LWK & Partners (HK) has recently released their design for “Olympic Vanke Centre” in Hangzhou, China. Occupying 13,969 sqm at the city’s CBD and next to its 2022 Asian Games Village, the Centre, to be completed in 2021, includes two office towers sharing one podium for amenities and underground service area. The design features the rotating, lifted podium that opens up cascading outdoor terraces that extends further into the towers.
Situated in an expansive area searching for identity, the project seeks to create an oasis in the surroundings, with attention to enhancing higher walkability at the site and providing a series of public areas for different building users. LWK Director and principal architect of the project, Ferdinand Cheung believes that Olympic Vanke Centre “will be an icon on the city’s elevation, and will stand to be an example of a rational response to environmental needs for commercial architectures.”
The two towers target at different tenants: the higher is expected to house corporate tenants, while the lower tower features numerous cubicle work stations with a generous common area for start-ups and entrepreneurs.
The two’s façades also employs contrasting systems of passive sun-shading to lower interior heat gain. The higher tower deploys external super grid on the curtain wall to regulate the oblique glaring nuisance, whereas the lower has installed horizontally slicing timber planes on the window wall to reflect the light inward.
The lifted podium includes two levels of F&Bs and other connect amenities, such as a gymnasium, cafeteria and entertainment spaces. Continuity of outdoor space allows free movement of air and visual connection on plan and section; as well as encouraging human activities to spill out, expand and appropriate.
News via: LWK & Partners (HK)