A Holl New Approach To Highrise

Work is currently approaching completion on a new unique inter-connected scheme for Beijing in China that upon completion, which should be late 2009, it will provide a total 750 apartments and also have a 82 room hotel.

Named the Linked Hybrid, the project is the brainchild of Steven Holl Architects who have offices in Beijing and New York. Located close to Beijing's historic city walls, the project which is being billed as "an open city within a city".

Consisting eight asymmetrical towers, that wouldn't look amiss in a good old fashioned game of Tetris linked together with sky bridges the complex has many openings and passages to maximise the accessibility from all sides.

The smaller buildings included in the scheme which are set around a highly sculpted internal courtyard complete with reflection pools will provide recreational and educational facilities for use by residents and visitors to the complex ranging from cafes, restaurants, cinema, and a Montessori school.

The roofs of these buildings will be made into public gardens designed to be places of rest and relaxation from the hubbub of everyday life as well as bring some new wildlife into the inner city.

From the 12th -18th storeys of the eight residential towers, sky bridges bring the complex together, these instead of just being walkways will have multiple functions and contain a swimming pool, fitness room, café, public gallery, an auditorium, mini salon and nightclub.

They will of course also offer stunning views out over the city that is now more slightly smog free since the Olympics. The penthouses of the towers will benefit from private roof gardens.

The aim of the development is to create a unique social space where people can interact in a variety of atmospheres to achieve this the scheme is pedestrian orientated and all amenities link with a green space of some sort, skate park is even included for the youngsters and those having mid life crisis' desperate to recapture their youth.

The facades use glazing and steel whilst the undersides of the skybridges are painted in vivid colours, which when lit at night, reflect onto the neutral tower cladding washing them in colour and giving them a vibrant look.

The scheme will also have a first for Beijing in that it will have a geothermic heating and cooling system that has 660 wells, making it one of the largest in the world

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