Building features offset core with lifts and services protruding out of its facade
Ole Scheeren has completed the first of two towers for the Axiom development in Shanghai, China.
The two buildings will be located in The Springs in the centre of Shanghai’s Yangpu district and will contain more than two million sq ft of office, hotel, retail and cultural spaces including a theatre. The developer of The Springs is Tishman Speyer, and The Springs is its biggest Chinese development.
Scheeren’s practice, Büro Ole Scheeren, has designed one 49-storey building rising to 280m as well as a 250m building which is currently being built.
The Axiom will have an offset core as opposed to the more standard central core, with the tower’s lifts and services protruding out of the building’s facade.
This feature, seen in just 3% of the world’s tallest 500 buildings, aims to maximise internal space and allow large, unobstructed floorplates that can be adapted to the demands of occupiers.
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The towers will also feature terraces “carved” into the facades halfway up the buildings and a garden on the roof with planting and water features.
Scheeren said: “The Axiom is an emblem of the innovation that is now synonymous with Shanghai and forms an elegant urban landmark as the gateway to Yangpu District.
“Designed as a strategic hybrid of functionalism and iconicity, the twin towers represent the fluidity and dynamism of the future-oriented businesses they will accommodate.”
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Scheeren’s other major projects in China include the headquarters for Tencent, the biggest company in the country.
The German born and Beijing-based architect saw off practices including Foster & Partners, Heatherwick Studio, Zaha Hadid Architects and his former practice OMA to win the job last December.
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