Skyscraper with a vertical garden inside

Tianfu Software Park will expand with new buildings. Dutch design studio MVRDV has won an international design competition to build a 150-metre-high tower and several smaller buildings. The skyscraper is impressive, with a vertical garden that will fill the entire space of the huge atrium – from the floor to the roof of the building.

The complex will be built in the city of Chengdu in China. It is a metropolis of more than 15 million inhabitants and the capital of Sichuan province. Although the 150-metre-high skyscraper is not impressive by Chinese standards, it stands out with its heavily glazed façade and the vertical garden inside.

A unique feature of the building is the huge atrium, whose height is only limited by the skyscraper’s roof. To achieve this effect, the architects left one of the corners undeveloped. This form of the building is intended to provide users with a good view of the mountain landscape and to have a positive effect on their work efficiency. The skyscraper with a garden will also provide the opportunity to relax in the vicinity of the greenery, without having to leave the building itself.

The designed atrium, on the one hand, is an integral part of the volume and, on the other, is an attempt to connect architecture with nature. The greenery planted here is intended to benefit the microclimate and enable passive ventilation. In this way, the building’s energy consumption will be lower. The greenery is also intended to provide shade, which will reduce the need for mechanical cooling of the rooms.

A four-storey cultural centre will be built next door (visualisation above). There will be an art museum, a conference room, a library and exhibition space. The roof of the building will be open, with the construction of an observation deck heavily planted with greenery. Residents will be able to stroll there as if it were a park, sit on benches or jog. This is a nod to the nearby buildings and green areas. The entire complex will be built on the outskirts of the city, on the border with rural developments. The architecture of the MVRDV project is therefore intended to provide a gentle transition between the urban area and nature.

design: MVRDV

authors: Winy Maas, Wenchian Shi

collaborations: Kyo Suk Lee, Sredej Bunnag, Americo Iannazzone, Jiani You, Lucien Glass, Zhou Wang, Samuel Tam, Letizia Pezzini, Matteo Spalletti, Andrius Ribikauskas, Amanda Galiana Ortega, Cai Huang, Xinyuan Zhang, Shanshan Wu, Echo Zhai, Tanja Dubbelaar,
Runjie Liu

visuals: ATCHAIN

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