The Flower Building

By Team IAnD

Photography: Courtesy MVRDV

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The first building in MVRDV’s masterplan for a business park at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, a flower shaped landmark offering 15.000 sq. m. of Grade A offices, combines a strong identity with rental flexibility...

The master plan’s mixed-use program includes a total of 110,000 sq. m. of offices, 47,000 sq. m. of retail space, and 55,000 sq. m. of parking.  The 45,000 sq. m. plot on the edge of Shanghai’s Honqiao airport also proposes to include a total of 9 further MVRDV-designed office buildings atop an Aedas-designed underground shopping centre, and is scheduled for completion in early 2016.

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The Flower Building will receive a 3-star Green Building Label, the best energy performance rating available in China, and has been won via a competition for the area’s architectural design and master planning in 2013 against two other teams.

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The urban master plan sits adjacent to the hi-speed train station and fourth busiest airport in mainland China, Shanghai Honqiao, and will create a more intimate form of urban life with pedestrian streets and plazas in an area dominated by large boulevards and high-speed expressways. The first energy-efficient office building in the master plan is now complete, with a further nine office buildings to follow in early 2016, providing a total of 110,000 sq. m. of offices.

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The building merges the tops of four towers to create a shaded and intimate plaza in between. The building’s ground floor, with the largest windows, will feature retail space, while its top floor will feature connections between the four towers so that the building can be used flexibly by its various tenants. The building’s rounded forms minimise the amount of façade necessary, and also optimises views and floor plates.

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The cantilevered, self-shading form of the Flower Building is complimented by a façade with smaller openings on the upper floors to reduce energy consumption, leading to the buildings 3-star energy rating. The white façade, made up of extremely light but highly-insulated GRC panels, offers a subtle, shifting grid with expands as it reaches the ground to become more public and open to passers-by, and contracts as it reaches up to reduce the need for air conditioning.

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The Hongqiao Central Business District will achieve three stars, the highest ranking of the Chinese ‘Green Building Label’. Sustainable building features include high performance insulation, optimised building forms, shaded spaces, natural ventilation, rainwater collection, permeable road surfaces, links to public transport and a reduction in the urban heat island effect. All 10 buildings will also offer green roofs as a habitat for local species. MVRDV currently has three other projects under construction throughout China and in Hong Kong, all scheduled for completion in late 2015 or early 2016.