Zhengzhou CBD Towers

As part of a masterplan by Arata Isozaki for the Zhengzhou Central Business District, Asymptote designed two commercial towers that reimagined the typology of the contemporary office high-rise as sculptural icons anchoring the civic heart of the CBD.

Form and Structure

Each tower rises from a circular plinth, its base carved into a dynamic atrium and public realm. Suspended above, a cantilevered cruciform volume houses the primary office spaces, creating dramatic spatial voids and structural tension between the vertical mass and its compressed base. The separation between plinth and tower introduces a visual lightness to the composition — the office volume appearing to float above the public program below.

Facade

The facades are defined by modular geometries and responsive cladding systems that reflect light, movement, and urban context. A diamond-patterned module repeats across the cylindrical and cruciform surfaces, its triangulated geometry shifting in scale and density to respond to orientation, solar exposure, and programmatic requirements behind the wall. The faceted surface creates a continuously variable optical quality — the tower reading differently from every angle and at every time of day.

Public Realm

The circular plinth at each tower’s base is carved open to create a multi-level atrium that serves as the primary public interior — a retail and civic space enclosed by a diagrid structural glazing system that rises to full height. An elliptical oculus in the ceiling connects the ground-level program to the terraces and lobbies above. At street level, cantilevered canopies and terraces extend the public realm outward into the CBD plaza, mediating between the tower’s sculptural form and the pedestrian scale of the masterplan.