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Garden Tower for Industrial Landscape

date added: 23.10.2011

One of the world leaders in the metallurgy industry as well as one of the main steel suppliers of the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, Hansteel Group has commissioned Vector Design Group to design its new headquarters in order to update and consolidate its office facilities in Handan.

Located at the junction between their existing factory plant to the south and the urban development to the north, and conscious of the growing importance of the effects of pollution (the summer South/East wind will affect any development on the North), the proposal incorporates the project into a green area which will act as a buffer between the two zones and revitalize this district in development.

In order to respond to the large scale of the factory, Vector proposes to create a 170m high landmark which integrates all parts of the programme: offices and their support (cafeteria, meeting centre, sport centre, etc.), Hansteel Group TV Station, and a 5-star hotel of 300 rooms with its facilities.

This complex, at the scale of its environment, is associated with a typical symmetrical ‘Royal French Garden’ integrating a lake (connected to the city’s canal system) and surrounded by a forest of trees. The façade is treated in continuity with the landscape for the South (large glass curtain wall letting the vegetation gradually enter the building) when the North is more enclosed to answer the cityscape as well as the cold winter winds.

As it happens, the accent is put on energy savings, proposing a compact building which geometry answers local climatic conditions, but also by implementing different systems (mostly passive systems) to improve indoor comfort in response to the surrounding pollution. Those systems, taking full advantage of the gardens implemented on the site, create a symbiosis between architecture and landscape.

Source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com

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