The façade of the Guangfa Securities Headquarter adheres to the principle of facade design as the art of resolving and synthesizing aesthetic, environmental and technical issues.
Aesthetically, the Guangfa Securities Headquarter façade accentuates the structural system of eight main columns located at the tower corners. Each of the principal facades visually appears as membrane tautly stretched between the corner columns. The typical corner façade, on the other hand, conveys the sense of a continuous, transparent shield carving out the diagonal space in between the corner columns and ensuring uninterrupted views for the corner offices. The main façades also clearly express the distinct functional zones such as the main lobby, the typical office floors, the sky lobby, the technical floors and the tower crown by transforming inward to create the interior spaces of these areas. We achieved these goals by developed and refined the basic profile of a typical mullion capable of transform and adapt to meet all design conditions throughout the tower. The search for forms focused on the characteristics inherent within the overall design, and as the result, created a façade imbued with understated elegance and gravitas to reflect the image that our client wished to project to the public.
Environmentally, the façade shields the interior space from the external climate and provides a comfortable and productive internal habitat for its occupants. In addition to insuring the comforts of the occupants, the façade of the Guangfa Securities Headquarter strives to conserve energies and preserve natural resources and to be environmentally responsive by incorporating innovative sustainable technologies and materials. The deep external fins together with the tower being slightly rotated from the urban grid produce welcoming shading in the hot and humid climate of Guangzhou. Furthermore, the outer glass pane of the typical unitized façade panel extends below the floor level and together with the sculpted heat-formed glass panel at the spandrel area creates a chimney effect that forces fresh air through the under-floor ventilator equipped for the office work space. High-performance glasses with double and triple Low-E are used to create a façade that transfers appropriate level of visible light while reflects heat and insure a productive and pleasant interior. The recycled aluminum alloys specified for the extruded mullion profiles and cladding panels are carefully considered to balance the needs for sustainability and the requirements for the high level of quality in the anodic and other finishes.
Our scope of service extends beyond the design of the façade. We led a diverse team of engineers, mullion manufacturers, glass and metal coating provides to further develop the façade design through all phases including technical development, full-scale mockup, tender documents and construction. In concurrence with the development of the façade technical details, we collaborated with engineers to insure that the energy conservation model as well structural supports for the mullion systems closely reflects the design intent. We worked closely with glass and metal coating providers to select the appropriate glass types and finishes that meet the technical, environmental and energy requirements while providing a coherent and holistic appearance for the entire tower. The façade construction details, methods of attachments, mullion extrusion profiles and panels, material and finisches as well as costs were then tested, modified and confirmed through the process of developing construction documents and building a full-scale mockup. The development and production of the façade tender documents commenced at the completion of the full-scale mockup and its acceptance by our Client. Our methodical and holistic approach to façade design, technical development and tender documents production insure that the Guangfa Securities Headquarter façade is feasible to construct and meets the highest international standards.