Four by Two
Program
/ Bank HQ Office TowerLocation
/ Changzhi, ChinaSize
/ 61,050 sqmClient
/ Changzhi Changsheng Real Estate Co., Ltd.Scope
/ Architecture DesignStatus
/ on holdTeam
/ Carolyn Leung, Ben de Lange, Ruben Bergambagt.Four by two is a grade-A office development designed to be a strategic response to a complex assignment for a very dense building site. The client’s brief requested for four independent towers that could be sold or leased to 4 separate banks and companies. The small site, surrounding buildings, and the high FAR required for an innovative strategy. The only possible outcome of detaching the four towers completely would have been towers with unusable slim floor plates, with the majority of offices directly facing the offices in the adjacent towers.
Superimpose suggested to physically combine the four towers to two sets of two merged towers. The diamond-shape plan allows for a better spacing between the different towers, which increases privacy and improves the views from inside out. Furthermore, the tapering of the plan creates a slim appearance of the development towards the main street and the river with a recognizable street interface and identity for each the four companies. The massing strategy also decreases the amount of fire-climbing zones needed and makes double use of escape staircases and MEP shafts to increase the efficiency of each floor plate.
In between each tower-group, a lightweight suspended roof structure provides indoor space to an open lobby. The facade of the towers seemingly continues down through this lobby. Since these lobbies need to provide the entrance situation of two independent companies, the arrival of visitors had to be well considered. The two reception desks are rotated away from each other to provide identity to both companies.