Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing Tower
Encyclopedia
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
. Topping out
of the tower was in 2009 and it became operational on 29 September 2010 for the 2010 Asian Games
. 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. It is the tallest structure in China, the seventh-tallest structure in the world, and the third-tallest freestanding structure in the world. It is named after "Canton
", the traditional European name of the city.
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 yet, is since 1 October 2010 open to the public.
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.
launched a contest for naming proposals. The contest attracted over valid entries, among which "Haixin Tower" 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. Local residents continued to the refer to the tower by various nicknames including "Slim Waist" , "Twisted Firewood" and "Yangdianfeng" .
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 The new name, despite its lack of historical reference, was considered the most identifying and least ambiguous among the multitude of proposals.
The idea of the tower's design is simple. The form, volume and structure is generated by two ellipse
s, one at foundation level and the other at a horizontal plane at 450 m (1,476.4 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. In Ukraine in delta of Dnepr is located the Adziogol Lighthouse
(1911, project of Vladimir Shukhov) similar to the Canton tower.
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 (590.6 ft) open-air skywalk where visitors can physically climb the tower. There are outdoor garden
s set within the structure, and at the top, just above 450 m (1,476.4 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 room
s, 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 metre 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.
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. The concept lighting design was done by Rogier van der Heide
. 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.
track is to be constructed around the periphery of the tower's roof, and 16 transparent "crystal" passenger cars, each with a diameter of 3.2 metres (10.5 ft) and able to carry four to six people, will take between 20 and 40 minutes to circumnavigate the track.
According to the New TV Tower Construction Company, which was responsible for construction of the project, the design was to be finalised in April 2009, construction begun by November 2009, installation finished by February 2010, and testing completed in August 2010. Opening to the public was scheduled for October 2010, ready for the 16th Asian Games
, hosted by Guangzhou in November 2010.
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 oblique roof, is closer to the horizontal than the vertical.
. 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.
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
in the Haizhu District of Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, historically known as Canton or Kwangchow, Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. Topping out
Topping out
In building construction, topping out is a ceremony held when the last beam is placed at the top of a building. The term may also refer to the overall completion of the building's structure, or an intermediate point, such as when the roof is dried in...
of the tower was in 2009 and it became operational on 29 September 2010 for the 2010 Asian Games
2010 Asian Games
The 2010 Asian Games, also known as the XVI Asiad, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Guangzhou, China from November 12 to November 27, 2010. Guangzhou was the second Chinese city to host the Games, after Beijing in 1990...
. The tower briefly held the title of tallest completed tower in the world, replacing the CN Tower
CN Tower
The CN Tower is a communications and observation tower in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Standing tall, it was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure and world's tallest tower at the time. It held both records for 34 years until the completion of the Burj...
, before being surpassed by the Tokyo Sky Tree in 2011. It is the tallest structure in China, the seventh-tallest structure in the world, and the third-tallest freestanding structure in the world. It is named after "Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
", the traditional European name of the city.
History
The tower is designed by the Dutch architects Mark HemelMark Hemel
Mark Hemel is a Dutch architect and designer, and co-founder of the Amsterdam based architectural practise Information Based Architecture .- Mark Hemel's View :...
and Barbara Kuit
Barbara Kuit
Barbara Kuit is an architect. In 1998, together with her partner Mark Hemel, Kuit founded Information Based Architecture .IBA has won some of the most prestigious international competitions among which the competition for the world’s tallest TV tower, the Canton Tower, formerly known as the...
of Information Based Architecture
Information Based Architecture
Information Based Architecture was originally set up in London in 1998 as a partnership between architects Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit. Using the newest technologies the practice challenges conventional thinking and seeks to exploit new opportunities to enrich our cities with conceptually...
together with Arup
Arup
Arup is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom which provides engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment. The firm is present in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, East Asia, Europe and the...
, the international design, engineering and business consulting firm headquartered in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. 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 yet, is since 1 October 2010 open to the public.
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.
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 DailyGuangzhou Daily
Guangzhou Ribao is the official newspaper of the Guangzhou municipal party committee published by the Guangzhou Daily Newspaper Group. The daily newspaper was established on October 1, 1952....
launched a contest for naming proposals. The contest attracted over valid entries, among which "Haixin Tower" 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
Haixinsha Island (Haizhu District)
Haixinsha Island is an island in Haizhu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It is located between Luoxi Bridge and Xinguang Bridge . It is at the south of Lijiao Station of Haizhu Island and the north of Luoxi Island of Panyu District.- See also :...
. However, this name was considered obscure to people unfamiliar with the history of the city. Local residents continued to the refer to the tower by various nicknames including "Slim Waist" , "Twisted Firewood" and "Yangdianfeng" .
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.
