SOM's Sany IROOTECH Headquarters Hangs Floors From a Steel Exoskeleton

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has completed the Sany IROOTECH Headquarters in Guangzhou's Pazhou business district, and the most interesting space might be the gap underneath it. Two towers connected by an elevated podium leave room below for a shaded public plaza. Commissioned for construction equipment manufacturer Sany's cloud technology venture, the complex gives a corporate headquarters something rare at street level: space people can enter without working there.

SOM designed the project with the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design serving as architect of record. The engineering is unusually legible. A diamond-patterned steel exoskeleton wraps both towers, expressing the construction expertise behind the client's business — and doing structural work, not just forming a recognizable silhouette. The external framework supports suspended floors, creating column-free interiors.

How does the structure buy flexibility?

SOM organizes the towers into five-story modules, with floors suspended from perimeter ring beams. Moving the 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.

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 create terraces at the bottom of each five-level module while cutting direct solar exposure. These repeated outdoor spaces give the towers a rhythm tied to their construction rather than an applied decorative pattern.

Guangzhou's typhoons and seismic activity shaped the engineering too. 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 — a goal, notably, not a performance the buildings have demonstrated in an actual earthquake.

What happens under the podium?

The podium extends the structural ambition horizontally. Multistory trusses span 65 meters between the towers, sheltering the plaza beneath. A courtyard opening brings daylight into the covered space, while dimpled aluminum panels across the underside reflect light. Transparent glass lobbies keep the entrances visually separate from the heavier structure around 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. And with a structure that can swap offices for hotel rooms or apartments without touching its skeleton, the building is built for whatever the client — or the district — asks of it next.