Designed by Shing & Partners, The Landmark is a residential project catering to distinctive accommodation demands for the select-few. With its 198-metre height, the tower consists of a 52-storey tower and a three-storey podium with a basement, delivering 99 limited units of luxurious apartment.
© Qingling Zhang
© Qingling Zhang
Form
Situated in ‘The City of Rice Plant’, the tower pays homage to Guangzhou city with the spiral rise of vegetation. This unforgettable visual language is extended from the existing city fabric, where The Landmark responds to the skyline Canton Tower and Pearl River system. Wrapped by a glass-aluminium curtain-wall system, the tower is constructed with triple-glazed glass arranged in an irregular pattern, which forms the fluidity of architectural fabric.
© Qingling Zhang
© Qingling Zhang
© Qingling Zhang
The lightness of structure largely comes from materiality: while steel forms the stunning skeleton, crystalline glazing glass allows sunshine to fill the interior, making natural light a part of the poetic presentation. To bestow the ultimate experience of accommodation, unique profiles are tailored to the limited-99-units. Floor-plans are adjusted individually, resulting one-of-a-kind experience. Beyond uniqueness of experience, customization effectively avoids directly overlooking a neighboring apartment.
© Qingling Zhang
Function
The sculptural expression is a consequence of R.O.I. relevant to the client, end-users and the public, within perspectives from affordability, to utility and investment. Combining three towers into one, such a distinctive layout was shaped by the best access to the views. Maximizing advantage on overlooking lush landscape, the tower was ingeniously rotated by 45 degrees, resulting in viewing resources that connect cityscape from four comers.
© Qingling Zhang
Structural system
Meanwhile, the abstract silhouette is the result of an integrated architectural-engineering solution – an efficient system that minimizes structural torsion also relevant to marketing purposes. Considering its high-end positioning, the team intended to maximize competitiveness on panoramas by opening up flexible floor plates – eight mega frame columns are designed to deform according to the curvature of building massing. Residents therefore are allowed a 270 view of the city hub. However, under joint impacts of high-rise combining an irregular floor-plan, the probability of twisting and leaning exists in earthquakes if the shear walls were absent. This directly led to the current structural strategy, where loads are effectively transferred by strengthening the concrete core.
© Qingling Zhang
© Qingling Zhang
Impacts
The distinguished architecture is believed to challenge traditional residential culture, where architecture simply acts a shelter. To break-up the tendency towards mass-production in the category, The Landmark is a pioneering residential project with gateway qualities. Due to its iconic image, the community is embracing an increase in value. While it was once a notoriously less-developed area, the site currently is one of the most desired locations. Under its halo, investments and amenity upgrades are drawn in, which sustainability extending to other outcomes of city redevelopment. The Landmark has established a dynamic relationship between contemporary constructions and the existing texture, looking to the future with respects to its roots.
Project credits
Architects: Shing & Partners Design Group
Area: 96000.0 m²
Year: 2017
Photographs: Qingling Zhang
Article courtesy of architects