Red Earth Investment Plaza is an innovative high-rise office, designed to serve as the headquarters for Shenzhen Venture Capital group and other business tenants. With Shenzhen Stadium on its east and prominent high-rise development in the vicinity, the site marks a very visible location that will define the future skyline of Shenzhen. This 52 storied tower, with spectacular views of Shenzhen Bay and Houhai CBD, features ambient and personalized offices with interactive sky-gardens and naturally lit central atriums across its 250m height.
A tower bears civic responsibility to address social, cultural and larger urban needs by extending its infrastructure to the city. Taking this principle as a point of departure, the tower design evolves through holistic integration of nature, urbanism and surrounding skyline. The Investment tower lies at the head of a characteristic urban block that defines its western edge, whereas dominant presence of Shenzhen Stadium and landscape on its east is juxtaposed against the rectilinear urban profile. With a calibrated rotation and skewing of the floor plate, further rounded at the corners, the tower evolves a distinctive form that simultaneously addresses urban order, spatial efficiency and view orientation. The design has a twin tower configuration, with volumes along north-east and south-west linked along the longer axis in plan by a glazed elevator lobby with central light atriums rising all the way up the building, creating a vertical axis. Glazed elevators run along these light atriums – a memorable spatial experience in the heart of the tower.
Introduction of transfer floor aids intelligent movement of vertical circulation, reducing required number of elevator shafts from 23 to 18 while increasing the floor efficiency by 25%. The vertical landscape is inspired from traditional Chinese paintings of nature and social life. Flanked on the ends of the central elevator lobby, these gardens multiply the ambience of the tower by bringing in warm and filtered light, providing natural ventilation, pleasant views, interactive spaces and energy efficiency.
The façade with external vertical fins maximizes viewing orientation and ensures shading from the west sun thereby reducing energy consumption. The fins are broad at the base and taper to the top to accommodate curved tapering of the tower with modular facade elements. The resultant geometry projects the tower as grounded at the base and uprising and slender at the top. A Venture Capital Company’s core principle is to multiply value; the folded fins take this reference to forge an upward growing identity of the tower and symbolize the pursuit of progress.
The tower is paired with an adjacent four level commercial podium that maximizes shop front along urban edges. With a central open atrium that forms the terminus of an east-west green axis and a landscaped plaza at 7m urban bridge level, the podium becomes a focus of urban activity. The transparent and grand entrance lobby and the adjacent podium create an engaging ground experience. The tower becomes a node of social activity embedded into the urban fabric.
