Tall & Urban News

Located on Lize Road in southwest Beijing, Leeza SOHO tower anchors the new Fengtai business district, a growing financial and transport hub between the city center and the recently opened Beijing Daxing International Airport to the south. The new business district is integral to Beijing’s multi-modal urban plan to accommodate growth without impacting existing infrastructure networks in the center of the city.

This 45-story, 172,800-square-meter tower, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, responds to demand from small and medium-sized businesses in Beijing for flexible and efficient Grade A office space.

Adjacent to the business district’s rail station at the intersection of five new lines currently under construction on Beijing’s Subway network, Leeza SOHO’s site is diagonally dissected by an underground subway service tunnel. Straddling this tunnel, the tower’s design divides its volume into two halves enclosed by a single

façade shell. The emerging space between these two halves extends the full height of the tower, creating a 194.15-meter-tall atrium that rotates through the building as the tower rises to realign the upper floors with Lize 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, while its glass façade provides panoramic views across the city.

"Leeza SOHO’s atrium acts as a public square for the new business district."

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 new civic space for Beijing that is directly connected to the city’s transport network.

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 a clean air filtration process within the tower’s internal environment.

Leeza SOHO’s double-insulated, unitized 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 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.

Leeza SOHO’s advanced 3D BIM energy management system monitors real-time environmental control and energy efficiency. These systems also include heat recovery from exhaust air and high-efficiency pumps, fans, chillers, boilers, lighting and controls. The tower incorporates water collection, low-flow-rate fixtures and greywater flushing, as well as an insulating green roof with photovoltaic array to harvest solar energy.

Over 2,500 bicycle parking spaces, with lockers, shower facilities and dedicated charging spaces for electric and hybrid cars are located below ground; while low-volatile organic compound (VOC) materials are installed throughout Leeza SOHO to minimize interior pollutants. High-efficiency filters remove particulates via the air-handling system.

For more on this story go to Zaha Hadid Architects.