中國華潤大廈

This guide to the Spring Bamboo tower in Shenzhen follows architect James von Klemperer of the New York firm KPF as he began with pure geometry, a tower tapering from a wide base to a needle point on a diagrid of fifty-six steel columns converging toward the tip. It traces how the client, the state-owned conglomerate China Resources, looked at that geometry and saw a winter bamboo shoot, a symbol of swift, resilient growth, and how the name stuck while the architect kept his form. Inside the peak sits a conical chamber the design team compared to the rose windows of a Gothic cathedral.