Eastern Pearl

Brief information

The Oriental Pearl is notable not only for its height of 468 meters, but for the fact that its body is assembled from spheres. The tower’s structure contains 11 spherical elements, which makes it read not as an ordinary TV tower, but as a vertical chain of volumes. The largest spheres were named “Space City” and “Space Module,” so the space theme here is built not only into the advertising, but also into the tower’s very design.

Inside, the tower is also distributed by height: the revolving restaurant is located at 267 meters, above it are a dance floor, a bar, and karaoke rooms, and at 350 meters there is a penthouse with an observation deck, a conference hall, and a coffee shop. A fact that changes the way you look at the structure: some of the small spheres are hidden inside the columns and serve as rooms of the “Space Hotel.”

What to notice first

It makes sense to compare three types of forms: the two large spheres, the three cylindrical columns, and the small spheres inside these columns. The lower large sphere has a diameter of 50 meters, the upper one 45 meters; between them stand three columns, each 9 meters in diameter. This makes it clearer that the tower is not supported by a single shaft: the large volumes are connected to one another by separate vertical supports.

The small spheres matter precisely because they are not just decorative balls: they contain rooms of the “Space Hotel.” The night illumination adds another layer of perception: a three-dimensional lighting system was developed for the tower, meaning the light is designed for a volumetric form rather than a flat facade. The nearby 88-story Jin Mao Tower is mentioned; this is a useful comparison of the tower with another type of vertical structure.