Guangzhou, China
Completed in 2010, the Guangzhou International Finance Centre (IFC) is one of a trio of supertalls – along with Chow Tai Fook Centre to the east, and Canton TV Tower across the river to the south – to define the skyline of fast-growing Guangzhou, known in British colonial days as Canton, a major city in the Pearl River Delta with a population in of 11.5 million in 2017.
The commission for the IFC was won in a competition by the London-based architects Wilkinson Eyre and was their first skyscraper. The sleek tower has a triangular footprint with rounded corners, which gives it an overall curved facade. A perimeter diagrid structural system allows for column-free floor plates and reduced the tonnage of steel required for construction. The lower 66 floors contain office space. A luxury hotel on the top 30 floors surrounds a dramatic full-height atrium that culminates in a light-filled crown and two observation levels.