A Chinese studio, Open Architecture, has built an amazing 164-foot-tall tower designed to follow the path of the sun in Yantai, northeast China.
The Sun Tower’s form is shaped by sunlight, as the large curvilinear structure is “sliced open” by its trajectory.
It also reveals four important times of the year as the movements of the sun and the shadow are captured and then marked by the building.
House in Yantai’s Development Zone, the tower features exhibition spaces, a semi-outdoor theatre, a library, a viewing deck, a café and a bar.
The founders of the Beijing-based studio, LI Hu and Huang Wenjing, shared that the project’s aim was to create something “meaningful” on two levels.
On their website, they said: “One is to remind people the wonders of nature that are often forgotten in the hustle and bustle of daily life; the other is to bring much needed public programs into the new town where rapid urban development now finds itself deficient in culture.
“We hope it will be a unique cultural ‘lighthouse’ where our ancient wisdom in respecting nature will be integrated into the contemporary urban life.”
The building, which faces the ocean, consists of two layers of white concrete shells connected by horizontal slabs and ramps.
The inner shell acts like a sound collector, absorbing and amplifying sounds from the sea. The upside-down upper shell is where the library is located, as well as a space that offers an extraordinary view of both the sky and ocean.
Open Architecture collaborated with Arup to engineer the tower to withstand coastal conditions while celebrating the Yantai’s deep connection to the sun and sea and helping people “reconnect” with nature.
The Sun Tower web page reads: “Nature has always been there, the difference is how we see it, and how we coexist with it on this planet.”
