The Canton Tower is a 600-meter tall mixed-use tower located in Guangzhou, China. It has observation decks, restaurants, exhibition spaces, and telecommunications facilities. The twisting lattice structure tapers as it rises, creating a "waist" around 180 meters. Visitors can walk around an outdoor skywalk or view the city from indoor and outdoor observation decks. With over 1,100 nodes and connecting pieces, the unique structural design was assembled like a 3D puzzle.

1. TWISTING STRUCTURE
CANTON TOWER

2. •Architects: Mark Hemel + Barbara Kuit
•Location: Guangdong, China
•Engineer: Arup
•Height: 600m
•Area: 114000 sqm
•Project Year: 2010
•Type: Mixed use-
Restaurant, Observation,
Telecommunications
•HEIGHT-
•Top - 595.7 m (1,954 ft)
•Roof- 462.1 m (1,516 ft)
PROJECT DETAILS
Comparison of the Canton Tower with
the world's seven tallest towers

3. A ring of building integrated photovoltaics on
the Canton Tower in China uses two shapes of
solar modules: the triangle-shaped modules
consist of seven cells connected in parallel, but
all at the same height and same voltage; the
parallelogram-shaped modules consist of six
cells connected in serial and parallel, but all at
the same height.

4. Floor plan for the Canton Tower in China.

5. STRUCTURAL CONCEPT
The waist of the tower contains a 180 m (590 ft) open-air
skywalk where visitors can physically climb the tower. There are
outdoor gardens set within the structure, and at the top, just
above 450 m (1,480 ft), a large open-air observation deck.
The interior of the tower is
subdivided into
programmatic zones with
various functions, including
TV and radio transmission
facilities, observatory decks,
revolving restaurants,
computer gaming,
restaurants, exhibition spaces
, conference rooms, shops,
and 4D cinemas.

6. A deck at the base of the tower hides the tower's functional
workings. All infrastructural connections – metro and bus stations –
are situated underground. This level also includes exhibition spaces,
a food court, a commercial space, a parking area for cars and
coaches. There are two types of lifts, slow-speed panoramic and
high-speed double-decker.

7. TWISTING CONCEPT
The idea of the tower is simple. The form,
volume and structure is generated by two
ellipses, one at foundation level and the
other at a horizontal plane at 450 metres.
These two ellipses are rotated relative to
another. The tightening caused by the
rotation between the two ellipses forms a
‘waist’ and a densification of material.
The waist itself becomes tight, like a twisted
rope; transparency is reduced and views to
the outside are limited. Further up the tower
the lattice opens again, accentuated here by
the tapering of the structural column-tubes.

8. February 2007 November 2007 August 2008
June 2009 Post-construction – 2010 Asian
Games opening ceremony
Post-construction –
March 2011
CONSTRUCTION HISTORY

9. STRUCTURE
The structure consist of a open lattice-structure, built up from
1100 nodes and the same amount of connecting ring- and bracing
pieces. Basically the tower can be seen as a giant 3 dimensional
puzzle of which all 3300 pieces are totally unique. Architect Mark
Hemel comments: “Recent State of the Art fabrication and
computerized analysis techniques allow designers to create much
more complex structures then ever before.

10. Similar to a biological system's
strategy for producing a
spectrum of offspring instead of
focusing all hope and energy on
the production of a single
specific, type we produce a
range of possibilities, some of
which will prove to be
redundant, others which we
hope will have the strength to
survive.

11. ROOFTOP OBSERVATORY
The indoor public observatory is 449 m
above the ground, which takes the form
of a terraced elliptical space, roughly half
the size of a standard football field.
Opened in December 2011, the rooftop
at 488 m was the highest and largest
outdoor observation deck in the world,
taking over the title from the observation
deck of Burj Khalifa at 452m.
This remained the case until 14 October
2014, when the record of highest
outdoor observatory was retaken by Burj
Khalifa when it opened its new
observatory called At The Top - Sky, at a
height of 555m.

12. On top of the world: An elliptical
track has been constructed around
the edge of the tower's roof, and
the 16 transparent 'crystal' pods
take between 20 and 40 minutes to
go round the track.
Passengers set to ride in see-
through capsules perched on top
of the 450-metre-high Canton
Tower, also known as
the Guangzhou TV Tower. The 16
pods - which hold a total of 96
thrill seekers - each measure just
over three metres wide.

13. At night, the tower glows and emits light, rather than being
uplit. Every node in the lighting design is individually
controllable to allow for animations and colour changes
across the entire height of the tower. As all lighting is based
on LED technology and all fixtures are located on the
structure itself, the lighting scheme consumes only 15% of
the allowed maximum for façade lighting.
ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING

14. THANKYOU
ASTHA AGARWAL
4-C
B.ARCH
SSAA