*어반서클, 랜드마크 [ Joseph di Pasquale architect ] Guangzhou Circle

어반 서클, 도시를 그리다. 인상적인 시퀀스를 형성하는 광저우 서클은 유구한 중국의 전통문화를 계승, 현대 도시공간 속에 새로운 건축적 공간으로 재구성된다. 일반적인 고층 빌딩과는 차별화되는 건축물의 형태는 약 2000여년전 중국왕조를 의미하는 황실심볼을 형상화 한 것으로 주술 또는 점쾌에 사용하는 (두개의 원형판)옥쟁반을 모티브로 디자인된다. -두개의 원형이 평행하게 구성된 형태는 중국인이 영원불멸의 의미로 즐겨하는 8자; 이 또한 상형문자로 부터 온 것 을 강물에 비친 두개의 원형으로 완성한다. 하나는 현재 도시의 랜드마크, 또다른 하나는 과거의 역사적 문화를, 이렇게 두개의 원형은 무형적으로 유형적으로 연결된다. 그리하여 완성된 건축물은 138미터 높이에 33층이 총 85,000m2 면적을 이루며 도시와 강변으로 각 각 향한 장대한 원형 파사드를 구현한다. -파사드를 관통하는 내부홀은 지름이 약 50미터의 크기로 전 세계적으로도 유니크한 건축공간이 형성된다.- 두개의 파사드로 지지되는 내부 공간은 유효하게 사용될 수 있는 사각볼륨으로 원형면을 따라 적층된다.

중국인들의 8의 사랑은 유별나다. 예를 들어 베이징 올림픽은 2008년 8월 8일 8시 8분에 개최 되었다.

reviewed by SJ

On December 16th 2013 the completion ceremony of the Guangzhou Circle Mansion had taken place in Guangzhou, China. It’s the Headquarter of Guang Dong HongDa XingYe Group and the venue of GDPE Guangdong Plastic Exchange, the world largest stock exchange for raw plastic material with more then 40 billions euros of annual turn over.

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Architects: Joseph di Pasquale architect
Location: Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Design Team: Alessandro Tonassi, Nazareno Cerquaglia, Ma Jun, Zhang Hong Ge, Ma Chong, Wang Ying, Yi Ji Xuan, Peng Hui Fang, Cui Hong
Structural: SIGGMA engineering, Politecnico di Milano
Enginering: SCUT, South China University of Technology
Building Site Engineer: Wang Zhan Shan, Chen Jing Qian
Area: 85000.0 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Courtesy of Joseph di Pasquale architect

Local and Italian authorities will attend the ceremony including the Italian General Consul in Guangzhou mr Benedetto Latteri and the scientific responsible of the Italian Embassy in Beijing, mr Giuseppe Rao.

The building has been designed by the Italian architect Joseph di Pasquale and his professional practice AM project from Milan that has been the winning proposal of the international architectural competition held in 2009. The total height is 138 mt for 33 floors, 85.000 square meters of floor area and about 50 million euros of global investment. The inner hole is a unique space that has no equal in the world with its almost fifty meters of diameter (48 mt).

The architectural concept intends to design landmark building that will be immediately perceived as native Chinese Landmark Building using a closed and central structure instead of the usual western skyscrapers stereotype. Therefore the architecture is fully defined, and iconic, very close to the Chinese way of perceiving and understanding. It’s a sort of “urban logo” that works as a landmark in the same way that ideograms are used in the Chinese writing, instead of the alphabet.

The architectural concept is inspired by the strong iconic value of jade discs and numerological tradition of fengh shui. In particular, the double disc of jade ( bi-disk ) is the royal symbol of ancient Chinese dynasty that reigned in this area around 2000 years ago . The building reflected in the water of the river creates exactly the same image: a double jade disc. This figure also corresponds to the number 8 and infinity symbol that Chinese culture has a strong propitiatory value. Just remember how the date and time of the start of the Beijing Olympics was for the same reason fixed to 8:08 am of the ‘ 8-8-2008.

But the building is also a clear reference to the theme dear to the Italian Renaissance “quadratura del cerchio” (squaring the circle). The two circular facades in fact contain and support suspended groups of storeys that are actually “squaring” the perfect circumference of the facades in order to make the interior space orthogonal and habitable.

The 33 floors are grouped to create two rows of volumes blocks that appears from the side of the building and are progressively pushed out till an extreme 25 meters cantilever. The main interior space is the exchange hall that is located just lower then the central hole of the building. This is the heart of the entire complex and of the entire company.

The initial structural concept has been developed and tested at the wind gallery of Polytechnic of Milan, and the structural calculations and final test has been developed by the South China University of Technology (SCUT) in Guangzhou.

from  archdaily