You can always tell the time at Open Architecture’s Sun Tower, which acts as a giant sundial in the Chinese city of Yantai on the Shandong Peninsula.

The 50-metre-tall canonical landmark is located next to the beach in the city’s Yeda Development Zone and is a multi-functioning space, housing a theatre, exhibition hall, cafe, bar and viewing platform.

The Beijing-based practice took inspiration from a sundial when designing the concrete structure, which takes the form of a cone sliced down the middle. While the back is solid concrete, punctuated only by small portholes and long, narrow apertures, the front facade is glass, leaving the inner workings of the building on display from the plaza below.

An interior canonical shell, containing the theatre, nestles within the larger shell. Ramps and stairs ascend the height of the structure up to the bar and a viewing platform at the top, peering across the Yellow Sea and along the coast towards the Penglai Pavilion.

As the sun moves from east to west, the structure acts as a giant dial, casting a shadow across the public square below. Open Architecture located the building to align with the sun’s high-noon equinox positions and the entrance tunnels with sunset on the winter solstice.

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