The twist
Ellipse
In geometry, an ellipse is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is orthogonal to the cone's axis...
s, one at foundation level and the other at a horizontal plane at 450 m (1,476.4 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
Hyperboloid structure
Hyperboloid structures are architectural structures designed with hyperboloid geometry. Often these are tall structures such as towers where the hyperboloid geometry's structural strength is used to support an object high off the ground, but hyperboloid geometry is also often used for decorative...
corresponds to the Russian Empire patent No. 1896, dated 12 March 1899 received by Vladimir Shukhov
Vladimir Shukhov
Vladimir Grigoryevich Shukhov , was a Russian engineer-polymath, scientist and architect renowned for his pioneering works on new methods of analysis for structural engineering that led to breakthroughs in industrial design of world's first hyperboloid structures, lattice shell structures, tensile...
, the Russian engineer and architect. In Ukraine in delta of Dnepr is located the Adziogol Lighthouse
Adziogol Lighthouse
Adziogol Lighthouse , also known as Stanislav Range Rear Light, is a vertical lattice hyperboloid structure of steel bars, serving as an active lighthouse, about from Kherson, Ukraine...
(1911, project of Vladimir Shukhov) similar to the Canton tower.
Structural concept
The tower was designed by Information Based ArchitectureInformation Based Architecture
Information Based Architecture was originally set up in London in 1998 as a partnership between architects Mark Hemel and Barbara Kuit. Using the newest technologies the practice challenges conventional thinking and seeks to exploit new opportunities to enrich our cities with conceptually...
and Arup
Arup
Arup is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom which provides engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment. The firm is present in Africa, the Americas, Australasia, East Asia, Europe and the...
. 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 (590.6 ft) open-air skywalk where visitors can physically climb the tower. There are outdoor garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
s set within the structure, and at the top, just above 450 m (1,476.4 ft), a large open-air observation deck.
The interior of the tower is subdivided into programmatic zones with various functions, including TV and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
transmission
Transmission (telecommunications)
Transmission, in telecommunications, is the process of sending, propagating and receiving an analogue or digital information signal over a physical point-to-point or point-to-multipoint transmission medium, either wired, optical fiber or wireless...
facilities, observatory decks, revolving restaurants, computer gaming, restaurants, exhibition spaces, conference room
Room
A room is any distinguishable space within a structure.Room may also refer to:* Room , by Emma Donoghue* Room, Nepal* Room for PlayStation Portable, a social networking service* Thomas Gerald Room , Australian mathematician...
s, shops, and 4D
4-D film
4-D film is a marketing term that describes an entertainment presentation system combining a 3-D film with physical effects in the theatre, which occur in synchronization with the film...
cinemas
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
.
A deck at the base of the tower hides the tower's functional workings. All infrastructural connections – metro
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
and bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
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
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
, slow-speed panoramic and high-speed double-decker.
The zone from 80 metre consists of a 4D cinema
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
, 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.
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. The concept lighting design was done by Rogier van der Heide
Rogier van der Heide
Rogier van der Heide is a designer based in The Netherlands, who has contributed to public and commercial places all over the world.-Life:...
. 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.
Rooftop observation carousel
An ellipticalEllipse
In geometry, an ellipse is a plane curve that results from the intersection of a cone by a plane in a way that produces a closed curve. Circles are special cases of ellipses, obtained when the cutting plane is orthogonal to the cone's axis...
track is to be constructed around the periphery of the tower's roof, and 16 transparent "crystal" passenger cars, each with a diameter of 3.2 metres (10.5 ft) and able to carry four to six people, will take between 20 and 40 minutes to circumnavigate the track.
According to the New TV Tower Construction Company, which was responsible for construction of the project, the design was to be finalised in April 2009, construction begun by November 2009, installation finished by February 2010, and testing completed in August 2010. Opening to the public was scheduled for October 2010, ready for the 16th Asian Games
2010 Asian Games
The 2010 Asian Games, also known as the XVI Asiad, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Guangzhou, China from November 12 to November 27, 2010. Guangzhou was the second Chinese city to host the Games, after Beijing in 1990...
, hosted by Guangzhou in November 2010.
The installation is described by the media as a Ferris wheel
Ferris wheel
A Ferris wheel is a nonbuilding structure consisting of a rotating upright wheel with passenger cars attached to the rim in such a way that as the wheel turns, the cars are kept upright, usually by gravity.Some of the largest and most modern Ferris wheels have cars mounted on...
, 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 oblique roof, is closer to the horizontal than the vertical.
Architectural lighting design
Canton Tower has architectural lighting that was designed by Rogier van der HeideRogier van der Heide
Rogier van der Heide is a designer based in The Netherlands, who has contributed to public and commercial places all over the world.-Life:...
. 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.
See also
- Guangzhou Broadcasting Network
- Guangzhou TV TowerGuangzhou TV TowerGuangzhou Tower is a lattice telecommunication tower in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou with an observation deck, erected in 1991.A newer tower was completed in Guangzhou in October 2010, named Canton Tower that initially bore the name Guangzhou TV and Sightseeing Tower. It features...
- List of tallest freestanding structures in the world
- List of tallest towers in the world
- List of hyperboloid structures
- Tokyo Sky Tree