The Ventilation Tower at Dongfang Road of East-West Passageway and the Ventilation Shaft of Pudong Avenue Station on Metro Line 14 (referred to as the “Wind Tower” Project) is a crucial supporting facility for the joint construction of road tunnel  section of the East-West Passageway and the Metro Line 14 in Pudong. Positioned at the southeast corner of the intersection of Pudong Avenue and Dongfang Road, it resides in a significant urban node to the east of Lujiazui CBD’s core area, situated between the Riverside Comprehensive Zone north of Pudong Avenue and a large residential area to the south. Over the past twenty years, the underground at this intersection has witnessed intense infrastructure developments, including the Dalian Road Cross-River Tunnel, Metro Line 4, and the East-West Passageway.

The East-West Passageway refers to a rapid east-west traffic system comprising the Yan’an Road Viaduct in Puxi, Yan’an East Road Cross-River Tunnel, and road tunnel of Pudong Avenue. The joint construction of the East-West Passageway’s Pudong Avenue road tunnel and Metro Line 14, initiated at the end of 2014, superimposes both infrastructures vertically up and down beneath Pudong Avenue and involves the construction of six metro stations. It stands as Shanghai’s largest-scale and most challenging comprehensive transportation system project in recent years. One of the most complex joint construction for a metro stations and road tunnel is built under this crossroad area by the wind tower. The East-West Passageway Tunnel and Metro Line 14 must cross each other in a double-cross configuration above and below the existing Dalian Road Tunnel and Line 4 subway station. This results in a four-floor underground structure with a projected area of over 14,000m², and a depth of 28m. The wind tower is situated on an underground three-floor, 20m-deep basement for facilities rooms and No. 6 metro entrance, protruding from the southeast corner of the station. After several years of construction, the ground traffic on Pudong Avenue, Metro Line 14, and the East-West Passageway Tunnel has sequentially commenced operation. Following the operational phase, the wind tower underwent six months of exterior facade and environmental construction, and was completed in June 2023.

To the east, between the Wind Tower and Qiancang Road, was the site of the historic Wu’s Residence (Wu Miaosheng’s Residence), a Heritage Architecture in Shanghai built in 1924. In coordination with the construction of the East-West Passageway and the metro, this building has been entirely disassembled and put in storage for preservation, and awaits reconstruction at its original location. Adjacent to the south is the Chen’s Residence, built in the 1930s, designated as a Cultural Relics Protection Site in Pudong. The area of Qiancang Road, formerly known as Qichangzhan South Street, was historically one of the liveliest sections along the river in Pudong apart from Dongchang Road due to its ferry crossing.

Given the dense residential areas surrounding the Wind Tower, its height has been environmentally regulated to not be less than 60m. Moreover, its prominent location dictates that its height and volume become an unavoidable tangible presence in this area. Through urban design efforts in 2014 and 2017, comprehensive studies were conducted on various infrastructural elements, fragmented land use, cultural and historical factors, and open spaces of street corners around this intersection. These efforts aimed to facilitate the integration of urban spaces and enhance the vitality of the area. Addressing the specific site of the Wind Tower, efforts focused on coordinating its relationship with adjacent historical buildings. Additionally, a composite approach encompassing space, functionality, environment, and image aims to endow the Wind Tower with a positive landmark status, transcending the typical role of infrastructure. Ultimately, the goal is to transform the gray infrastructure into a green landscape infrastructure that integrates seamlessly into the urban environment, enriches community life, and stimulates the vitality of the area.

The design concept for the Wind Tower project, initiated in 2017, aimed to integrate the Wind Tower with the revitalization of the historical ambiance, primarily the Wu’s and Chen’s Residences, creating a vibrant block with a pleasant scale and environmentally friendly surroundings. The preliminary scheme proposed enclosing the open space between the Wu’s and Chen’s Residences with the Wind Tower, forming a pocket park facing Qiancang Road. This park serves as both the backyard of the Wind Tower and the forecourt of the Wu’s and Chen’s Residences. The reestablished Wu’s Residence will be elevated by one floor and connected to the Wind Tower’s second-floor platform. Additionally, within the pedestal structure, cultural exhibition spaces will be provided, to foster a sense of historical ceremony as visitors ascend from the pocket park.

The Wind Tower is technically organized into two structural volumes, divided into the north and south. The north section with lower-height, adjacent to the road corner, houses the supporting ventilation shafts cluster for Metro Line 14 station and two underground evacuation stairwells. The southern section, slightly eastward, comprises the East-West Passageway ventilation tower, with a cluster of a primary 60m-high main exhaust shaft and other lower shafts, along with another evacuation stairwell. This segment runs along Dongfang Road, adjacent to the entrance 6 of Metro station. An open crosswalk through the north and south structural components links the street corner, the Metro entrance, the recessed relaxation space at the back of Metro entrance, and the pocket park to the east.

