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Leeza SOHO & Morpheus nominated for The International Highrise Award 2020

Leeza SOHO in Beijing and the Morpheus hotel in Macau are nominated for the International Highrise Award 2020 presented by the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in partnership with the City of Frankfurt and DekaBank. Initiated in 2004 and awarded every two years, the award recognizes high-rise structures that combine exemplary sustainability, spatial quality and urban design.

Leeza SOHO’s Beijing site is diagonally dissected by an underground subway service tunnel at the intersection of five new lines currently under construction on Beijing’s Subway network. Straddling this tunnel, the tower’s design divides its volume into two halves enclosed by a single facade. The space between these two halves extends the full height of the tower, creating the world’s tallest atrium at 194m which rotates as the tower rises to realign the upper floors with Lize road to the north.

Morpheus was designed as a vertical extrusion of the site’s existing abandoned foundations for a condominium tower that did not progress; using this rectangular footprint to define a 40-storey building of two internal vertical circulation cores at podium and roof levels where the hotel’s many guest amenities were required. Three horizontal vortices generate the voids through the central atrium and define the hotel’s spectacular interior public spaces. In-between these voids, a series of bridges create unique spaces for the restaurants, bars and guest lounges by renowned chefs including Alain Ducasse & Pierre Herme. Working with BuroHappold Engineering, Zaha Hadid Architects designed the building’s structure to optimise the hotel’s interiors. The world’s first free-form high-rise exoskeleton, its rich pattern of structural members at lower levels progresses upwards to a less dense grid of lighter members at its summit.

The International Highrise Award nominations