Ping An Finance Centre / KPF

Curated by María Francisca González
January 07, 2018

Architects: KPF
Area: 462000.0 m²
Year: 2016
Photographs: Tim Griffith

Text description provided by the architects. KPF worked with Ping An Insurance Company to design a supertall headquarters that would become the physical and iconic centre of Shenzhen’s burgeoning central business district, the Futian District. It connects to both neighboring commercial and residential properties and the Line 1 Gou Wu Gong Yuan metro station, situating the tower – and the city – prominently within the Pearl River Delta’s high-speed rail corridor that increases access to the region’s rapidly densifying cities.

Comprising 100 office floors above the retail and conference podium, the tower will accommodate 15,500 workers and 9,000 daily passengers to an observation deck. Anchored by eight stone mega-columns with diagonal bracing, the tower conveys stability at its ground level. Its chevron-shaped columns rise six hundred meters and converge at the tower’s height, mediating the tension of the earth to a single point in the sky. Sheathed in glass and stone, the podium houses a central atrium that acts as a public vestibule and sun-lit space for meeting, shopping, and dining. Five floors of retail shops terrace away from the tower, forming a large, amphitheater-like space.

Designed for local weather resistance, the tower’s tapered façade reduces wind loads by forty percent and its stainless steel piers form a protective net against lightning strikes. With its completion in 2016, Ping An Finance Centre is now the tallest building in Shenzhen, the second tallest in China, and the fourth tallest in the world. It joined other KPF supertalls, including Lotte World Tower in Seoul, Shanghai World Financial Center, International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong, and CTF Finance Centre in Guangzhou among the ranks of the world’s ten tallest towers.