Project Vanke Center

1)Meeting Room      2)Parking      3)Conference Center      4) Water Garden      5)Mechanical

By lifting the entire structure to the height limit, expansive views are possible from all areas of the building.

The Vanke Center is as long as the Empire State Building is tall.

The hovering architecture of Shenzhen's Vanke Center uses a unique hybrid construction. In plan, the building resembles a tree trunk, kinked in several places, with smaller branches growing out of it on one side. The four- to five-story structure is lifted 30 to 50 feet off the ground, and reaches a maximum height of 115 feet, the limit for the site. According to Holl, by lifting the entire building in this way, expansive views of the lake and the South China Sea in front of the building, and mountains behind it, are possible from all of the main program spaces, not just select areas. The decision to float one large structure right under the 115-foot height limit, instead of several smaller structures each catering to a specific program, also generates the largest possible green space open to the public on the ground level.

The sprawling, floating building rests on eight poured-in-place concrete cores distributed throughout the length of the trunk and its branches. The cores are reinforced with steel to support the building's innovative feature. Borrowing from bridge design, the Vanke Center uses a cable-stay structure. "I threw the idea out on the table as a crazy joke," says Hu, who oversees Holl's projects in China. "And Xiao made it happen."

The unique, composite structure features cable stays.