In the last of the three rounds, three projects won, each of which received the first prize. The winners were the French bureau "Architecture-Studio", the Dutch firm "Information Based Architecture" together with engineers from ARUP and the German workshop "Leon Wohlhage Wernik".
The customers, the Guangzhou administration, wanted to get not just a utilitarian building, but a new landmark of the city, an original architectural structure.
The French proposed to arrange a garden in the sky on an area measuring 180x180 m. The metal surface of their tower can change color depending on the lighting.
IBA and ARUP see the new 450-meter-high TV tower as a graceful curved structure reminiscent of Ken Shuttleworth's Vortex. Their project includes a cinema, a museum, a cafe, a restaurant, etc.
But the most original is the version of the Leon Wohlhage Wernik bureau, created by them in cooperation with the engineering firm Transsolar Energietechnik. According to him, the tallest structure in the world (660 m with an antenna), a golden "perpendicular", will be built in the city. Its shell is a solar battery that will fully provide the tower with electricity. It can also serve as a giant video screen, as it is made up of millions of fiberglass cables. The supporting structures of the tower are a network of thin elements on which the shell fabric is stretched. Sculptural volumes are suspended inside it, which will house exhibition spaces, a congress center and entertainment facilities.
The 700-meter ground base has an informative function, telling about the five elements of the Chinese picture of the world: metal, fire, wood, earth and water.
