Core strength: PLP’s Nexus challenges the skyscraper typology

London-based architecture firm PLP has revealed plans for a mixed-use complex in China's Pearl River Delta. Nexus is an investigation for 'an alternative to the high-rise point tower typology', explain the architects.
The scheme comprises four different functions; a 600m office and hotel tower within the Nexus Building; the performing arts complex Platform for Contemporary Arts; the 300m-high Lizhi Park office tower; and the Concourse, a large scale retail and leisure facility that brings all the above together in a single sweep.
The team aimed for flexibility and variation in the overall form and function, so this complex is composed of different elements – there's three tall volumes of different heights, ranging from 44 to 124 storeys high. The way the structures are engineered also helps challenge the norm.
'The centre-core high-rise office is one of the most wide-spread and recognisable urban typologies. Yet in spite of this, their interior spaces are increasingly unsuitable for today's collaborative work. Their outer envelopes mask rather than broadcast inner life,' says PLP's Andrei Martin. 'Our Nexus building proposes a different typology where floorplates offer qualities unprecedented for a high-rise. Because there is no central core, everyone can see each other. And because each floorplate is shaped as a bar, there is light on both sides, cross-ventilation, and an overall atmosphere constantly shaped by the environment outside.'
Environmental measures include the buildings' broken down geometry, which is angled according to the area's sun and wind orientation in order to control heat, and a large water element on the base of the complex, which helps cool down the area, lowering the overall temperature.
The scheme consists of four parts – an office and hotel, an arts structure, a dedicated office-only wing and a lower volume that links all functions through a retail and leisure plinth. Image: Tegmark
The team aimed for flexibility and variation in the overall form and function, so this complex is composed of different elements – there’s three tall volumes of different heights, ranging from 44 to 124 storeys high. Image: Luxigon
INFORMATION
For more information, visit PLP's website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
ICON 4x4 goes EV, giving their classic Bronco-based restomod an electric twist
The EV Bronco is ICON 4x4’s first foray into electrifying its range of bespoke vintage off-roaders and SUVs
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
‘Dressed to Impress’ captures the vivid world of everyday fashion in the 1950s and 1960s
A new photography book from The Anonymous Project showcases its subjects when they’re dressed for best, posing for events and celebrations unknown
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Inside Camperlab’s Harry Nuriev-designed Paris store, a dramatic exercise in contrast
The Crosby Studios founder tells Wallpaper* the story behind his new store design for Mallorcan shoe brand Camperlab, which centres on an interplay between ‘crushed concrete’ and gleaming industrial design
By Jack Moss Published
-
Bold, geometric minimalism rules at Toteme’s new store by Herzog & de Meuron in China
Toteme launches a bold, monochromatic new store in Beijing – the brand’s first in China – created by Swiss architecture masters Herzog & de Meuron
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The upcoming Zaha Hadid Architects projects set to transform the horizon
A peek at Zaha Hadid Architects’ future projects, which will comprise some of the most innovative and intriguing structures in the world
By Anna Solomon Published
-
Liu Jiakun wins 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize: explore the Chinese architect's work
Liu Jiakun, 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, is celebrated for his 'deep coherence', quality and transcendent architecture
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Zaha Hadid Architects reveals plans for a futuristic project in Shaoxing, China
The cultural and arts centre looks breathtakingly modern, but takes cues from the ancient history of Shaoxing
By Anna Solomon Published
-
The Hengqin Culture and Art Complex is China’s newest cultural megastructure
Atelier Apeiron’s Hengqin Culture and Art Complex strides across its waterside site on vast arches, bringing a host of facilities and public spaces to one of China’s most rapidly urbanising areas
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
The World Monuments Fund has announced its 2025 Watch – here are some of the endangered sites on the list
Every two years, the World Monuments Fund creates a list of 25 monuments of global significance deemed most in need of restoration. From a modernist icon in Angola to the cultural wreckage of Gaza, these are the heritage sites highlighted
By Anna Solomon Published
-
Tour Xi'an's remarkable new 'human-centred' shopping district with designer Thomas Heatherwick
Xi'an district by Heatherwick Studio, a 115,000 sq m retail development in the Chinese city, opens this winter. Thomas Heatherwick talks us through its making and ambition
By David Plaisant Published
-
Raw, refined and dynamic: A-Cold-Wall*’s new Shanghai store is a fresh take on the industrial look
A-Cold-Wall* has a new flagship store in Shanghai, designed by architecture practice Hesselbrand to highlight positive spatial and material tensions
By Tianna Williams Published