Canton Tower
| Canton Tower | |
|---|---|
| 廣州塔[1] | |
 The Canton Tower |
|
| General information | |
| Type | Restaurant, observation, telecommunications |
| Location | Guangzhou, China |
| Coordinates | 23°6′32″N 113°19′8″E / 23.10889°N 113.31889°ECoordinates: 23°6′32″N 113°19′8″E / 23.10889°N 113.31889°E |
| Construction started | November 2005 |
| Topped-out | August 2009 |
| Completed | 2010 |
| Height | |
| Antenna spire | 600 m (1,968.5 ft) |
| Roof | 459.2 m (1,506.6 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 108 (plus 2 below ground) |
| Floor area | 114,054 m2 (1,227,700 sq ft) |
| Elevator count | 6 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Mark Hemel, Barbara Kuit; IBA |
| Structural engineer | Arup |
| References | |
| [2][3][4] | |
| Canton Tower | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 广州塔 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 廣州塔 | ||||||||||
| Cantonese Jyutping | Gwong² zau1 taap3 | ||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Guǎngzhōu tǎ | ||||||||||
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Canton Tower, formerly Guangzhou TV astronomical and Sightseeing Tower, is an observation tower in the Haizhu District of Guangzhou, historically known as Canton or Kwangchow, Guangdong, China.[5][6][7] Topping out of the tower was in 2009 and it became operational on 29 September 2010 for the 2010 Asian Games.[8] The tower briefly held the title of tallest completed tower in the world, replacing the CN Tower, before being surpassed by the Tokyo Sky Tree in 2011.[9] It is the tallest structure in China, the seventh-tallest structure in the world, and the fourth-tallest freestanding structure in the world. It is named after "Canton", the traditional European name of the city.
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[edit] History
The tower is designed by the Dutch architects Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit of Information Based Architecture together with Arup, the international design, engineering and business consulting firm headquartered in London, England. 2004, Information Based Architecture and Arup won the international competition, in which many internationally large architectural offices participated. The same year the IBA - Arup team in Amsterdam, developed the tower's concept design. In later stages, IBA cooperated mainly with the local Chinese office of Arup and a Local Design Institute. The tower, although not fully completed, opened to the public on 1 October 2010 in time for the 16th Asian Games, hosted by Guangzhou in November 2010.[10][11] The rooftop observatory finally received its official opening in December 2011.
For a long time, the city-government of Guangzhou wavered to decide on the Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower's name. On 29 September 2010, it was officially announced that it was simply going to be called Canton Tower, after the city's traditional European name.
[edit] Naming
There had been a long discussion about the naming of the Canton Tower since its construction started in 2005. In September 2009, at the request of the tower's investor, Guangzhou Daily launched a contest for naming proposals. The contest attracted over 180,000 valid entries, among which "Haixin Tower" (Chinese: 海心塔; literally "Tower in the River") was awarded the first prize. The name alluded to the city's historical setting as the start of the Maritime Silk Road and the tower's geographical proximity to Haixinsha Island. However, this name was considered obscure to people unfamiliar with the history of the city.[12] Local residents continued to the refer to the tower by various nicknames including "Slim Waist" (Chinese: 小蛮腰), "Twisted Firewood" (Chinese: 扭纹柴; a metaphor for "stubborn" in Cantonese) and "Yangdianfeng" (Chinese: 羊巅峰; literally "Peak of the Ram City"; homophonic to "epilepsy" in colloquial Chinese).[13]
The naming was reconsidered in 2010. After surveying a broad range of public opinions, "Canton Tower" was decided as the official name and announced at the end of September 2010. The new name, despite its lack of historical reference, was considered the most identifying and least ambiguous among the multitude of proposals.[14]
[edit] The twist
The idea of the tower's design is simple. The form, volume and structure is generated by two ellipses, one at foundation level and the other at a horizontal plane at 450 m (1,480 ft). These two ellipses are rotated relative to another. The tightening caused by the rotation between the two ellipses forms a "waist" and a densification of material half way up the tower. This means that the lattice structure, which at the bottom of the tower is porous and spacious, becomes denser at waist level. The waist itself becomes tight, like a twisted rope; transparency is reduced and views to the outside are limited. Further up the tower the lattice opens again, accentuated here by the tapering of the structural column-tubes.
The Canton tower's twisted shape or hyperboloid structure corresponds to the Russian Empire patent No. 1896, dated 12 March 1899 received by Vladimir Shukhov, the Russian engineer and architect.[15] In Ukraine in delta of Dnepr is located the Adziogol Lighthouse (1911, project of Vladimir Shukhov) similar to the Canton tower.[16]
[edit] Structural concept
The tower was designed by Information Based Architecture and Arup. The Arup team led by structural engineer Prof. Dr. Joop Paul introduced near mass customisation to the joint design, in combination with parametric design methods, and applied a simple structural concept of three elements: columns, rings and braces, to this more complex geometry.
The waist of the tower contains a 180 m (590 ft) open-air skywalk where visitors can physically climb the tower. There are outdoor gardens set within the structure, and at the top, just above 450 m (1,480 ft), a large open-air observation deck.
The interior of the tower is subdivided into programmatic zones with various functions, including TV and radio transmission facilities, observatory decks, revolving restaurants, computer gaming, restaurants, exhibition spaces, conference rooms, shops, and 4D cinemas.
A deck at the base of the tower hides the tower's functional workings. All infrastructural connections – metro and bus stations – are situated underground. This level also includes exhibition spaces, a food court, a commercial space, a parking area for cars and coaches. There are two types of lifts, slow-speed panoramic and high-speed double-decker.
