Sunrise over Mountain City reveals sunlight piercing through the clouds, dancing and shimmering like the aurora on the hyperbolic facade of the Chongqing Gaoke Sun Tower, designed by Aedas. Now completed and delivered, this project stands as a formidable contender for the title of “world’s number one twist.” The facade’s interplay of straight lines and curves, woven between steel and concrete, causes the glass curtain wall to bend and morph accordingly. These rigid building materials beautifully express flexible curvature, adding an “Arctic light” to the vibrant city of Chongqing.
Located on the north side of Xingfu Square in Chongqing’s northern new district, the project is surrounded by a completed master plan where multiple buildings scatter across a spacious site like planets orbiting a “sun.” Within this context, the challenge was to design a landmark core building that both integrates with the surrounding textures and stands out as a unique icon, harmonizing with its environment.
Facing the expansive open space of the square, the project is perfectly positioned to become an iconic tower. The curtain wall’s dramatic twisting angles immediately capture attention. Inspired by the dazzling glow of the aurora, Ken Wai, Aedas’s global design director, connected the south and east facades from top to bottom, crafting a unique hyperbolic surface that mimics the graceful arc of the aurora curtain, creating a mesmerizing “dance of light.” From different viewpoints, observers can appreciate the constantly shifting curved forms.
When the sun is high, the curved surfaces reflect dazzling white light, turning the tower into a radiant diamond. As night falls, the facade captures the glow of the setting sun, its curves resembling the slender waist of a dancer in motion. Meanwhile, the podium’s roof plan twists continuously from vertical to nearly horizontal, echoing the tower’s geometric language and maintaining architectural unity. This extreme twisting design creates a sharply twisted hyperbolic surface, with the largest single-floor twist angle reaching 8.8 degrees. This surpasses similar projects by nearly 1.5 times and challenges the current global record for single-floor twists in super high-rise buildings (CTBUH Journal, 2016, Issue 3). Achieving this world-class feat was made possible through collaboration with curtain wall consultant RFR, cutting-edge technology, and full owner support to ensure precision in design.
Fitting a hyperbolic surface on a supertall building with significant distortion is a major engineering challenge. The Aedas design team and RFR overcame this by leveraging complex curved curtain wall BIM and innovative glass cold bending technology for the hyperbolic units. The original curtain wall system was adapted to accommodate multiple angles and varied panel sizes, ensuring the built structure matched the digital simulation with high fidelity while guaranteeing curtain wall performance.
The glass units feature a three-dimensional frame with flat glass cold bending design, breaking China’s largest single-unit glass warp record of 86mm, enabling the design’s realization. The entire process exemplified full curtain wall BIM integration—from geometric optimization and modeling to LOD400 detailed construction modeling, automatic generation, and verification of fabrication drawings. This allowed the architecture to perfectly embody the “Aurora” concept, with the curtain wall system balancing rigidity and flexibility. Each hyperbolic glass panel varies in size and distortion, forming a stunning large curved contour that resonates with the surrounding mountains and waters, creating a dynamic experience with every step.
The curtain wall serves not only as the building’s outline but also as a sculptural element and protection for the interior spaces. Wei Yeqi skillfully employed the curtain wall language at the tower crown, expressing the concept of a “valley of light” through transparent glass and lighting. This design both unifies and distinguishes the tower’s office functions. Meanwhile, essential infrastructure such as the computer room and window cleaning systems are centrally positioned within the “valley” of the crown, preserving the visual purity and functionality of the design.
The architectural layout carefully balances building mass with the urban environment by positioning the supertall tower to the left side of the commercial retail podium. This placement avoids blocking views of the Star Tower located northeast on the site and lessens the height pressure along the city’s central axis. It also creates ample outdoor public spaces for residents. With its distinctive architectural silhouette and public areas, the project is set to become a highly recognizable new landmark in Chongqing.
Project Information
△ Base schematic diagram
△ General layout plan
△ First floor plan
△ 9th floor plan
△ Elevation drawing
△ Elevation drawing
△ Analysis chart
△ Analysis chart
△ Analysis chart
Project Information
Architect: Aedas
Area: 61,368 m²
Project Year: 2022
Photographer: Existence of Architecture
Principal Designer: Wei Yeqi
Location: Chongqing, China
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