News: German studio HENN has won a competition to design a 280-metre skyscraper in Taiyuan, China (+ slideshow).

HENN designed the office and hotel building, named Cenke Tower, for a site in the centre of the Chinese city, which is located in Shanxi Province.

The front and rear facades will feature smooth profiles that curve gently outwards, while the narrow sides are designed with convex curvatures. Each of these elevations will be glazed, exposing the aluminium cross-bracing supporting the structure.

The majority of the building will accommodate offices, while the hotel will be located on the uppermost floors and a shopping centre will be housed in the basement.

An entrance on the western side of the tower will provide access from the adjacent boulevard, plus a sunken courtyard on the opposite side of the building will lead visitors through to the shops inside.

HENN has previously designed several skyscrapers for China, including a 450-metre tower for Haikou and five towers for the business district of Wenzhou.

Here's a project description from the architects:

Cenke Tower

The new tower for the Cenke Group is located on the north-south axis in the centre of the Chinese metropolis of Taiyuan. As well as office space, the building also contains a hotel on its upper floors and a retail area at the basement level. The longer sides of the 280 metre-high building take the form of convex shells with vertically accented facades constructed from opaque aluminium elements and glass of various degrees of transparency.

The trapezoid-like shape reduces successively with the building height in the upper levels and determines the amount of direct sunlight admitted to suit the planned use of the space within. While the offices receive optimum solar shading and maximum interior daylight, the hotel guests can enjoy the widest possible views over the city.

The narrower sides of the tower with their concave curvatures and smooth transparent glass facades strike a counterpoint to the solid, powerful overall appearance of the building. They allow views into the building's interior and show off the elegant, diagonally braced structure.

The entrance area is located on the western side of the building along the lively boulevard. A planted sunken courtyard south of the building merges seamlessly into the basement.

Location: Taiyuan, China
Client: Cenke Groupe
Start of planning: 2014 - 2015