The volumetric retreat height of the lower and upper air shafts of the Wind Tower aligns closely with the Metro’s air shaft, creating tiered cantilevered platforms and setback terrace space, forming a three-floor pedestal. The ground level facing the street, except for the crosswalk, is primarily a steep green plant wall, softening the closed-off ventilation structure and optimizing the interface at a human scale. Within the second and third floors of the pedestal, small community spaces are integrated using the volume setbacks from the Wind Tower and the Metro entrance along Dongfang Road. Additionally, elevator and evacuation stairwell for the pedestal, and public restrooms are situated on the south side of the primary exhaust shaft. On the street side outside the Metro entrance, a gradual set of steps is arranged along the street to align with the direction of the Metro entrance stairs, running from north to south, leading to the second-floor platform of the pedestal. Within the crosswalk, a overlapping cascading staircase is installed, connecting the second and third floors of the pedestal and leading to the rooftop garden. This three-dimensional garden system, coexisting with the pocket park, integrates community spaces, making the Wind Tower pedestal conducive to community engagement.

Above the pedestal, the horizontal cross-section of the Wind Tower’s main body was originally a trapezoid with a wider north end and a narrower south end. While maintaining the perpendicularity of the east and north faces, we created an evident tapering on the south side, enveloping the volumes of the secondary exhaust shaft and elevator. Simultaneously, the top surface of the tower was twisted into a rectangular shape, introducing a subtle twist to the straight-line curve on the west side. Within this structural core, we extended an overhanging, double-helix terraced fitness trail system on the exterior of the tower. This design maintains the continuity and independence of the upward and downward paths, connecting at the top with a closed horizontal bridge that diagonally traverses the main exhaust shaft. This elevated trail, built on the foundation of the three-dimensional community garden at the pedestal, maximizes the transformation of the entire Wind Tower into a composite community life infrastructure.

For the tower’s facade formed by the layered suspended steps, echoing the ambiance of two nearby historic buildings, we incorporated the proportions of traditional Chinese multi-eaved pagoda, deforming them to resemble the horizontal cantilevered platforms of pedestal. This creates a faceted facade with characteristics similar to the stacked and sloping eaves defined by the structure of the stepped trail, while incorporating translucent interfaces inclined downward between each eave, serving as enclosures for the trail and accommodating lighting and display devices.

Although the technical approach in the Wind Tower project, which maximally reflects community engagement, has gained approval and support from the community, dispelling residents’ concerns about this massive exhaust facility, the elevated trail did not receive consensus in experts evaluation due to possible management and safety risks, as well as concerns about the downward dispersion of exhaust under specific wind conditions. Therefore, the implementation scheme cancels the elevated trail, slimming down the tower visually while keeping the core entity unchanged, giving it a more upright appearance. The facade retains a spiral ascending effect resembling a multi-eaved pagoda structure, alternating between translucent (tilted downward) and solid (tilted upward).

Based on the principle that fresh air inlets on the facade could be accessible to people and exhaust shafts and piston air shafts must maintain a safe distance from individuals, and to avoid mutual interference of intake and exhaust between the Metro ventilation shaft and the ventilation tower of the East-West Passageway, another significant adjustment is made to the configuration of the Metro ventilation shaft. On the ground floor of the north facade, above a certain height from the green slope protection wall and below the cantilevered platform eave of the third floor, a cross-section of about 6mx6m is extended outward for the Metro exhaust shaft. Meanwhile, the two piston air shafts of the Metro are raised above the roof garden of the pedestal creating a slender volume about 8m above the roof garden and tilting the two shafts north and south to reduce the overall width of this volume. However, during construction, due to non-consistent actions by the two construction entities, these two piston air shafts were built as a single large screen-like volume.

The exterior walls of the pedestal are constructed adopting fair-faced concrete, to showcase a subtle and modest architectural character. The wind aperture facade employs aluminum louver shutters, while the outward wall of the Metro’s north-facing exhaust shaft protrusion utilizes slit-open curtain walls of anodized aluminum panel. The external facade of community spaces consists of continuous floor-to-ceiling window strips, introducing lively elements to maintain a rational architectural tone. The primary spiral-shaped facade of the wind tower employs an integrated curtain wall system. The upward-slanting solid bands and various levels of overhanging eaves on the pedestal are constructed with dry-hung ASLOC hollow fiber-reinforced concrete prefabricated panels. The downward-slanting translucent bands are composed of vertically perforated aluminum panels in a silver-gray color, with slightly folded relief between individual unit panels along the spiral direction, creating a rhythmic translucent effect. These translucent sections conceal internal cavity lighting that, combined with programmed color changes, intensify the tower’s spiral eaves, particularly visible during nighttime, emphasizing the perpetual rotational theme of the spiral canopy.