Shanghai Tower: Building a Green, Vertical City

in the Heart of Shanghai

Jianping Gu, President & Board Director, Shanghai Tower Construction & Development Co., Ltd.

The following was published in the main than that. Because it incorporates so many Shanghai Tower provides a vision of
proceedings publication for the CTBUH advanced techniques based on current vertically integrated space through the
2014 Shanghai Conference, Future Cities: skyscrapers, it will be a learning laboratory signature design of a double façade that
Towards Sustainable Vertical Urbanism. for the next generation of skyscraper creates unique sky lobbies, filled with
designers. And it illustrates that architecture vegetation, offering the potential for
The Shanghai Tower establishes a new should not be constructed for its own socializing, and providing relief from the
paradigm for tall buildings and vertical sake, but for the people, which is the most isolative nature of tall buildings without
urbanism. Innovation and new technology fundamental factor. the necessity of descending to the ground.
play a strong role in the superlative aesthetic, But why do this? Is this design arrived at
structural, and environmental achievements of Motivation: Built for People arbitrarily, or though assumptions?
this “disruptive” building, while reinforcing time- Tall buildings are often seen as iconic
honored maxims of design that still hold true. landmarks, which encourages one to take an A typical return on investment (ROI)
external view only. But in order to achieve calculation subtracts the cost of investment
“sustainable vertical urbanism,” skyscrapers from the gain from investment. But when
While the distant silhouette and the must turn their focusing point from ROI of planning buildings as vertical cities, they
proximate detail of the tower will be human experience to people and specifically must be thought of as systems. Importantly,
immediately distinctive, the purpose of the the users’ demands to become enjoyable, traditional ROI calculations also overlook
Shanghai Tower is not simply to be seen even exhilarating architecture. the value of human capital – the people
as an iconic landmark. It is much more who occupy the building.

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Opposite: Shanghai Tower standing among the World Financial
Center and Jin Mao Tower. Source: Gensler

Bottom: Tower base at street level. Source: Gensler

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 Left: Building section highlighting the different functions.
Source: Gensler

Opposite: Rendering of the “Community Square” space.

Source: Gensler

An expanded ROI calculation considers

that sustainably designed buildings can
reduce sick time by two to five days annually
and increase productivity by 4.8 percent.
When one is designing a skyscraper to
accommodate more than 20,000 people,
the value of that productivity increase
justifies the extra expense of what we call
“reinventing the chassis of the high-rise.”
    Observatory
    Hotel
    Office The biggest distance between the outer
    Retail curtain wall system and the main structure in
Shanghai Tower is 15 meters, which prevents
about 20,000 office staff and hotel guests
from directly facing the outdoors at an
altitude of several hundred meters and eases
people’s anxieties about extreme heights.
The presumable five percent of people who
suffer from acrophobia could work calmly
in Shanghai Tower. This is another return on
design investment that increases productivity.

What’s more, 10 times a year, five percent of

the people who work in the Tower (about
1,000 people) either need to be in the same
places in the city for face-to-face working
or activities, and as a result spend at least
half an hour in transportation. If they only
need several minutes to come together to
meet, 5,000 hours of transportation time
could be saved, along with the related
traffic congestion and pollution caused by
automobile exhaust.

Community: More Than

Mere Constructions
As modern buildings have become more
and more extravagant, the economics
are becoming the dominant factors of
evaluation, while the interior communication
spaces for occupants have been gradually
ignored. However, with rapid improvement
of financial conditions and living standards,
the call to go back to nature, enhance
communication, and provide cozy and
convenient living space has been amplified,
and is consistently inspiring architects to
design tall buildings more creatively.

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“Shanghai Tower provides a vision of vertically integrated space through the signature
design of a double façade that creates unique sky lobbies, filled with vegetation,
offering the potential for socializing, and providing relief from the isolative nature of tall
buildings without the necessity of descending to the ground.“

Shanghai Tower has introduced the concepts

of “Vertical Community,” “Community
Square,” and “Sky Gardens.” The concept of
“Vertical Community” is meant to stack
traditional horizontal blocks into nine vertical
communities, each equipped with private
space. “Community Square” is the unique
participatory space between the layers of the
double-skin façades, which are over 10 meters
wide. Every community has three sky lobbies,
called “Community Squares,” whose heights
range from 50 to 60 meters. The tower has 21
“Community Squares“ in total. They fulfill the
requirements of energy efficiency, vertical
circulation, fire defense and life safety, and
at the same time provide complementary
services of relaxation, social contact, viewing,
catering and finance. “Vertical Community”
is reinforced by planting flowers and trees in
the “Community Square” at various heights,
and create vertical greenery. Shanghai Tower
has systematically introduced the design
of communities, squares, and gardens into
skyscrapers, which is a unique feature to tall
buildings around the world.

