(
MENAFN- Asia Times)
A spectacular 'horizontal skyscraper' straddling four vertical towers has been formed near the Yangtze riverside in the western Chinese municipality of Chongqing.
Raffles City Chongqing features the extraordinary engineering feat of placing a curved, accordion-shaped 'horizontal skyscraper' measuring 300 meters in length, 30 meters in width and 22.5 meters in height atop four 250-meter curved towers.
The "sky corridor," as it is officially called by the developer, will house a viewing deck, an infinity pool, a skywalk and various eateries.
A photo of the sky corridor taken by a drone. Photo: Xinhua An overview of the entire project, amid Chongqing's usual winter mist. Photo: China News Service Raffles City Chongqing under construction. Photo: Prcmise/Wikimedia
Located at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, Raffles City Chongqing is designed by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie, whose design mimics gigantic sails along the Yangtze river.
Occupying a 9.2-hectare plot, Raffles City Chongqing brings together a 230,000-square-meter shopping arcade, 160,000 square meters of office space and a 1,400-key luxury hotel in a cluster of eight skyscrapers ranging in height from 230 to 350 meters. Its total gross floor area is a staggering 1.12 million square meters.
A time-lapse of the project's construction, including the hoisting of separate sections to form the sky corridor.
An artist's impressions of the the sky corridor as well as a swimming pool inside it. Photos: Handouts The whole project is slated to welcome tenants and tourists by the end of 2019. Photo: Handout
Invested by the Singapore-based realty conglomerate CapitaLand, the super-scale, mixed-use development is already an icon of booming Chongqing, the largest city in western China.
The complex has an ambitious structure with eight towers gently arcing toward the Yangtze River like the great masts of a ship, said the project's structural consultant, Arup.
Four mega corner columns are erected to connect to the central core wall via diagonal outriggers and belt trusses in each tower, forming an effective mega frame structural system.
The project's contractor is the state-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation, which also built the futuristic loop-and-cantilever-shaped new headquarters of China Central Television in Beijing.
CCTV headquarters in Beijing. Photo: Twitter
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