The implementation of the new Environmental Protection Law on New Year's Day coincides with the wave of residential industrialization. The building materials industry can not help but become restless again. A hundred schools of thought contend for new building materials, such as BY grouting materials, dry-type insulation and decoration integrated boards, foam glass, anhydrous plaster, metal carved boards, and so on. They all hope to make a difference in the implementation of the new Environmental Protection Law. SOHO China, which has always been in the forefront of building industrialization, is also a supporter of new building materials. The new project, SOHO Fuxing Plaza, was opened to the public at the end of last year. While following SOHO's innovative architectural design style, foam aluminum, a new building material, is also widely used in SOHO Fuxing Plaza. What kind of magic made foam aluminum stand out in the eyes of SOHO China, the "pioneer of housing industrialization", and be "on the top"?

　　Foam aluminum is made by foaming process after adding additives to pure aluminum or aluminum alloy. It has both metal and bubble characteristics. It has low density, strong absorption of impact, high temperature resistance, strong fire resistance, corrosion resistance, high electromagnetic shielding, strong weather resistance, filtering ability, easy processing and installation, high forming accuracy, and can be coated on the surface. If lightness and toughness are the common characteristics of most building materials, then excellent thermal insulation performance and good plasticity are the two unique skills that make it stand out in SOHO Fuxing Square.

　　SOHO Fuxing Plaza is located in the heart of Shanghai's inner ring, in the Huaihai Middle Road CBD commercial district. Adjacent to the famous century old Christian church "All Saints' Church" in the former French Concession. It is adjacent to Huaihai Middle Road Commercial Street and fashion landmark Xintiandi. In order to better integrate tradition and modernity, we invite the German GMP construction team and the Dutch AIM Kaimu construction team to work together to create. The building structure adopts the traditional Shanghai "lane style" characteristic planning layout, and the interior decoration division provides an extremely "transparent, reflective, and borderless" transparent space. As a commercial office project of SOHO, it still maintains extremely high environmental requirements and has obtained the globally recognized LEED Gold certification for green buildings.

　　It is the two-way test of extreme requirements of indoor "transparency and boundlessness" and energy conservation and environmental protection that gives foam aluminum a chance to show. Vincent De Graff, the founder of Kaimu Design who participated in the interior design of the project, used a large amount of glass in the design to achieve transparency. However, as a commercial office building, excellent sound insulation and signal shielding effects are required between each partition; The introduction of a large amount of glass also poses challenges for the load-bearing and insulation of indoor structures.

　　Foam aluminum has good acoustic function: the sound insulation coefficient of closed cell foam aluminum is more than 0.9, the maximum sound absorption coefficient of through cell foam aluminum is 0.8, and its octave band average sound absorption coefficient is more than 0.4. At the same time, foam aluminum can also shield electromagnetic interference: when the electromagnetic wave frequency is between 2.6-18GHz, the electromagnetic shielding capacity of foam aluminum can reach 60-90dB. It can play a very good shielding effect for the office building, which is a space with numerous and disordered signals. At the same time, as a foam material, foam aluminum has excellent thermal insulation effect. The thermal insulation effect of closed cell foam aluminum is equivalent to that of marble, and its weight is less than half of that. It can be said that it is a slim "warm man". Transparent glass is a disaster for energy-saving buildings, and it is almost foam aluminum that, with its own efforts, will once again drag the use of glass SOHO Renaissance Plaza back to the LEED gold level pre certification of green buildings.

　　Compared with other new building materials, foam aluminum has good ductility and plasticity, which can be said not to be "capricious". Foam aluminum materials can be installed at heights without mechanical lifting equipment, such as ceiling, wall and roof. They can be connected and fixed mechanically or directly with screws, or pasted on walls or ceilings with adhesives. This easy to install feature helps SOHO Fuxing Plaza present various stunning effects indoors. SOHO Fuxing Plaza is located in the bustling Huaihai Middle Road CBD commercial district, at the center of Shanghai's inner ring. The project covers an area of 20084 square meters, including approximately 72000 square meters of above ground area and 65000 square meters of underground area, with a planned total construction area of 137436 square meters. The location of the city center and the tight schedule have posed significant challenges to the construction process of SOHO Fuxing Square. The ease of installation and modeling of foam aluminum is undoubtedly one of the important factors for SOHO Fuxing Plaza to be completed on time and successfully in 2014.

　　Vincent De Graff, the interior designer of SOHO Fuxing Plaza, commented on the selection and persuasion of foam aluminum to be used by Party A: "We used foam aluminum in this design because it is a novel, durable material with a variety of characteristics. Its gray color with a sense of weight can form a sharp contrast with the bright white lights in the elevator lobby, which conforms to modern aesthetics. It is also a very interesting new material, not a coating or paint, but completely made of aluminum or aluminum alloy foam. This hard foam has good strength, and its open foam structure has excellent sound insulation function. These characteristics are combined, foam aluminum enables the hall of SOHO Renaissance Plaza to present a powerful modern intelligent building style. ”

　　When developers choose building materials, in addition to considering cost, it is more important to find products that fit their own product positioning, conform to the overall style and design needs of the project, and have their own space for new building materials. The amazing effect of foam aluminum on SOHO Fuxing Square may be just the first act of performance under the new Environmental Protection Law. I hope there will be more new environmental protection building materials to achieve "upper position" on this big stage.

Source: China Curtain Wall Network