Ping An Finance Center "A Milestone in Supertall Construction"

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.

Ping An Finance Center "A Milestone in Supertall Construction"

VIDEO: 2018 Innovation Conference – Ping An Finance Center “A Milestone in Supertall Construction”

Dexiong Weng, Ping An Life Insurance Company of China, and Florence Chan, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, present Ping An Finance Center at the CTBUH 2018 Tall+Urban Innovation Conference.

Ping An Finance Center (PAFC) is an extraordinary project, which responds to the challenges of constructing in dense urban environments. PAFC advanced nearly every dimension of supertall construction technology, including deep excavation, large-diameter piling, ultra-high concrete pumping, steel erection, and structural health monitoring. Notwithstanding the magnitude and speed of construction, the project was realized without any major worker injuries.

PAFC required deep foundations, which were constructed adjacent to Shenzhen Metro Line 1. To limit displacement of the subway tunnel to within 10 millimeters, an innovative cross-lot bracing system with two-large diameter rings allowed for construction of the tower core through the first ring, and removal of 520,000 cubic meters of earth through the second ring. Giant-diameter hand-dug caissons, measuring eight meters across, were extended down to bedrock at a depth of 33.5 meters.

PAFC’s superstructure, designed to meet stringent seismic codes, incorporated massive steel connections which were pre-fabricated and installed in major sections weighing up to 90 metric tons. Construction of the tower’s eight megacolumns was expedited by using climbing formwork arranged in five adjustable positions, with each layer designed to be retractable and able to ascend on an incline.

Video courtesy of CTBUH

Project Credits

Architects: KPF
Location: Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Category: Office Buildings
Area: 462000.0 m2
Project Year: 2016
Photographs: Tim Griffith
Architect of Record: China Construction Design International
Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing Engineer: J. Roger Preston Group
Vertical Transportation Consultant: J. Roger Preston Group/ Fortune Consultants
Landscape Consultant: AECOM
Sustainability Consultant: ARUP
Interior Design: Office: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, New York; Retail: Benoy, Hong Kong; Club House: Cheng Chung Design, Hong Kong
Main Contractor: China Construction First Group Construction & Development Co., Ltd.
Fire/Sustainability: ARUP
Wind Consultant: RWDI
Traffic Consultant: MVA
Lighting Consultant: Lighting Planners Associates
Curtain Wall Consultant: ALT
Façade Access Consultant: GMS
Graphic Design Consultant: Duttonbray Design Ltd.
Acoustic Consultant: Westwood Hong & Associates Ltd.

Project description courtesy of architects