About Pearl River Tower
Using some of the most sophisticated technologies currently available, the designers of Pearl River Tower created a highly integrated structure that derives its efficiencies by applying previously tested solutions in a combination never before accomplished at such at large scale. It was important to both the client and the design team that a holistic approach be used, so as to avoid an array of solutions that might be conceptually compelling, but would not survive the rigors of design development and future value-engineering exercises. This demanded a design approach that was not form-driven, but performance-based, with all systems having a degree of interdependency.
Thus, the building has been carefully shaped to use natural forces to maximize its energy efficiency. The tower’s sculpted body directs wind to a pair of openings at its mechanical floors, pushing turbines that generate energy for the building. East and west elevations are straight, while the south façade is concave; the north façade is convex. The south side of the building is dramatically sculpted to direct wind through the four openings, two at each mechanical level.
The building’s siting and evocative curving shape work together to drive performance. Its generally rectangular floor plate has been shifted slightly from Guangzhou’s orthogonal grid in order to maximize use of prevailing breezes, and to better capture the sun’s energy through the strategic location of photovoltaics.
The tower’s shading system uses automated, daylight-responsive blinds set within the building’s double-skin façade, thereby reducing the building management’s operational needs. Its ventilation/dehumidification system uses heat collected from the double-skin façade as an energy source. The integrated façade assembly provides very good thermal performance, as well a high level of natural daylight to the space. Low-energy, high-efficiency lighting systems use radiant panel geometry to assist in the distribution of light. The double-skin façade also allows greater flexibility in the layout of office space, as it reduces the amount of internal mechanical chases required for ventilation, heating and cooling.
The tower’s mechanical design approach also allowed architects to reduce the building’s floor-to-floor height from 4.2 meters to 3.9 meters, reducing the number of constructed stories by five. Occupants can be comfortably positioned close to perimeter walls. The radiant cooling, chilled ceiling and decoupled ventilation system provides improved human thermal comfort, efficient heat exchange, and improved office acoustics. The ventilation system is delivered via a raised access floor, providing improved indoor air quality and air change effectiveness. There is also a reduced cost of tenant fit-out and future retrofits due to the absence of fan coils, VAV boxes, filters, ductwork, insulation, and other items typically requiring tenant-specific alterations.
While it is the combination of performance-driven curving shape and exposed vertical-axis wind turbines that fuse Pearl River Tower into the public perception of the Guangzhou skyline, its most significant impact is drawn from the level of integration between sustainable design elements. The combination of turbines, shading systems, a double-skin façade with energy-efficient lighting, ventilation, and mechanical design all work together complementarily, resulting in a substantial decrease in the amount of electrical power required to operate the building’s HVAC and lighting systems. Full implementation of Pearl River Tower’s sustainable strategies will result in an overall energy savings of approximately 30 percent as compared to a conventionally designed building of the same scale, constructed to comform to the Chinese baseline energy code.
Videos
Building Tall Skyscraper Lecture Series: How High Can We Go?
16 Mar 2017 –
Antony Wood, CTBUH; Richard Tomasetti, Thornton Tomasetti; Ian Smith, thyssenkrupp, Gordan Gill, Adrain Smill + Gordon Gill Architecture
Building Access Solutions - Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou, China
12 Sep 2014 –
CoxGomyl
Fire & Life Safety Challenges in Sustainable Tall Building Design
21 Sep 2012 –
Fang Li & Martin Reiss, RJA
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Videos Related to Pearl River Tower
Videos Related to Pearl River Tower
Building Tall Skyscraper Lecture Series: How High Can We Go?
