On May 8, the high-profile "Diamond Tower" - China Merchants Bank Global Headquarters Building project finally bloomed brightly in the night and officially entered the countdown to delivery.

As the second tallest bank headquarters under construction in the world, the China Merchants Bank Global Headquarters Building project is located in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, the core area of Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base. The project is designed by Foster + Partners, a top international architectural firm, with a total investment scale of nearly 5 billion yuan, a total construction area of about 476,200 square meters, and a building height of 388 meters, second only to the JPMorgan Chase Building in New York at 423 meters.

China Merchants Bank won the land for 5.95 billion yuan in 2016, and since the start of the main construction in September 2021, the project team has overcome a number of technical difficulties in super high-rise buildings with "intelligent construction" as the core. Innovative equipment such as the "intelligent heavy-duty self-climbing tower crane" and the "cloud climbing ladder integration platform" developed by China Construction Eighth Bureau have realized the climbing speed of "one floor in 3 days" of the core tube of the tower.

The curtain wall of the tower, the most eye-catching part of the building, consists of nearly 14,000 curved triangular glass units, each of which has been carefully calculated through 3D modeling. Through drone scanning and algorithm simulation, the construction team controlled the installation error of 25,000 square meters of special-shaped curtain wall at the millimeter level, creating a new benchmark for the construction accuracy of super high-rise curtain walls in China. The construction consumes a total of 60,000 tons of steel bars, 42,000 tons of steel structures, and 320,000 cubic meters of concrete.

Inspired by the traditional Chinese art of origami, the large triangular geometric bay windows on the façade of the building reduce the heat load caused by direct sunlight and create a unique visual rhythm through precise angular calculations. During the day, the curtain wall shines like a diamond in the sun; At night, the embedded intelligent LED lighting system extends the three-dimensional sense of "diamond cutting" to the night sky of the city through dynamic light and shadow changes, becoming the most dazzling visual focus of the Shenzhen Super General Area.

The jagged layout of the five towers forms the overall image of "born to the sea". The main tower rises from the ground in a sculptural form, surrounded by four secondary towers with a height of 80 to 105 meters, echoing the maritime culture of Shenzhen. This layout breaks the closed pattern of traditional super high-rise buildings, and seamlessly connects the building with the urban public space through open plazas, cultural spaces and green corridors on the ground floor, forming a multi-functional complex integrating office, commercial, hotel and cultural facilities.

As the global intelligent operation center of China Merchants Bank, the building can accommodate 14,000 employees and integrates core functions such as financial technology research and development, cross-border investment and financing, and wealth management. With a 360-degree view of the Shenzhen Bay and Hong Kong skyline, the Cloud Observation Hall at the top of the building will become the preferred venue for high-end financial forums and cultural events in the future. After the completion of the project, it will be linked with the surrounding urban infrastructure such as subways and seaside green spaces, further strengthening Shenzhen's position as a global financial and technological innovation hub.(This article is from the official website of Seetao www.seetao.com. Reprinting without permission is strictly prohibited. Please indicate Seetao.com + original link when reprinting) Seetao.com Strategy Column Editor/Sun Fengjuan