Shanghai Tower has adopted the design

approach of “vertical compound functions.”
In addition to the traditional shopping
mall (Zone 1), office (Zone 2 – Zone 6),
hotel (Zone 7 – Zone 8), and sightseeing
(Zone 9) there are additional versatile
function blocks. Public museums (37th
floor), Galleries, lifestyle centers (B1, 52
floor, 53 floor), fitness facilities (22 floor),
art exhibitions, and cultural activities are
introduced into the “Community Squares,”
providing fresh life experiences for the
people in the communities.

Technology: Innovate for Sustainability

Besides fulfilling the requirements of
construction Shanghai Tower is also a
primary case study of the innovative
technologies of sustainability.

The external view catches the attention of

designers and investors. Shanghai Tower
not only presents an elegant form, but

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Bottom: The tower’s double-skin façade. Source: Gensler

Opposite Top: Model shake test. Source: Gensler

Opposite Bottom: The different design considerations determined

twisting the tower 120 degrees is the solution. Source: Gensler

also represents significant achievements in

structural safety and cost savings. It shows the
elegance and fashionable characteristics of
Shanghai by twisting the outer enclosure by
120 degrees while spiraling up. Through wind-
tunnel tests, its designers determined that we
know that the wind load could be reduced 24
percent, which is quite considerable in a city
that suffers from typhoons every year, saving
20,000 metric tons of steel in the process.

Given the complexity of the building, it was

incumbent upon the designers to continue
to measure its performance, even as it was
being built, with a view toward continuous
monitoring after completion. The structural
health monitoring (SHM) system helps
dynamically observe risks, quality level and
structural states under loads, providing safety
warnings and information for maintenance
and inspection. The SHM monitors seismic
response, displacement and settlement,
structural temperature, stress and strain, and
tower structure inclination.

Shanghai Tower has distinguished itself

as an exemplary “smart” building. The
design and construction of Shanghai
Tower has been contemporaneous with
developments in sophisticated digital
technology and major IT advances, such
as cloud computing, and, for the first time
in commercial buildings, the integration
of the “Internet of Things,” and Building
Information Modeling (BIM). The tower’s
technology consists of a basic support level
(cabling system, equipment), a middle layer
of 31 intelligent subsystems (fire-alarm and
public-address systems, Building Control
System for facilities, energy monitoring
systems, a one-card security pass system,
and an integrated communications system);
and a top layer consisting of the Intelligent
Building Management System (IBMS),
which integrates the collection storage,
processing, analysis and display of data from
all subsystems). The transmission system for all
of this data is Internet-Protocol (IP)-based, and
a 10-GB backbone and 1-GB IP network serve
90 percent of the intelligent subsystems.

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The objective behind using BIM to design
Shanghai Tower was to execute the project
by using Lean management techniques
and to realize the full life-cycle monitoring
concept. To achieve this, Shanghai
Tower’s design team used Autodesk Vault
Professional, a data-management platform
that can manage and integrate data from
various programs. The client established a
working group, involving all the BIM teams
from design to construction to material
supply, and formed a working framework
and standards unified by a clear hierarchy.

For example, by using BIM on the external

curtain wall, the efficiency of drawing
processing maps increased by 200 percent.
The conversion efficiency of processing

