the 5-star hotel program. The great atria space creates a great opportunity to collect natural daylight, clean air and generate a passive natural ventilation method by capitalizing on the principle of a solar updraft within the tall vertical 14 floor high central atrium void. Furthermore, the atrium and hotel sky-gar-dens glazing panels that line the central void are designed with double super white low-e coated glazing material that catch and hold light which reduces the reliance on artificial light. An active phytoremediation green wall is planted within the perimeter of the atrium to clean and replenish the internal air supply. A gray water reclamation tank within the tower, drastically reduces the dependence on the public water supply and eliminates the need for potable irrigation water.
Since the project target position aims to become a landmark development – the tallest residential and office buildings in Qingyuan – both the high rise mixed-use tower and apartment building need to share similar façade design elements to certain extend. One of the key elements that the apartment tower façade share with the high-rise tower is the vertical sun screen mullion fin that is methodologically positioned according to the modular apartment floor plan. Furthermore, the operable windows have been placed within the solid panels in order to minimize the use of windows frames in order to stay coherent with the design language that is carried out through the entire development.
Joinround Center symbolizes an alignment with high-rise design with cultural, environmental and contextual sensitivity that symbolizes a future success and growth for the Joinround Group, for the city of Qingyuan and for China.