The most interesting space at Sany IROOTECH Headquarters might be the gap underneath it. In Guangzhou’s Pazhou business district, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has connected two towers with an elevated podium, leaving room below for a shaded public plaza. Commissioned for construction equipment manufacturer Sany’s cloud technology venture, the completed complex gives a corporate headquarters something worth noticing at street level: space that people can enter without working there.
Designed with the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design serving as architect of record, the development makes its engineering unusually legible. A diamond-patterned steel exoskeleton wraps both towers, expressing the construction expertise behind the client’s business. Its purpose goes beyond establishing a recognizable silhouette. The external framework supports suspended floors, creating column-free interiors that can accommodate changing uses.
Designer: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
SOM organizes the towers into five-story modules, with floors suspended from perimeter ring beams. Moving that supporting structure outward gives the interiors greater planning flexibility. According to SOM, the arrangement accommodates office, hotel, and residential programs, making the framework useful beyond the original headquarters brief. The architecture’s identity remains consistent even when what happens behind the glass changes.
That adaptability has already mattered. The client changed parts of the program during development, introducing plans for hotel and residential accommodation. The inward-leaning curtain walls also create terraces at the bottom of each five-level module while reducing direct solar exposure. These repeated outdoor spaces give the towers a rhythm tied to their construction, rather than an applied decorative pattern.
Guangzhou’s exposure to typhoons and seismic activity also shaped the engineering. SOM incorporated its patented pin-fuse joint system, which uses controlled movement and friction to dissipate earthquake energy. The firm describes rapid reoccupancy after extreme events as a design goal, an important distinction from claiming that the buildings have demonstrated that performance in an actual earthquake.
The podium extends the project’s structural ambition horizontally. Multistory trusses span 65 meters between the towers, sheltering the plaza beneath. A courtyard opening brings daylight into this covered space, while dimpled aluminum panels across the underside reflect light. Transparent glass lobbies keep the entrances visually separate from the heavier structure surrounding them.
Above, dining, retail, and exhibition spaces overlook the plaza. A public elevator operating around the clock connects the podium with the district’s covered walkway network. That connection is the project’s clearest civic gesture: the headquarters becomes part of a pedestrian route through Pazhou, giving people a reason to use its spaces beyond arriving for work or attending a meeting. The towers’ imposing frame makes the landmark; their lifted base makes the everyday connection.
