US architecture studio Morphosis has unveiled the 359-metre-tall Hanking Center supertall skyscraper in Shenzhen, China, which has a detached structural core.
Described by the studio as an "asymmetrical skyscraper", the supertall building in the high-tech district of Nanshan in Shenzhen appears as two interconnected towers.
Hanking Center is a supertall skyscraper in Shenzhen designed by Morphosis
The skyscraper has a structural steel core containing the majority of the building's lifts and mechanical services.
This is separated from the 65-storey-building's office space in a structural arrangement similar to Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners' Leadenhall building, which is known as the Cheesegrater, in London.
The structural core and offices of the skyscraper are separated The offices and structural core were built ten metres apart and connected by numerous bridges to create what Morphosis founding partner and Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne describes as "a threshold" space.
"As a typology, skyscrapers tend to emphasize shape as the primary differentiator," said Mayne.
"Instead, we focused on lived experience within the city. The delamination between the circulation core and the office spaces within the tower generates a threshold, an intensification of the urban landscape as part of the day-to-day."
A series of bridges connect the lifts to the office spaces
Morphosis separated the structural core from the offi...