{"id":953780,"date":"2026-11-01T01:02:30","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T01:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/953780\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T01:02:30","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T01:02:30","slug":"new-tower-from-firm-behind-the-burj-khalifa-named-worlds-best-tall-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/953780\/","title":{"rendered":"New Tower From Firm Behind the Burj Khalifa Named World\u2019s Best Tall Building"},"content":{"rendered":"

The architectural firm behind an innovative new tower complex featuring a striking \u201cexposed hexagrid exoskeleton\u201d wants to counter the \u201cnumbing sameness\u201d of many new urban districts.<\/p>\n

One of the company\u2019s latest projects, the Sany IROOTECH Headquarters in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, has just been named \u201cBest Tall Building Worldwide\u201d at this year\u2019s Council on Vertical Urbanism (CVU) Awards.<\/p>\n

The tower complex was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the Chicago-based architectural firm behind the current world\u2019s tallest building\u2014the Burj Khalifa.<\/p>\n

Read More on News<\/p>\n

The Sany IROOTECH Headquarters, which consists of two towers, standing 204 meters high (670 feet) and 186 meters (610 feet) high, was revealed as the winner of the title at a ceremony held on Wednesday by the CVU, an international body on tall buildings promoting sustainable urban design and innovation, which has been held since 2002.<\/p>\n

The most innovative element of the complex is the \u201cexposed hexagrid exoskeleton and its connections,\u201d the project\u2019s lead designer Brian Lee, consulting partner at SOM, told Newsweek.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lee explained that while external structural frames are used in many tall buildings, \u201cSany IROOTECH advances that approach with five-story modules of mega columns and suspended floors, combining strength with the ability to accommodate movement under wind and seismic forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Architect Javier Quintana de U\u00f1a, the chief executive officer of the CVU, told Newsweek that the project \u201cachieves something rare for a tower of this size: a human scale. It is a total work of art, technology, and design.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Sany IROOTECH Headquarters was completed in December 2024, falling within the eligibility window of this year\u2019s awards, which vary from the \u201cUrban Habitat Award\u201d to the \u201cInnovation Award\u201d and more. The projects nominated for this year\u2019s awards were required to be completed between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2025, a spokesperson for the CVU told Newsweek.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The latest award comes amid growing concerns over accelerating urbanization worldwide in recent decades, with nearly 70 percent of the global population forecast to live in cities by 2050, as noted in a June 2026 study in Geography and Sustainability.<\/p>\n

Around 4.5 billion people live in cities today, and that figure is expected to grow by nearly 50 percent by 2050, the United Nations reported in October 2021.<\/p>\n

According to the UN, the global population reached nearly 8.2 billion in mid-2024 and is projected to grow by another 2 billion over the next 60 years, peaking at about 10.3 billion by the mid-2080s.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A Lifted \u2018Cloud\u2019 Podium<\/p>\n

The headquarters of IROOTECH, a cloud technology firm from the Sany Group, a construction equipment manufacturing company, is set in the heart of Guangzhou\u2019s Pazhou business district.<\/p>\n

Lee said the project is \u201cefficient, rational, and deliberate in its design strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among its unique features is the elevated podium at the base of the complex, which connects the two buildings while creating a public garden space below.<\/p>\n

Lee noted: \u201cThe towers rise above a ground plane dedicated to the public, echoing the company\u2019s motto, \u2018roots anchor while the tree rises.\u2019 The lifted podium of amenities was often called the \u2018cloud,\u2019 connecting the architecture to the Internet of Things [IoT] businesses occupying the flexible tower floors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Visitors can access a pedestrian bridge from an adjacent park or outdoor stairways that lead to the podium, where they can enjoy three levels of dining, retail, exhibition space, and extensive garden overlooks with views of the park and the Pearl River beyond it.<\/p>\n

The towers feature \u201ca sky garden\u201d as well as tree-planted terraces at every fifth-floor level that shade the fa\u00e7ade. The project was designed to meet China Green Building Label Three-Star and LEED Gold standards.<\/p>\n

Quintana de U\u00f1a said the complex \u201cchallenges the traditional, monolithic idea of the corporate tower,\u201d noting that \u201ctoo often, a headquarters is a sealed object that meets the street with a lobby and a plaza nobody uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lifted podium gives \u201cthe ground back to the public as gardens and open space, and that public life continues upward through the levels above,\u201d Quintana de U\u00f1a said, noting that the \u201cprivate and public space meet naturally, from the street up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA \u2018Remarkable\u2019 Structure Made to Withstand Earthquakes<\/p>\n

Quintana de U\u00f1a added that the structure of the complex is \u201cjust as remarkable,\u201d highlighting its \u201cexposed hexagrid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Made of concrete-filled steel tube columns that wrap both towers, the hexagrid works like an exoskeleton, with four of every five floors hung from the frame to create column-free, daylit floors. This design allowed the flexibility for office floors to be adapted to residential uses during construction.<\/p>\n

With Guangzhou being set in a region prone to seismic activity and strong winds, the building\u2019s diagrid system is designed to provide an “exceptional degree of stiffness and strength for a building of this height,\u201d while unique “friction nodes\u201d allow the two towers to dissipate energy during seismic events, SOM said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lee explained that \u201cthe friction connections dissipate earthquake energy through controlled sliding, reducing the potential for structural damage. The challenge was to integrate this system into an exposed frame that defines the building\u2019s architecture while making it more resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Inside, visitors are met by two lobbies enclosed in laminated “self-supporting glass.\u201d Materials familiar to Sany\u2019s daily business were transformed, refined, and incorporated into the building. Lee noted: \u201cRock and cement became bespoke terrazzo walls, cast aluminum took on the appearance of molten stone, and silica and sand became highly transparent, self-supporting structural glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe Future of Tall Building Design<\/p>\n

Sustainability is increasingly at the forefront of tall building design, especially with cities responsible for around 75 percent of the world\u2019s energy consumption and over 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the UN reported in October 2021.<\/p>\n

Lee says SOM believes that all of their designs must address the basics of high performance, including optimized structural and building systems, low embodied and operational carbon, and resiliency.<\/p>\n

The firm also believes that nature can be \u201creintroduced and amplified in a meaningful way to counter the numbing sameness of many new urban districts and buildings for a healthier balance of experiences,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

The designer also says that good tall building design puts equal emphasis on \u201chow to create people-oriented public spaces and uses at ground level that are connected and gracious to the city context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you have an architecture or design-related story to share? Let us know via s.kim@newsweek.com, and your story could be featured by Newsweek.<\/p>\n

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Marc Vargas<\/a>, Gray R. Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The architectural firm behind an innovative new tower complex featuring a striking \u201cexposed hexagrid exoskeleton\u201d wants to counter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[357,76,354,355,4521,49,48,95,356,75],"class_list":["post-953780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architecture","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-buildings","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}