Virtual Building Tour – Leeza Soho by Zaha Hadid Architects

The 2021 series of the AIA UK Chapter’s “Virtual Building Tours” continued on 8 April with a visit to Leeza SOHO in Beijing China. Zaha Hadid Architects’ (ZHA) Satoshi Ohashi, Director, and Philipp Ostermaier, Associate, led us through an insightful tour of the building, one of the last projects Zaha Hadid personally contributed to before her death in March 2016. 

Leeza SOHO boasts the world’s tallest atrium (194,16 meters), which rotates in two opposing directions, upwards around the building. The iconic building tower, located in the Chinese capital’s Fengtai business district, contains 172,800 square meters covering 45 floors above ground and four floors below. It is comprised of both office and retail spaces with direct connections to the mass transit underground system. 

In his remarks, Satoshi discussed ZHA’s long standing relationship with the Chinese building developer, SOHO China. Given their mutual success on three previous projects in China, ZHA has developed a deep professional relationship with the distinctive developer, which, in Satoshi’s opinion, is a fundamental ingredient to building iconic architecture. 

He further highlighted the site’s physical constraints; a space bisected by a subway service tunnel.  To accommodate the tunnel, the building was divided into two equal towers. The two towers are structurally connected by sky bridges set at four different altitudes, forming a sculptural atrium at the centre of the building volume. Leeza SOHO’s atrium provides a public square for the new business district by linking all the spaces within the tower and by crafting a civic space that has direct connectivity to Beijing’s transport network.

The deliberate positioning of the cores and the twisting of the floor plates through the atrium, facilitates stunning views of the city as well as views that are unique to each floor of the tower. The sculptural atrium also allows a significant amount of natural light to permeate through the public domain and into the office spaces. The two towers of the building also assist in shading the atrium’s public spaces. The double-insulated, low-e glazing contributes to a comfortable indoor temperature all year round.  

Philipp Ostermaier provided very detailed insights into the development of the project’s sustainable design elements. He emphasised Leeza SOHO’s double-insulated, unitised, glass-curtain wall system that positions the glazing units on each floor at an angle, thus providing ventilation registers to draw outside air through operable cavities, creating an efficient environmental control system for each floor. The atrium also has a built-in system for regulating and filtering in coming air. The advanced 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) management system monitors environmental controls and drives energy efficiencies. The project also boasts a number of unique characteristics such as an insulating green roof with a photovoltaic array to harvest solar energy that is atypical for a skyscraper.  As a result of the combination of innovative and proven technologies to reduce energy consumption and emissions, Leeza SOHO has earned a variety of sustainable credentials, including LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council. 

In constructing a building with the such complex geometries, Zaha Hadid Architects exhibits its position at the forefront of 3D BIM applications - not only in design, but also in construction management and building operations. During the tour, Philipp showed how the use of technology enabled ZHA to optimise the complex façade geometries of the external unitised cladding and internal atrium stick system, resulting in the efficient construction of the building on time and within SOHO China’s budget.  

ZHA took a building site that may have been otherwise compromised due to the need to incorporate an operating subway tunnel and literally “twisted” it to their advantage.  The result is a testament to their innovative design approach and eloquent use of technology. 

The AIA UK Chapter continues to host its virtual building tour series for the 2021 season based on Winners of AIA UK 2020 Excellence in Design Awards. The series offers architects and interested parties the opportunity to visit notable buildings that have particular design interests in the UK and abroad. Follow this link for further information to participate in the next tour of Nyp Guesthouse by Bua Architects on 13 May 2021. 

Written by Gregory Fonseca, AIA