Slated for Nanjing, China, MVRDV’s upcoming Oasis Towers will add some greenery to the concrete metropolis with a pair of skyscrapers that will sport an unusual “stratified” overall form that’s inspired by nature and covered in shrubs and trees.
The Oasis Towers will be located in the burgeoning Jiangbei New Area district of Nanjing and will both rise to an identical maximum height of 150 m (492 ft), which is a respectable height but nowhere near China’s tallest building, the 632-m (2,073-ft)-tall Shanghai Tower.
Both skyscrapers will be situated on top of a shared podium and each will be arranged into an L-shape, creating a large open area between them that will host a raised greenery filled park-like space that also contains shops and cafes, while the buildings themselves will contain retail space and apartments. The buildings’ overall form is unusual and their jagged facades look almost like something huge has taken a bite out of them. The inspiration however, comes from Nanjing’s existing nature-themed architecture, as well as the natural landscape.
“The contemporary architecture of Nanjing takes its inspiration from nature in form and appearance,” said MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. “With Oasis Towers we wanted to push this trend to the max – not only emulating nature with curving, stratified ‘cliffs,’ but also to literally incorporate nature into the design with the greenery and by tapping into natural processes.”
The project will host a large amount of greenery, which will include planters between balconies and rooftop areas filled with reed beds. The latter will form part of a larger greywater recycling system which will be paired with a rainwater collection system for irrigation.
The skyscrapers will be positioned to maximize natural ventilation, while their terrace areas will be made from recycled bamboo and shaped to reduce solar gain in the summer. A water-source heat pump will make use of an adjacent river to reduce energy consumption too.
The Oasis Towers project is the winning design of an international architecture competition, though we’ve no word yet on when it’s expected to be completed.
Nature-inspired towers will create green oasis in Chinese megacity [New Atlas]