London-based architecture firm PLP has revealed plans for a mixed-use complex in China's Pearl River Delta. Nexus is an investigation for 'an alternative to the high-rise point tower typology', explain the architects.
The scheme comprises four different functions; a 600m office and hotel tower within the Nexus Building; the performing arts complex Platform for Contemporary Arts; the 300m-high Lizhi Park office tower; and the Concourse, a large scale retail and leisure facility that brings all the above together in a single sweep.
The team aimed for flexibility and variation in the overall form and function, so this complex is composed of different elements – there's three tall volumes of different heights, ranging from 44 to 124 storeys high. The way the structures are engineered also helps challenge the norm.
'The centre-core high-rise office is one of the most wide-spread and recognisable urban typologies. Yet in spite of this, their interior spaces are increasingly unsuitable for today's collaborative work. Their outer envelopes mask rather than broadcast inner life,' says PLP's Andrei Martin. 'Our Nexus building proposes a different typology where floorplates offer qualities unprecedented for a high-rise. Because there is no central core, everyone can see each other. And because each floorplate is shaped as a bar, there is light on both sides, cross-ventilation, and an overall atmosphere constantly shaped by the environment outside.'
Environmental measures include the buildings' broken down geometry, which is angled according to the area's sun and wind orientation in order to control heat, and a large water element on the base of the complex, which helps cool down the area, lowering the overall temperature.
The scheme consists of four parts – an office and hotel, an arts structure, a dedicated office-only wing and a lower volume that links all functions through a retail and leisure plinth. Image: Tegmark
The team aimed for flexibility and variation in the overall form and function, so this complex is composed of different elements – there’s three tall volumes of different heights, ranging from 44 to 124 storeys high. Image: Luxigon
INFORMATION
For more information, visit PLP's website
-
Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 showsThe Cruise 2026 season began yesterday with a Chanel show at Lake Como, heralding the start of a series of jet-setting, destination runway shows from fashion’s biggest houses
-
Behind the design of national pavilions in Venice: three studios to knowDesigning the British, Swiss and Mexican national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 are three outstanding studios to know before you go
-
Premium patisserie Naya is Mayfair’s latest sweet spotHeritage meets opulence at Naya bakery in Mayfair, London. With interiors by India Hicks and Anna Goulandris, the patisserie looks good enough to eat
-
A Xingfa cement factory’s reimagining breathes new life into an abandoned industrial siteWe tour the Xingfa cement factory in China, where a redesign by landscape architecture firm SWA completely transforms an old industrial site into a lush park
-
Bold, geometric minimalism rules at Toteme’s new store by Herzog & de Meuron in ChinaToteme launches a bold, monochromatic new store in Beijing – the brand’s first in China – created by Swiss architecture masters Herzog & de Meuron
-
The upcoming Zaha Hadid Architects projects set to transform the horizonA peek at Zaha Hadid Architects’ future projects, which will comprise some of the most innovative and intriguing structures in the world
-
Liu Jiakun wins 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize: explore the Chinese architect's workLiu Jiakun, 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, is celebrated for his 'deep coherence', quality and transcendent architecture
-
Zaha Hadid Architects reveals plans for a futuristic project in Shaoxing, ChinaThe cultural and arts centre looks breathtakingly modern, but takes cues from the ancient history of Shaoxing
-
The Hengqin Culture and Art Complex is China’s newest cultural megastructureAtelier Apeiron’s Hengqin Culture and Art Complex strides across its waterside site on vast arches, bringing a host of facilities and public spaces to one of China’s most rapidly urbanising areas
-
The World Monuments Fund has announced its 2025 Watch – here are some of the endangered sites on the listEvery two years, the World Monuments Fund creates a list of 25 monuments of global significance deemed most in need of restoration. From a modernist icon in Angola to the cultural wreckage of Gaza, these are the heritage sites highlighted
-
Tour Xi'an's remarkable new 'human-centred' shopping district with designer Thomas HeatherwickXi'an district by Heatherwick Studio, a 115,000 sq m retail development in the Chinese city, opens this winter. Thomas Heatherwick talks us through its making and ambition