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map data has increased by 50 percent, while However, in order not to break the monitoring system, in order to ensure the
the measurement efficiency of complex proportions of the city’s skyline, the team operation of sustainable measures and to
components increased by 10 percent. For eventually choose 632 meters, which is 210 monitor and control energy consumption.
the MEP disciplines, using the BIM framework meters higher than the Jin Mao Tower and A Central Energy Management Control
cut 60 percent from onsite workloads and 140 meters higher than the Shanghai World System (CECS)integrates the energy
allowed pipeline assembly to be 70 percent Financial Center, thus these three building conditions in different seasons and time
prefabricated. All told, using BIM cut three to form a altitude difference of 70 meters and periods and calibrates the most efficient
five percent of the total project cost that is 140 meters, respectively. and appropriate operating periods for
normally devoted to post-design changes and energy equipment. With the successful
human error, while cutting clashes had a value From the outset, the ambition behind application of CECS, 10 percent to 15
of more than 100 million RMB (US $16 million). Shanghai Tower was to make it one of percent more energy will be saved. The use
The role of BIM technology does not end on the world’s greenest and best-performing of CECS in Shanghai Tower represents the
Shanghai Tower’s opening day. The project tall buildings and to meet the stringent debut of this technology in such mega-
team has studied how to apply BIM in the requirements of Chinese Green Building scale, complicated buildings worldwide.
asset management of the tower and continue Standard, as well as achieve LEED Gold
to use it as part of a Property Asset Operations certification by integrating 47 sustainable Revive: Contribution for the
Platform (PAOP), comprising BIM, Facilities energy-saving technologies. Although this Regional Development
Management (FM) and IBMS technologies. would increase the project investment by Iconic buildings usually have a significant
3 percent to 5%, the building supports an influence on regional development. Therefore,
Environment: Responsible Development energy-saving rate of 54 percent over the investors should not only focus on their own
Tall buildings have a significant influence Chinese efficiency standard and 22 percent benefits, but have sufficient consideration
on the urban features and regional over the American efficiency standard. of how to contribute to the regional
environment. Thus, the the client and Active solutions include: a double-layer development and functional improvement.
designer must hold a principal responsibility curtain wall, which saves 50 percent
for the contemporary appearance and more energy than single-layer façade; a Shanghai Tower is located in Lujiazui,
enduring visual, environmental and cultural combined cooling and heating power (CHP) the Central Business District (CBD) of the
relevance of such structures. system; two energy centers (at Level B2 Shanghai’s Pudong area, but it offers an
and 82); a wind-turbine system that could expansion of the concept of the typical
In the determination of the final scheme generate 1,190, 000KWh of electricity every CBD. Traditional CBDs are often restricted in
of Shanghai Tower, the project team year; 25 percent greywater recycling to flush their commercial concept. Shanghai Tower
undertook sufficient consideration of lower-area toilets and irrigate greenery; 92 raises a new definition of CBD, with social
the influence that architectural form and percent material acquisition within a radius development goals in mind: Community,
building height would have on the city. of 800 miles (1,287 kilometer); 60 percent which here is vertically overlapped;
The tower spirals up in a gentle curve, and waste recycling and reuse; most space Business, which stands for leadership in
harmonizes with the two skyscrapers nearby, illumination with the highest efficiency LED business; and Diversity, which emphasizes
while maintaining its own characteristics. lights, controlled by a automatic ON and diversified culture. This extends the
In determining the building height, current OFF system with brightness sensors. meaning of CBD from mere commerce to
technology was not a limiting factor. In fact, include community and culture.
the tower could have been substantially taller. In the operations phase, Shanghai Tower
will continue to deploy a substantial

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Opposite: Close exterior view of the double-skin façade.
Source: Gensler

Bottom: Ground lobby interior. Source: Terri Boake Meyer

Considering the monotonous facilities that

currently dominate the Pudong Lujiazui
District, Shanghai Tower’s development
team had an planned for more than just
luxury retail during the programming
phase., Rather, we started with a typology of
“experience, technology, culture, future life,
supporting service” and inserted a public
museum, galleries and supporting, everyday
commercial facilities that could 20,000
tower occupants and 100,000 office workers
in the neighborhood.

From the beginning, Shanghai Tower

planned and constructed public
passageways in the B2 level, connecting to
Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai World Financial
Center, Shanghai International Financial
Center, and Metro lines 2 and 14, establishing
a complete pedestrian system underground.

Shanghai Tower was always conceived as

more than a superlative of height, although
it is also that. It was conceived as a new
prototype for vertical cities, and its success is
a reflection of the hard work of the thousands
of people involved in the project. Despite the
obviously critical role that technology and
innovations play in creating a vertical city with
“height, pride, and delicacy,” it must never
be forgotten that buildings are for people,
and the objective of any building, no matter
how awe-inspiring, is to function well in the
support of human wellbeing.

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