Zaha Hadid Architects: The Structural Symmetry of Leeza SOHO Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the Leeza SOHO tower in Beijing is a 207-meter masterclass in architectural problem-solving. Photographed during construction by ZHA project director Satoshi Ohashi, the images reveal a skeleton bisected by an underground subway tunnel. To navigate this, the tower rises as two separate halves that would independently buckle under their own weight; instead, they lean into one another for mutual stability.
These halves are unified by a 194.15-meter atrium—the world’s tallest—which rotates 45 degrees to realign the upper floors with the city’s urban grid. Four levels of structural ring trusses and skybridges bind the volumes into a single entity wrapped in a “fish-scale” glass curtain wall. The result is a “thermal chimney” that uses the massive central void to naturally ventilate the building’s core.



















