Designed by the award-winning studio OPEN Architecture, Sun Tower is a striking new cultural venue in Yeda Development Zone in Yantai, China. Encompassing an outdoor theatre, exhibition spaces, library, café and bar, and a special Phenomena Space, the cone-like structure is located on the coast of the Yellow Sea and features a design informed by the passage of the sun.

Yeda Development Zone was established in 1984 and has transformed the area into a thriving district of industry and tourism. The arrival of the Sun Tower now provides a much needed cultural hub for the growing population and tourism, fostering community engagement and raising awareness for environmental causes.

OPEN Architecture has conceived the design as a celebration of the area's connection to the sun and sea. Grounded in local history-one of the earliest regions in China where ancient sun-worshipping took place and later, where Ming Dynasty-era watchtowers were erected the design provides a contemporary take on the architectural typology of lighthouses, or rather, a fusion of lighthouse, cultural centre, community hub, and sundial, paying tribute to nature and the passing of time.

The curving volume features large openings on one side, with its viewing platforms and ground floor theatre exposed to the seafront. Standing at 50-metres tall, the building has been constructed from two layers of slanted concrete shells, connected and braced by horizontal slabs and ramps, created in close consultation with engineering firm Arup. Informed by meticulous studies of the sun, the northern edge of the building is parallel to the noon sunlight of the equinoxes, while the entrance tunnel aligns with the sunset during the Winter Solstice. Sitting at the centre of the Sun Tower is a semi-outdoor theatre, which has been orientated with its central axis pointing towards the sunrise over Zhifu lsland on Summer Solstice.

OPEN Architecture hopes that the Sun Tower will reconnect people with ancient wisdom in respecting nature and help restore the spiritual power of nature in everyday life-to them, this is critical in fighting the worsening climate crisis-They need to change not only the lifestyle but also their belief system.