by Shane Henson — June 29, 2011—Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture won an international competition to design Wuhan Greenland Center. At 1,988 feet, it will likely be China’s third-tallest building and the fourth tallest in the world when completed in about five years. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer in Wuhan near the meeting of the Yangtze and Han rivers.
A project of the Shanghai-based Greenland Group, the 119-level Wuhan Greenland Center will be comprised of about 300,000 sq m of floor area, including about 200,000 sq m of offices, 50,000 sq m of luxury apartments and condominiums, a 45,000 sq m five-star hotel, and a 5,000 sq m, 27-meter-tall private club.
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture say they are leading an interdisciplinary design team that also includes the structural engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti as well as PositivEnergy Practice, an energy services, engineering and consulting company.
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture’s design team for the project say Wuhan Greenland Center will feature a uniquely streamlined form that combines three key shaping concepts—a tapered body, rounded corners and a domed top—to reduce wind resistance and vortex action that builds up around super tall towers. The building’s extremely efficient aerodynamic performance will reportedly allow it to minimize the amount of structural material, and its associated embodied carbon, needed for construction.
Most important, the company notes, are the planned sustainable elements of the project. They include:
- Energy recovery using an enthalpy wheel integrated into the ventilation system—this captures energy from the building’s exhaust systems and uses it to pre-heat or pre-cool air entering the building.
- A greywater recovery system, which takes waste water from the hotel laundry, sinks and showers and reuses it in the building’s evaporative cooling system.
- A high-efficiency lighting system, which uses low-energy-consuming ballasts and lamps to reduce required power consumption.
- A daylight-responsive control system, which automatically turns off electric lights when sufficient daylight is available.
- Water-conserving low-flow plumbing fixtures, which reduce the total amount of potable water required as well as the associated pumping energy.
- A greywater recovery system, which takes waste water from the hotel laundry, sinks and showers and reuses it in the building’s evaporative cooling system.
