The 595 m (124 floors) Nexus is part of a complex that also includes an arts center, a 300-meter office tower and a podium with shops and restaurants that connects them. Nexus will be almost entirely - with the exception of 8 retail floors at the base and 14 hotel floors at the top - occupied by offices, and the architects have set themselves the task of designing a more flexible and comfortable workspace than typical towers.
According to PLP Architecture, optimal office buildings are “slabs” or “bars”, not towers. In a traditional skyscraper, the core is located in the center, the usable space is distributed around it, and all the floors are similar to each other. Through ventilation, good natural light, connection with the surrounding space, flexibility and variety of layouts, staircase and elevator nodes placed on the perimeter - everything that is found in horizontally elongated buildings are impossible there. However, the “plate” cannot be extended vertically either: the horizontal load and the number of lifts will be too great. Also, such a structure will not be stable.
As a solution to the problem, the architects proposed a skyscraper of three plates stacked on top of each other: its three "centrifugal" parts, directed in different directions like propeller blades, act as tripod supports, giving stability to the Nexus. The central core and the cores of the plates will be connected by trusses on the technical floors.
In the central core, they will run on schedule, but very often there are shuttle lifts: they will take everyone to two intermediate zones - at the top of the lower and middle plates, these will be the 44th and 83rd floors, respectively. There are planned double-height spaces with shops, cafes and recreation areas associated with gardens on the "shoulders" of the plates. Above each of the "heavenly streets" there will be two incubator floors for small businesses, connected by escalators. Each plate will have its own vertical circulation system - panoramic two-story elevators in the outer end, which simultaneously serve as a mobile observation deck.
The incubators will have a flexible layout, a large number of dedicated meeting rooms, etc., but the real innovation will be "boxes" at the ends of the plates opposite to the panoramic elevators. These free-standing spaces can be used for anything from leisure facilities to workshops, from conference rooms to offices with redundant hot desking workstations. "Boxes" will be located in 5-light spaces with spectacular views of the city, and if such a space is rented by one company, then escalators, bridges and stairs there will allow its employees to often do without elevators. However, panoramic views from the windows will not be the privilege of just the inhabitants of the "boxes": the scalloped profile of the facade will make each office "corner" and give all Nexus employees an excellent view.
Among the "sustainable" elements of the project are hybrid ventilation, an efficient façade with sunscreens, a well-thought-out orientation of the building to the cardinal points, which protects it primarily from the afternoon sun, a system for collecting and using rainwater, and much more.
