Introduction

Shanghai Tower is designed by Gensler and it is the 2^nd tallest building in the world. The tower has been designed as a soft vertical spiral rotating at about 120 degrees and scaling at 55% rate exponentially. The tower functions as a self-sustaining vertical city. It is a mixed-used building of unique, vertically interconnected neighborhoods that evolve as the tower slowly rises toward the

sky. The building will comprise 120 floors plus four additional floors of equipment rooms and Tuned Mass Damper (TMD). The top of the structure is at 632 meters (2,074 feet) height. - Shanghai Tower Façade Design Process (2010)

Screenshots and Description

1. Build the horizontal profile

"The profile shape is based on an equilateral triangle. Two tangential curves offset at

60 degrees were used to create a smooth shape. " ‘SHANGHAI TOWER FACADE DESIGN PROCESS’ BY ALEKSANDAR SASHA ZELJIC, AIA, LEED AP

2. Move: draw the base and move it up to 117th floor on Z axis.

3. Rotate: Each floor will rotate one degree from the first floor to the 117th floor. 

radius=degree(120)*3.14/180

Scale: The X and Y axis of each level will be scaled by a “Series” of numbers which is -0.005.

 4. Roof: Use the same method as previous form design to move the 117th plane up 8 levels, at the same time rotated and scaled it.

5. Offset the bottom and top curve with a different scale to build the crown shape. Then loft them to make the inside of the crown. 

6. Because the rooftop is ramped up with an unequal degree, the center points of the crown need to be rearranged as group-3 (center lines) show. 

7. Select the top and bottom central points of the rooftop and subtracted them. Then separate 36 points between them.

Use ‘Graph Mapper’ to separate the center points into 36 with different space.

8. Separate the center points into 36 with different space. Then divide inside loft and outside loft of the crown into 36 parts as well. Interpolate the items and loft them as roof cover.

9. Connect the top curve with the bottom curve. Rooftop completed. 

10. Rendered Shanghai Tower Modul

Parametric Modeling - Shanghai Tower