DESIGN GROUP
AM LAB Professor Arch Joseph di Pasquale, Arch Alessandro Tonassi, Arch Nazareno Cerquaglia, Arch Agnese Martinoli; AM TEK Engineer Alessandro Pasqualotto, Arch Paola Sacchi; AM CHINA Ma Jun, Zhang Hong Ge, Peng Hui Fang, Cui Hong, Yi Ji Xuan. Structural concept: SIGGMA ASSOCIATI Engineer Giovanni Muciaccia

The building is the headquarter of the Guangdong Plastic Exchange, the world largest trading centre for row plastic material.
Is 138 mr high for 33 storey and the central hole is 48 mt wide.
It's the online building in the world with circular shape and with a full circular hole in the middle.
The shape of the building reflects the operational layout of the building that is structured on a close circuit of connections.
The two vertical cores connects the main entrance hall to the grand trading room in the Heart of the building, and then they joint together on the horizontal exchange level on the 28th floor from which a central vertical connection system allow to the last floors till the 33rd.
The two great facades together with the two saris cores are the main structural elements of the building. The diagonal plot of the steel pillars sustains the groups of floors that protrude on both the side elevations.
The circle has been taken as a reference for the internal layout of the building and for the main figuration of the architecture.
The circle in both western and eastern culture represent an ideal of beauty and perfection. During the italian Rinascimento many artists and thinkers meditated about "squaring the circle" as a trend for the human think (the square) to move toward the divine perfection (the circle). Also in chinese tradition the circle is a symbol of power, beauty and wealth together but most is a symbol of a higher state of harmonious relationship between the various components of reality.

The building has been designed to use the south facade as a giant solar panel and also the proximity with the river would allow to use a shallow groundwater level for thermal exchange to get the building cooled during the summer.

The South China University of Technology has been responsible for the detail drawings and the structural calculation.