Designing for performance: a case study in the applied science of an environmentally responsive high-rise design

This paper explores the developing process and resulting features of an ultra high performance tower designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill through a multidisciplinary approach to building simulation and analysis. The 309 meter tall office tower for a new development in the Pearl River Delta region of Southern China, is an exemplar of the marriage of technical sophistication with a graceful form, featuring integrated renewable energy strategies and an active double skin facade coupled with a low energy building conditioning system. This landmark project is a statement to both China and the rest of the world that environmentally responsive design can be achieved on large scales in a challenging hot and humid climate. The solutions arrived at in its final form were only made possible through the quantification of the local macro-climatic characteristics coupled with multi-physics analysis early within the conceptual process.