The Baiyun Window is located in the core business district of Baiyun New City, Guangzhou, with a height of 130m and a total construction area of 110,000㎡. 

In combination with the regional environment, the overall layout is meant to being open to the city. City squares and commercial blocks were designed for the public, with a three-story staircase on the northeast side of the entrance, the sense of ceremony is emphasised. While Tower A mainly for retails, catering, conference centres and other office supporting services, Tower B serves as a residential zone, facing the best view of the Baiyun Mountains. The twin towers are connected by a platform on 25F, of which the hollow volume subverts the closed logic of office buildings that centres utilisation rather than experience. The juxtaposition of business and residence provides maximum flexibility in role-transformation, in order to blur boundaries between work, leisure, life, and nature.

A hollow space with a height of 10-storey is created on the 25th floor, with vertical lines outlining the "window" image. The combination of aerial platforms and infinite swimming pools creates a unique cityscape perspective. Considering user behaviours, the project intends to maintain the transparency and openness of the building. A platform layer is designed on the side that facing the mountains providing an informal meeting point, while an infinite swimming pool on the other side seamlessly links the building with the urban scenery. With a variety of framing designs, the demand of viewing is satisfied.

The Baiyun Window is a high-rise complex building, which adopts the design of transfinite connective structure. On the one hand, the project faces problems including insufficient fire separation and different floor heights between two towers; on the other hand, there is a need for absolutely horizontal connectivity because of the swimming pool. Eventually, the suspended swimming pool is presented in an ideal way by combining different cross-sectional designs and floor heights.

The suspended swimming pool is between two high-rise towers; as a result, the greater stiffness is needed to coordinate the deformation between the two towers, which actually contradicts the lightweight effect that the pool intends to achieve. During the design process, structural engineers identified structural weaknesses through precise analysis, achieving the most effective reinforcement of the structure.

Since lightness is what the suspended pool intends to express, Shing & Partners chose to control the height of beam that is the safest and most stable structure, ensuring to support the overhanging parts. Overall, the combination of inner-outer weight ratio and the acrylic material creates the sense of lightness in the aerial swimming pool, with a structure that is heavier inside while lighter outside. Given the fact that acrylic is completed through integrated prefabrication, the entire finished swimming pool was directly lifted to the height of 25 floors, before assembled as a whole.

Generally speaking, the deformation of super tall buildings is more sensitive than that of conventional high-rise, and such deformation is the main factor affecting the comfort of living. For swimming pools, waterproofing is also a sensitive issue. Any slight deformation can cause structural cracking, leading to water seepage and leakage, which can have an impact on the appearance of the building. The comfortable living experience is ensured by controlling the maximum deformation range in our design approach.

In response to the humid and rainy weather in Guangzhou, the design of window cleaning machine should be reasonable and efficient, while not having any impact on the facade. Unlike the general solution of placing the equipment room directly below the swimming pool, the gear of this project is hidden in the lower tower while tracks are set up at the bottom of the same floor slab. Cleaning machines are also hidden next to the equipment base, with the functions concealed in the structure. This ensures the lightness of the suspended pool and brings convenience to future operation and maintenance.

Compared to frontal resistance, the design of ‘window’ can effectively reduce the force borne by high-rise structures. When the wind passes through the building, the space narrows suddenly, the wind speed accelerates, which results in the increase of partial wind pressure at the corresponding positions. As a consequence, this project requires wind tunnel experiments to apply actual loads to the structure and make sure the safety of the high-rise connective structure by accurate calculations.

With the gradual improvement of regional transportation supporting facilities, the ‘multiplier effect’ around industrial agglomeration, consumption upgrading, employment and other factors will erupt here. The Baiyun New City will assist the Greater Bay Area to transform a global economic entity domestically, while connecting Guangzhou and the world externally. As a rare medium, The Baiyun Window quickly attracts high-end industrial clusters. Such a ‘plus industry’ model will provide a reference paradigm for the future market.