Design features of the double helix building
The 20-storey Agora Tower is designed to resemble the double helix structure of DNA, with two helicoidal towers twisting around a fixed central core. The building will contain two or four apartments on each floor of the building.
Each 540m² apartment will be completely free of columns, providing spatial flexibility in terms of interior layout and partitioning inside.
The residential tower will be surrounded by a mineral moat to protect the privacy of the residents. The ground floor consists of a double-height lobby covered in transparent facades.
The central core of the building accommodates two staircases, four high-speed elevators, one car elevator and two glazed sky garages at the entrance of each apartment. It also holds the vertical shafts for the main flows, which are covered by a huge bearing exoskeleton in reinforced steel.
The landscaped basement car park will be built on the car park of the pre-existing Agora Garden hotel to minimise excavation and foundation costs. A circular light well will allow sunlight and fresh air to reach all the four basement levels and also naturally ventilate the connected swimming pools and fitness facilities.
Identical linear crystalline façades will cover all levels of the tower. These multilayer glass or double layer façades will be integrated with blinds to protect the apartments from the solar radiation in summers and reduce thermal loss during winters.
The successive floors are twisted by 4.5° clockwise and are connected at both ends by two spiralling mega-columns coated in green walls. The double helix tower twists 90° in total from base to tip, rendering it a moving geometry that morphs its shape depending on which direction it is being viewed from. Its north-south elevation gives it a reverse pyramid shape, while its east-west elevation is shaped like a rhomboidal pyramid.
The levels are structurally supported by Vierendeel truss system behind the glass facades, which consist of a set of beams for every two floors. Along with a suspended structural system, this transfers all the weight through the beams to the central core and down to the foundation.
The uniquely-shaped building will provide exceptional 270° view of the Taipei skyline in three directions from every apartment, as well as panoramic views of the Taipei 101 tower and the Taipei Central Business District.
Green features of the building
The exterior of the building will feature a cascading layer of greenery with balconies on the periphery of each apartment, containing fruit trees, organic vegetable gardens, as well as aromatic and medicinal plants, which will enable the residents to grow their own produce.
The suspended open-air gardens will also integrate a compost system to generate organic fertilisers, a rainwater capture system to irrigate the plants, and nests for birds. The planting beds will be covered by a layer of Bethel white granite on honeycomb to protect the plants from excess heat.
The building will also feature a photovoltaic roof located 100m above ground. The photovoltaic pergola, with a surface area of 1,000m², will integrate electricity produced from solar rays into the electric network of the building.
Two huge rooftop clubhouses under the pergola will be surrounded by sky gardens that will naturally filter and purify rainwater with the action of the plants. The purified rainwater will be injected into the building's water distribution system by gravity.