The zone from 80 to 170 m (260 to 560 ft) consists of a 4D cinema, a play-hall area, restaurants, coffee shops and outdoor gardens with teahouses. An open-air staircase, the Skywalk, starts at the height of 170 metres and spirals almost 200 metres higher, all the way through the waist.
The top zone of the tower begins above the stairway, housing various technical functions as well as a two-storey rotating restaurant, a damper and the upper observation levels. From the upper observation levels it is possible to ascend even higher, via a further set of the stairs, to a terraced observation square rising above the tower's top ring.
[edit] Rooftop observatory
The rooftop has a outdoor public observatory 488 m (1,601 ft) above the ground, which takes the form of a terraced elliptical space, roughly the size of a small city square. Opened in December 2011, it is currently the highest and largest outdoor observation deck in the World.[17]
Sixteen transparent "crystal" passenger cars, each with a diameter of 3.2 m (10 ft) and able to carry four to six people, travel on a track round edge of the tower's roof, taking between 20 and 40 minutes to circumnavigate the rooftop.[10] The installation is described by the media as a ferris wheel, however its passenger cars are not suspended from the rim of a wheel and remain horizontal without being fully rotated, and the track, which follows the incline of the roof, is closer to the horizontal than the vertical.[18][19]
[edit] Architectural lighting design
At night, the tower glows and emits light, rather than being uplit. Every node in the lighting design is individually controllable to allow for animations and colour changes across the entire height of the tower. As all lighting is based on LED technology and all fixtures are located on the structure itself, the lighting scheme consumes only 15% of the allowed maximum for facade lighting.[citation needed]
Canton Tower has architectural lighting that was designed by Rogier van der Heide. The architectural feature lighting is based on the principle that the tower should not be "lit up" but "radiate a glow" at night. 7,000 LED light fixtures light the rings of the tower's structure each from underneath, to form a continuous glow.[citation needed]
[edit] Gallery
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Construction begins
February 2007 -
October 2007
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November 2007
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August 2008
[edit] See also
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower |
- Guangzhou Broadcasting Network
- Guangzhou TV Tower
- List of tallest freestanding structures in the world
- List of tallest towers in the world
- List of hyperboloid structures
- Tokyo Sky Tree
[edit] References
- ^ "张广宁万庆良出席广州塔亮灯仪式". The People`s Government of Guangzhou Municipality. 1 October 2010. http://www.gz.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/gzgov/s2342/201010/637462.html. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ Canton Tower at Emporis
- ^ Canton Tower at SkyscraperPage
- ^ Andrew Rosenberg (19 November 2010). "Canton Tower / Information Based Architecture". ArchDaily. http://www.archdaily.com/89849/canton-tower-information-based-architecture. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "GZ's New Television Tower Named Canton Tower". The People`s Government of Guangzhou Municipality. 30 September 2010. http://www.gz.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/cngzyw/s4171/201009/635572.html. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "Guangzhou's new television tower named Canton Tower". The People`s Government of Guangzhou Municipality. 30 September 2010. http://www.gz2010.cn/10/0930/09/6HQOEBFE0078008O.html. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "The Canton Tower". Canton Tower. 2010. http://www.gztvtower.info. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "600-metre-high Canton Tower begins operations". Guangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee. 2 October 2010. http://www.gz2010.cn/10/1002/10/6I01GTTB0078008O.html. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "List of tallest towers in the world". Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). 2011. http://buildingdb.ctbuh.org/?do=create&search=yes&status_COM=on&status_UCT=on&type_tower=on&page=0. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ a b "World's highest ferris wheel coming to Guangzhou". Guangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee. 18 March 2009. http://www.gz2010.cn/09/0318/09/54M8KHNF0078008O.html. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ Lotte Haagsma; Piet Vollaard (11 October 2010). "Six years building the tallest TV tower in the world". Archined. http://www.archined.nl/en/interviews/engels/six-years-building-the-tallest-tv-tower-in-the-world/. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "广州新电视塔命名敲定 市民不知"海心"内涵" (in Chinese). Information Times. 16 November 2009. http://news.dayoo.com/guangzhou/200911/16/73437_11295442.htm. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "从"大裤衩"到"羊巅峰",民众智慧可怕？" (in Chinese). YCWB. 22 September 2010. http://sp.ycwb.com/2009-09/22/content_2266637.htm. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "为地标命名 为城市喝彩" (in Chinese). Guangzhou Daily. 29 September 2010. http://gzdaily.dayoo.com/html/2010-09/29/content_1143858.htm. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ Graefe, Rainer; Šuchov, V. G. (1990). Vladimir Grigorʹevič Šuchov : 1853-1939 ; die Kunst der sparsamen Konstruktion. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt. pp. 78–103, 177. ISBN 3421029849.
- ^ Hyperboloid Adziogol Lighthouse by Vladimir Shukhov in Ukraine
- ^ "Cloud Top 488 on Canton Tower Opened to public". The People`s Government of Guangzhou Municipality. 19 December 2011. http://english.gz.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/gzgoven/s4171/201112/883732.html. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
- ^ Caixiong, Zheng. "Tallest Ferris wheel planned in Guangzhou". China Daily. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-03/18/content_7590540.htm. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
- ^ "Tallest Ferris wheel planned". People's Daily. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/6616344.html. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
[edit] External links
- Canton Tower official website
- The external LED lighting of Canton Tower
- 3D Animation of the construction of the Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower by Intelibuild
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