The Chinese city of Hangzhou will soon shine a little brighter and greener. International design firm Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) just unveiled designs for the Zhejiang Gate Towers, two shimmering twin towers designed to meet LEED Gold certification. Envisioned as Hangzhou’s new iconic gateway, the towers will be wrapped in solar-shading fins and form part of a larger mixed-use masterplan.

Inspired by the Chinese character for ‘gate,’ the Zhejiang Gate Towers will stand 280 meters in height with a total area of 370,000 square meters. “The high-rise towers are an interpretation of the Chinese characters meaning ‘gate’ or entrance to a city,” said Tobias Wallisser, director of LAVA. “The development is located at a major interchange into the city so we wanted to create an iconic gateway to Hangzhou. Utilizing our extensive view studies we positioned the tower ensemble so it is recognizable as a twin structure, a gate, from both near and far.”

Both towers are clad in self-shading aluminum fins that create curvaceous shapes on the facade and are paired with high-performance glass to reduce glare and solar heat gain. Different colors of glass and the fins’ varying depths give the facade an attractive and dynamic appearance that changes depending on perspective. The towers also include eight super-columns that reduce the structural system by nearly a third as compared to a traditional scheme. The Zhejiang Gate Towers will be joined by a third 90-meter-tall building, a pair of pavilions, roof gardens, and a landscaped covered plaza that connects all the buildings. The towers are slated for completion in 2019.

Article by Lucy Wang inhabitat.com
Images via LAVA