British architect Chetwoods has unveiled its design for a pair of 1km tall towers in China, which would be the world’s tallest and cost around £1.2bn to construct.
The design proposal for Phoenix Towers, located in the city of Wuhan, the capital of central China, features two buildings positioned on a large island in the centre of a 47ha lake.
The largest tower houses commercial functions including offices, residential apartments and hotels, plus a range of environmental technologies, including wind turbines, photovoltaics, and a thermal chimney running through the centre.
These renewables are designed to power an adjacent “passive” smaller tower, featuring restaurants, cafes and leisure activities, with a vertical garden running through its centre.
"We used the forms of yin and yang for the towers’ plan and the design was also inspired by the Chinese myth of the phoenix as two dragons, one male, one female."
Laurie Chetwood, Chetwoods Architects
The design forms part of an ambitious environmental masterplan for Wuhan, situated on the Yangtze River at the crossroads of nine provinces, which was recently designated an environmental “Super City” by the regional and central government. The towers will also include systems designed to filter and purify air as well as water from the lakes for the local ecology.
The buildings cover 7ha of the island site at the end of a 3km avenue. Both stretch to a spike from a wide base and resemble trees in the Amazonian rainforest with “buttressed” roots. The structure was designed by WSP, the engineer behind the Shard, and incorporates a complicated arrangement of reinforced concrete trusses out-riggered for lateral stability. This provides a stable platform for a lighter steel structure above.
“The client had seen a competition we won for an inhabited bridge on London Bridge, which had two towers, so our design started from that,” said Laurie Chetwood, chairman of Chetwoods Architects. “We used the forms of yin and yang for the towers’ plan and the design was also inspired by the Chinese myth of the phoenix as two dragons, one male, one female. Hence, one tower is practical, technological and provides energy for the other, which is beautiful, more passive and incorporates wonderful spaces for the public.”
Chetwoods’ design has been submitted to client Hua Yan Group and the mayor of Wuhan and is awaiting approval from the government with construction mooted for the end of next year.
