Shenzen, China
Minmetals Financial Center is one of the latest projects by Yvonne Szeto and Bruce N. White of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners LLC. with Mo Atelier Szeto for Minmetals Capital (Hong Kong) Ltd., one of the world’s leading metal and mining companies.
This iconic tower, rising on the gateway site of a new planned business development in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen, China, will house the South China offices of Minmetals.
The new 29-story tower has been carefully sited to be respectful of its neighbors and allow for extensively landscaped public space at ground level.
The tower is distinguished from its strictly orthogonal neighbors by its gently sloping north and south facades, which extend above the main roof to form expressive apexes at the northeast and southeast corners.
Minmetals Financial Center has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Resembling wind-filled sails, these arcing facades are balanced by a contrasting parallelogram geometry that creates mast-like silhouettes on the other two sides.
The material qualities of the building expand on this theme.
The curtain wall system enclosing the sail forms includes floor-to-ceiling glass and matching shadow-box glazing at the spandrels, creating a light and open effect.
The mast forms combine glass and stone spandrels, with larger expanses of stone at the base that suggest ballasts for the sails and bring a sense of solidity and dignity to the entry levels of the tower.
The structural design adds its own expression to the sail imagery through exterior lateral bracing: two X-braced groupings of 12 floors each are separated by three horizontal single-story braced truss floors—recalling a framework of nautical ties and battens.
Four-story-high porches on the tower’s north and south sides serve as signature gateways, leading to a generous public open space with a terraced landscape that incorporates water features and public art, integrating active uses on the ground floor with a retail pavilion on the floor below.
The extensively developed landscape is part of an overall sustainable strategy that includes a high-efficiency exterior wall, operable windows, and internal shading devices.
The building is expected to achieve LEED Gold.
Project: Minmetals Financial Center
Architects: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners LLC.
Lead Architects: Yvonne Szeto and Bruce N. White
Associate Architects: Mo Atelier Szeto
Client: Minmetals Capital (Hong Kong) Ltd.
General Contractor: China Construction Eighth Engineering Division. Corp. Ltd.
Photographers: Minmetals Group
