In December 2006, Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has won a competition to design the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in Shenzhen, China.

The 250m-high building will be OMA’s second biggest project in China after the vast CCTV building in Beijing, which is under construction.

SSE consists of a central tower with an elevated box raised off the ground to provide a canopy for a public plaza beneath.

‘Lifting the base in the air vastly increases its exposure,’ says Koolhaas. ‘In its elevated position, it can ‘broadcast’ the activities of the stock market to the entire city.’

‘The essence of the stock market is speculation: it is based on capital, not gravity,’ he continues. ‘In the case of Shenzhen’s almost virtual stock market, the role of symbolism exceeds that of the program – it is a building that has to represent the stock market, more than physically accommodate it.’

The following information is from the architects:

‘For millennia, the solid building stands on a solid base; it is an image that has survived modernity. Typically, the base anchors a structure and connects it emphatically to the ground.The essence of the stock market is speculation: it is based on capital, not gravity. In the case of Shenzhen’s almost virtual stock market, the role of symbolism exceeds that of the program—it is a building that has to represent the stock market, more than physically accommodate it… It is not a trading arena with offices, but an office with virtual organs that suggest and illustrate the process of the market.

All these reasons suggest an architectural invention: our project is a building with a floating base. As if it is lifted by the same speculative euphoria that drives the market, the former base has crept up the tower to become a floating platform—like a platform, it supports and launches the area which it liberates on the ground.

// Urban
The Project is located Shenzhen Central District, the only business and administrative centre in Shenzhen.
The district is adjacent to Mount Lianhua in the north and Binhe Boulevard in the south, and is bisected by Shennan Road, the main East-West thoroughfare in Shenzhen.
The new Shenzhen Stock Exchange Square will be located on this axis and will be a landmark project for the financial markets of China as a whole.

// Facade
Set against a skyline of homogenous towers, Shenzhen Stock Exchange Square is designed to glimmer with a refined veil of patterned glass. Its elegant skin creates a constantly shifting image of the tower as it responds to the light, the buildings character adapts in differing ways; sparkling during bright sunshine, mute on an overcast day, enigmatic at dusk, glimmering during rain and glowing at night.

// Concept
The facade is a visual merger of two conventional building envelope typologies: the window wall and the glass curtain wall. The tower structure is a robust exo-skeletal grid. The overlay of glass on structure results in a vison glass window wall and a patterned glass skin that reveals the detail and complexity of construction but renders it mysterious behind the crystalline effect of the patterned glass.

// Tower Facade
The patterned glass skin of the tower facade provides a simple but highly effective system for shading the transparent vision-panes from the hot sub-tropical sun and negating the need for any additional complex and expensive exterior shading. Direct ventilation is provided by panels concealed behind the structural elements in the facade, allowing for the pure expression of the grid to remain.

// Podium Facade
The facade of the lifted podium also uses the same textured glass as the tower cladding but, is held in contrast through its differing use of scale, articulation, and layering. The glass is used to create subtle optical distortions in the facade, its depth also allows for the creation of an occupiable balcony between patterned glass and recessed vision glass.

// Atria Facade
The facades of the atria are simplifed continuations of the towercladding. Their material continuity reinforces the penetration of the tower through the raised podium and provides a strong stable base for the stock exchange. The resulting light effects contrast with the more heavily structured and robust tower base below the podium.

// Structure
The structural height of the SSE tower is approximately 228m. It consists of a 45 storey tower and 3 storey cantilevering podium (the “Platform”) which contains 48,000m2 of area and is raised 36m above ground level. There are 3 levels of basement. Its geometrical definition is described on the architect’s drawings. The upper tower is mainly used for office functions, which are arranged around a central core. The Podium and lower tower contain the dedicated Stock Exchange functions. A number of dedicated building services floors are located at various levels throughout the building height. Structurally, the tower and podium act as one structural system in the final as-built case.

// Podium Primary Structure
The raised Podium is approximately 160mx100m in plan and has a maximum cantilever of37m and a structural depth of approximately 24m. There are 3 primary floors as well as onepartial mezzanine floor and an accessible landscaped roof. The podium is fully connected tothe tower structure, and has a 3D structural system consisting of primary and secondaryplanar steel trusses, and diaphragms at roof and soffit levels (F7 and F10).
Podium gravity loads are primarily carried by four vertical primary columns and four inclined primary columns, all located at the root of the cantilever. Gravity loads from zones adjacent to the tower are carried by the tower perimeter frame columns.’

The 250m-high building will be OMA’s second biggest project in China after the vast CCTV building in Beijing, which is under construction.

For more pictures visit: www.oma.nl.