Metropolis magazine’s April/May/June 2026 issue features SOM’s design for WeBank Headquarters in Shenzhen in an eight-page article exploring the project as a “breathing building”—a porous, climate-responsive workplace shaped by light, air, landscape, and occupant well-being. As writer Justin R. Wolf notes, “designing a breathing building requires a nuanced understanding of how light and air move both around and within its confines.” Rather than design what Wolf describes as “a traditional, hermetically sealed skyscraper,” SOM proposed a workplace that Design Partner Scott Duncan characterizes as “porous” and “spongy”—one shaped by indoor-outdoor connectivity, occupant health, and Shenzhen’s subtropical climate.

The article highlights how SOM’s design extends a “language of porches” from the base to the top of the building. Expansive terraces, recessed balconies, planted gardens, protective overhangs, and operable windows create a responsive envelope that blurs the boundary between inside and out. Computational Fluid Dynamics helped inform the placement of multi-story gaps within the building, while solar-responsive facades and overhangs reduce solar radiation by more than 50 percent, lowering cooling demands and supporting a consistently comfortable indoor environment.

That architectural approach, according to SOM Principal Luke Leung, is supported by a performance strategy centered on dynamic thermal comfort. Hybrid natural and mechanical ventilation systems allow outdoor air to enter when air quality and thermal conditions support occupant comfort and well-being. Metropolis also explores SOM’s broader idea of a “probiotic building,” in which diverse native plantings invite microbial diversity, roof gardens create habitat for birds and pollinators, and rainwater capture systems connect the headquarters to Shenzhen’s larger sponge-city infrastructure.