Shanghai Tower: Q & A with Design Director Jun Xia

Once construction is completed, Shanghai Tower (pictured on the right) will be the tallest building in Shanghai's Lujiazui Finance and Trade district and the second tallest building in the world.

There is perhaps nothing more symbolic of contemporary China’s rapid development than the mega projects being built in this country. To that point, China Central TV (CCTV) just aired a five-episode documentary series titled “China’s Mega Projects” to showcase the building process behind several of China’s mega projects, all of which rank among the biggest in the world today. Among the five mega projects in this series is the Shanghai Tower designed by Gensler. Almost three years into construction, the Tower stands at a height of 390 meters with 80 stories completed as of the end of September. The hour-long episode featuring the Shanghai Tower has attracted much attention across China, so I sat down with Jun Xia, the project’s Design Director, to discuss the documentary and the project itself.

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Celebrating Arrival at the Airport

Throughout the 20th century airports served as civic icons for the dreams, aspirations, and the identities of their cities. Even for terminals that inherently represented the fanciful nature of flight (JFK's TWA Terminal, pictured above, and Washington Dulles are great examples), the segment of the journey that was always emphasized was the departure sequence. This created a magical experience for those passengers embarking upon a journey or for visitors ending their holiday. Yet for an airport that looks to announce its city as a desirable destination, isn't that backwards? Shouldn't the arrivals sequence be the moment where an airport welcomes guests to a city with a grand architectural gesture, or at least with daylight and a view?

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Learning is Virtual, but Students Aren't

We talk a lot about the changes that technology is bringing to college campuses. New students are increasingly comfortable with mobile and collaborative technologies. Online research and resource databases, video lectures, and distance-learning models are challenging traditional mainstays of education from the large-lecture format to the university library.

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Shanghai Tower: View from the Top

I recently had the chance to go to the current top of Shanghai Tower to view the progress of construction. At first I was very apprehensive, due to my extreme fear of heights and to the realization that I would soon be standing on a temporary steel platform above the core of what will be the second-tallest building in the world. But I couldn’t pass up such a unique opportunity, and so I put my apprehensions aside on the day in question.

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The New Urban Planning: Look Upward, not Outward

Super tall buildings like Gensler's Shanghai Tower, which is currently under construction, can help urban planners think in vertical terms instead of horizontal ones.

I like to think of myself as a nomadic architect. I've travelled around Asia for almost 30 years, doing work in many different countries and emerging markets, and learning more than I ever could have anticipated.

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