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July 20, 2019

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US architect’s towering achievements in Shanghai

LUJIAZUI financial district in the Pudong New Area is a forest of skyscrapers with the Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai World Financial Center and Shanghai Tower, three of the “superlative trees” that make up the city’s skyline.

All three landmarks were designed by American architects.

Marshall Strabala, chief architect of the Shanghai Tower, said: “The story is about past, present and future. Jin Mao Tower, finished in 1998, is like a stainless-steel pagoda, which sort of represents the past. WFC is a building of the present, which is opening up to foreign investment. Shanghai Tower is about China’s future — a future that’s more open.”

At 632 meters, the Shanghai Tower is China’s tallest building and the world’s second-tallest. The high-rise has 127 floors above the ground and five below ground level. With a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, it is a truly green building.

Strabala shared a secret with Shanghai Daily that visitors can go to the sky lobbies on the 22nd and 52nd floors to enjoy the view without payment.

“It is what makes Shanghai Tower unique. It has spaces for people to come and enjoy life without having to spend a lot of money. And this is the sort of a secret that people should know.”

The man behind the mega structure, Strabala first visited Shanghai 18 years ago. His Chinese name is the poetic Sima Su.

The interview took place at Strabala’s office in the tower. With such a splendid view of the city, he started off by chatting about Shanghai.

Q: What’s your first impressions of Shanghai?

A: In 2001, I visited the city for the first time. Flying from Beijing, I was meeting the Jin Mao group in the Jin Mao Tower. I got a taxi while I realized that I didn’t have its Chinese address. I said “Jin Mao” to the driver and he shrugged his shoulders. Finally, what I did was I drew a picture of Jin Mao Tower and showed it to the driver. And he said, “Oh, Jin Mao!”

That is the value of the building. You don’t have to give someone an address.

Q: What is your design philosophy? How did you apply it to the Shanghai Tower?

A: My design philosophy is “do more with less.”

Shanghai Tower has two skins. The concept of the design is that of a thermos bottle. There’s an outer glass skin in a glass sphere. The design contributes to keeping the cold air from migrating out in the summer and then it reverses in the winter. It’s like being able to put a jacket on or take a jacket off depending on the weather.

The double-skin system helps us save money in energy costs over a long time. The shape of the outside of the building is what reduces structural loads on the building and creates the beautiful spiraling curve.

So not only does it look beautiful, but it also functions well and saves money. That’s what we mean by doing more with less.

Q: Shanghai Tower looks like a huge and twisted bamboo with eight joints and nine separate sections. In previous interviews, you called the building a “vertical city” with nine neighborhoods. Could you tell me more about this?

A: Eight is a lucky number. Nine is not a bad number. The safety code in China has to have an area of refuge every 15 floors. Therefore, the building is divided into nine zones. The zones get taller as the building gets thinner so we could keep a similar population in each cell.

Featuring parking, retail, a conference center, office areas, two hotels and a sightseeing area, the building functions pretty much like a vertical city.

We split the elevators into what we call sky lobbies, which function like subway stops. The lobbies have retail around them, such as a bookstore, restaurants, two dental offices, a gymnasium and a museum.

When I was designing the building, I calculated that if 5 percent of the office people don’t go to the ground floor for lunch but just go to the amenity floor, that will save a million elevator trips a year, which adds up to a lot of energy.

Q: How do you see the trend of building skyscrapers?

A: The tallest building for the longest time was the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is about 145 meters high. Most 30-story residential buildings in Shanghai are almost the same height.

To play the game that I’m taller than you is kind of a waste of time because eventually you’re going to lose. I always use the example of putting mousse in hair to describe making a spire taller. Am I taller if I put mousse in my hair and make it stand up?

I would suggest be the best you can be and be the right size for the city. Be appropriate. Don’t play that game.

Q: Since your first visit, have you seen any changes in Chinese architecture or Chinese architects?

A: Architecture is a “practice,” meaning you must continually “practice” the art in order to get better. My first trip to the Chinese mainland was around 1999. I have seen leaps and bounds in the practice of architecture over the past 26 years, in both quality of construction and sophistication of design.

One of the first jobs I did in China was the Suzhou Convention Center, and we used a very prominent Chinese contractor. The exterior wall took four to five attempts to get right, but later that same contractor did the outer skin of the Shanghai Tower with an unmatched degree of precision. The design is also improving, each generation of architects bring new life and vitality to the world.

The world is smaller now and we can all learn and improve with interaction of ideas and cooperation. The practice of architecture is unstoppable in China.

Q: As a senior architect, what advice do you have for young architects?

A: Over the past 30 years, I have seen that the real education of an architect only starts after school, when he or she begins the “practice of architecture” under a mentor.

I recommend every architectural student to go as many different cites as possible, not just for a visit, but to live and work.

Learn all you can before you settle down in the city that you love best.




 

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