16 Mar 2017 –
Building Tall Skyscraper Lecture Series;
Antony Wood, CTBUH; Richard Tomasetti, Thornton Tomasetti; Ian Smith, thyssenkrupp, Gordan Gill, Adrain Smill + Gordon Gill Architecture
Thursday, March 16, 2017. Chicago, United States of America. Hosted in collaboration with the Chicago Architecture Foundation, the first lecture of the series Building…
Fire & Life Safety Challenges in Sustainable Tall Building Design
21 Sep 2012 –
Presentation at CTBUH 2012 9th World Congress, Shanghai;
Fang Li & Martin Reiss, RJA
The movement towards sustainable building design can result in unique fire protection challenges and concerns, especially with tall buildings in relationship to…
Climate, Cladding, and Conditioning Systems
19 Sep 2012 –
Presentation at CTBUH 2012 9th World Congress, Shanghai;
Robert Bolin, Syska Hennessey; Russell Gilchrist, Gensler
This presentation examines the impact of building massing, the window to wall ratio (WWR), and two essential components of high-rise design – building envelope…
From Jin Mao to Kingdom: Search for an Asian Supertall Vernacular
19 Sep 2012 –
Presentation at CTBUH 2012 9th World Congress, Shanghai;
Adrian Smith, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
This presentation presents the evolution of Mr. Smith’s career as a designer of supertall buildings, from Shanghai’s Jin Mao Tower, completed in 1999, to Kingdom Tower,…
Sustainable Strategies for High-Rise Buildings
3 Feb 2010 –
Presentation at CTBUH 2010 Mumbai Conference;
Russell Gilchrist, SOM
High rise buildings present opportunities for passive and active sustainable strategies that are not so readily available to their less tall counterparts. This…
Towards Zero Energy in China - Pearl River Tower
23 Oct 2009 –
Presentation at CTBUH 2009 Chicago Conference;
Russell Gilchrist, SOM
The Pearl River Tower was conceived as a ‘net zero energy’ operating skyscraper i.e. it would generate enough energy to offset its own demand. With the tower nearing…
Overview of Sustainable Design Factors in High-Rise Buildings
3 Mar 2008 –
Presentation at CTBUH 2008 8th World Congress, Dubai;
Mir Ali & Paul Armstrong, UIUC
Mir Ali and Paul Armstrong from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discussed the critical design factors and strategies that warrant consideration to…
Browse hundreds of other videos from Council events including conferences and interviews with prominent tall building professionals in the Video Library
Research Papers
SOM and China: Evolving Skyscraper Design Amid Rapid Urban Growth
Oct 2016 –
CTBUH Journal, 2016 Issue IV
Closing the Gap between Fantasy and Reality: Pushing Current Technologies Into the Future
Sep 2014 –
CTBUH Journal, 2014 Issue III
Case Study: Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou
Jun 2014 –
CTBUH Journal, 2014 Issue II
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Papers Related to Pearl River Tower
Papers Related to Pearl River Tower
Case Study: Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou
Jun 2014 –
CTBUH Journal, 2014 Issue II; Richard Tomlinson II, William Baker, Luke Leung, et al. Skidmore Owings & Merrill
SOM’s design for the 71-story Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China, was selected in a 2005 competition. The 309-meter-tall high-performance building was designed with…
Tall Buildings: Imaginative Façades Solutions
May 2013 –
DesignBuild Source; Mimi Daraphet, Meinhardt Facade
Façades simply taken in isolation can be complex. A combination of design, engineering, fabrication and installation expertise is important to address all aspects of…
Pearl River Tower Guangzhou, China
13 Jan 2013 –
Corporate Publication
Acknowledged as the world’s most energyefficient ‘green’ building, the gently curved Pearl River Tower is constantly in the public spotlight and media. Architects…
Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2012
Dec 2012 –
CTBUH Journal, 2013 Issue I; Kevin Brass, Antony Wood & Marty Carver, CTBUH
For the first time in six years the number of tall buildings completed annually around the world declined as the effects of the global financial crisis became evident.
From Jin Mao to Kingdom: Search for an Asian Supertall Vernacular
Sep 2012 –
CTBUH 2012 9th World Congress, Shanghai; Adrian Smith, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
The paper traces the evolution of Mr. Smith’s career as a designer of supertall buildings, the Jin Mao Tower (1999) to Kingdom Tower, to be the world’s tallest building…
Case Study: Pearl River Tower, Guangzhou, China
Mar 2008 –
CTBUH 2008 8th World Congress, Dubai; Roger E. Frechette III & Russell Gilchrist, SOM
This paper will attempt to both define what is meant by ‘carbon neutral’ in the context of building design as well as using the case study to demonstrate how such an…
Browse hundreds of other papers published by CTBUH members on a range of multi-disciplinary subjects in the Research Papers Library