Waterfall Towers

The development site is the Ertan dam in the Yalong river of Sichuan, close to the city of Panzhihua. Panzhihua is a highly industrialized area, dominated by a gigantic mining operation that has resulted in serious air and water pollution. At the functional level the design exploits the huge tank of water in order to provide a solution for the cooling of the interior, combining it with integrated systems of energy production. The stream that runs inside the building overflows a tank and the falling water runs on the curtain wall of office branch in order to cool the façade during daytime. At night when visual communication is not required since the work areas do not operate, the flow of water increases creating a waterfall that produces energy on the hydroelectricity principle, making use of the height difference between the two waterways.