Posted January 2012
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| Riviera TwinStar Square was recognized as a finalist in the 2011 CTBUH Awards Program. |
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| Other Featured Tall Buildings |
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“Maximizing the waterfront location, the tower design lends a strong sense of order, balance and stability—pivotal in driving trade—and relevant to the tower’s use as a commercial hub.”
- His Excellency Mohamed Ali Alabbar, CTBUH 2011 Awards Juror, Emaar Properties
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In the tall building world of so many often-ridiculous gestures, this building has a fantastic balance and poise. The towers stand out for the new spatial dimension they give to the “emptiness” that lies between them. The skin of the outward faces has a clear Chinese feel, evocative of bamboo. The towers have a text-book precision to their architecture—clean, elegant, in control and embodying confidence.
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Located in the Pudong New District of Shanghai, the Riviera TwinStar Square project forms part of the Lujiazui Central Financial District, across the river from the Bund and overlooking the historic Shanghai Shipyards site. The two towers are occupied by two different bank headquarters. Thus a key element of the design was to create symmetrical towers that are all about balance, order, and stability. Their interdependence sends a message of union and respect for each other simultaneously.
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The stone and glass towers rise in tandem to form a gateway to the Huangpu River. As they face each other, their façades curve dramatically to form an implied space that frames the sky and the city skyline. The facing inner curves are lit at night to emphasize the distinctive shape and monumental scale of the space. Their nautical symmetry conveys memories of the ships that were once launched from the site’s now relocated Shanghai Shipyards.
The towers are part of a larger waterfront mixed-use development, which in addition to the twin 50-story office towers, includes two 18-story buildings to be operated by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, which will be a flagship project with a 360-room hotel and spa, as well as a 210-unit Mandarin Residences serviced apartment complex.
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Figure 1. Curved buildings frame the sky
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This site is designed with the intention of integrating a high profile urban space within a new state of the art, highly modern business environment. This adds a sense of place, or destination, to an already popular area, where the community can utilize and enjoy the river landscape and partake in various recreational activities.
In this sense, the main buildings are interconnected by an elevated platform which serves as weather protection for the indoor pedestrian corridor below, and above provides an outdoor public space. The project specifically created a raised basement level of 3 meters (9.8 feet) to cater to the height of the Huangpu River’s flood protection systems.
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The façade comprises unitized high performance Low-E glass, with solar control coating. Natural stone and aluminum cladding serve to add a distinctive patterned feature across the elevations, giving the towers a distinctly Chinese feel, and thus further grounding them in their local context. All the façade materials were procured locally in China and are recyclable.
A conventional reinforced concrete frame core wall system was adopted for the tower. However, some special structural features have been used for this project. Inclined columns are used at the curved elevations face to face to integrate the structure into the architectural form. Steel Reinforced Columns (SRC) are used in the lower part of the towers to minimize column sections and the lost floor area that would have been needed for larger columns.
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Figure 2. Facade pattern detail
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The architectural design is aimed at the needs of the flagship financial tenants, providing an efficient floor plate and special consideration to specialized trading floors and private meeting spaces. A removable slab area was integrated into the plan to accommodate flexibility for tenant needs, allowing connectivity to floors above and below for larger firms, or these can be kept closed for smaller tenants that will only occupy single floors. Individual MEP areas are reserved to help ensure the high electricity supply requirements for financial institutions.
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Figure 3. Approach to building entry
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