This isn’t Lex Luthor’s lair, but the Leeza Soho tower in Beijing, one of the last buildings Zaha Hadid designed before her death in 2016.
When it opens in 2018, the 207-metre skyscraper will have the tallest atrium in the world – but that wasn’t always part of the plan. “This wasn’t our aim, it’s something that evolved,” says Satoshi Ohashi, who managed the project. The problem was a tunnel running beneath the tower. Planned in 2007 to expand Beijing’s subway, it was being constructed at the same time, giving the architects a logis- tical headache. “We had to integrate it into the design, but we also had to make sure we allowed access,” says Ohashi.
The solution? Turning the atrium by 45 degrees, so the two halves of the building could sit either side of the tunnel. But solving one problem created another, in particular over the 191 metre-tall glass atrium. The plan was to make 2000 unique panels for the facade, but, as project architect Philipp Ostermaier says, “This would have made production, quality control and logistics complicated and increased cost.” So, instead, the team turned to 3D modelling.
“By using 3D programming methods to build a model of the building,” says Ostermaier, “we were able to use a panel optimizing algorithm that searches for shape similarities to a tolerable degree.” The reduced panel variation minimised cost and allowed for changes to the design without losing the work on the glass facade. The result: a huge conservatory in the middle of the tower, and an office block with a twist.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
