Icon Yunduan Tower, China
Icon Yunduan Tower is a 192-meter-high building located in the city of Chengdu, China. The aim of the project was to create a landmark visible on entering the city.
The project is based on a winning entry in an invited architecture competition in 2009. During the design process, what was originally planned as an office tower evolved into a versatile, mixed-use building complex.
A shopping center occupies the first two levels of the 47-story building, while the third and fourth floors feature restaurants. A conference center spans the fifth floor, followed by 23 floors of offices and 13 floors reserved for an apartment hotel. The top three floors contain dining, reception and meeting areas. The roof features a helipad. Underground premises provide parking for 3,000 cars, a connection to the metro station and a concert hall seating 900.
The North and West façades are a chequered pattern of strips made of white terracotta and glass and the sweeping curved façade is all glass. This combination helps to define the overall form of the building as a smooth white mountain with garden terraces, rising from the water up towards the sky. Hence, the building was named Yun Duan, “Above the clouds”.
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