Guangzhou Circle

Guangzhou Circle 广州圆大厦
General information
Type	Commercial offices
Location	Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Coordinates	23°03′09″N 113°15′13″E / 23.05250°N 113.25361°E / 23.05250; 113.25361Coordinates: 23°03′09″N 113°15′13″E / 23.05250°N 113.25361°E / 23.05250; 113.25361
Topped-out	2013
Owner	Hongda Xingye Group
Height
Roof	138 m (453 ft)
Technical details
Floor area	85,000 m2 (910,000 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect	Joseph Di Pasquale
References
AM Project[1]

Guangzhou Circle (Chinese: 广州圆大厦) is a landmark building located in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China. Its the headquarters of the Hongda Xingye Group ^[2] and the new home of Guangdong Plastic Exchange (GDPE), the world largest trading centre for raw plastic material with more then 25 billions euros of annual turn over (2012).^[3][4]

Architect

The building has been designed by Italian architect Joseph di Pasquale, The total height is 138 metres for 33 storeys,^[5] 85.000 square metres of floor area and about 1 billion RMB^[6][7] (70 million dollars) of global investment.

Location

Located at the south west boundary of the city the building stands on the bank of the Pearl River. It is a sort of south gate of the city for people who arrive at the new south high speed railway station of the city.

Design

The building is similar to another circular building in Shenyang,^[8] although its central hole is hollow rather than enclosed by glass. It is the world's tallest circular building^[9][10] and with the unique feature of its almost fifty meters wide empty hole in the center (48 mt). Together with some other samples (as Aldar headquarters building) it's starting a new way in landmark buildings for the third millennium not anymore based on the stereotype of western skyscraper.

The designer stated that he was just looking for a landmark bustling based on the oriental psychology and perception, finding in the Chinese use of symbols in writing a possible inspiration. In fact the building is also called a "urban ideogram".^[11]

Many other meanings are linked with the building: the iconic value of jade discs and numerological tradition of Fengshui. In particular, the double disc of jade ( bidisk ) is the royal symbol of ancient Chinese dynasty that reigned in this area around 2000 years ago . The building reflected in the water of the river creates exactly the same image: a double jade disc.^[12] This figure also corresponds to the number 8 and infinity symbol that Chinese culture has a strong propitiatory value.^[13] Just remember how the date and time of the start of the Beijing Olympics was for the same reason fixed to 8:08 am of August (8), 8th 2008.

But the building is also a clear reference to the theme dear to the Italian Renaissance "quadratura del cerchio" (squaring the circle). The two circular facades in fact contain and support suspended groups of storeys that are actually "squaring" the perfect circumference of the facades in order to make the interior space orthogonal and habitable.

The public areas of the building are not yet open although the public plaza in front is open.^[14] The nearest metro stop is Xilang.

See also

• List of tallest buildings in Guangzhou

References