Tianjin CTF Finance Centre

Tianjin CTF Finance Center
Tianjin CTF Finance Center
Tianjin CTF Finance Centre

A groundbreaking model of material and structural efficiency, this skyscraper unites complex programmatic elements and is enclosed by a sophisticated facade that conveys a graceful interplay of light and structure.

Project Facts
  • Status Construction Complete
  • Completion Year 2019
  • Design Finish Year 2013
  • Size Site Area: 27,772.35 square meters Building Height: 530 meters Number of Stories: 96 Building Gross Area: 389,661 square meters
  • Awards
    2020, IStructE, Tall or Slender Structures Award, Institution of Structural Engineers 2021, 2021 REARD Global Design Award - Gold, REARD Global 2020, 2020 Pro+ Award Gold Award, ASSC 上海市建筑学会 2019, 4th Place, Emporis Skyscraper Award
  • Sustainability Certifications LEED BD+C NC (New Construction) Gold
  • Collaborators
    East China Architectural Design & Research Institute (Ecadi) Pb Campbell Shillinglaw Lau Ltd. Isometrix Lighting + Design, Ltd. Rider Levett Bucknall AECOM - Arlington Rockwell Group Arup Group Limited Laguardalow Rlp Ihd BPI Group Ab Concept Make Ckpi BMT Defense Services, Ltd
Project Facts
  • Status Construction Complete
  • Completion Year 2019
  • Design Finish Year 2013
  • Size Site Area: 27,772.35 square meters Building Height: 530 meters Number of Stories: 96 Building Gross Area: 389,661 square meters
  • Awards
    2020, IStructE, Tall or Slender Structures Award, Institution of Structural Engineers 2021, 2021 REARD Global Design Award - Gold, REARD Global 2020, 2020 Pro+ Award Gold Award, ASSC 上海市建筑学会 2019, 4th Place, Emporis Skyscraper Award
  • Sustainability Certifications LEED BD+C NC (New Construction) Gold
  • Collaborators
    East China Architectural Design & Research Institute (Ecadi) Pb Campbell Shillinglaw Lau Ltd. Isometrix Lighting + Design, Ltd. Rider Levett Bucknall AECOM - Arlington Rockwell Group Arup Group Limited Laguardalow Rlp Ihd BPI Group Ab Concept Make Ckpi BMT Defense Services, Ltd

An inside-out approach

The 530-meter-tall skyscraper is a striking new landmark in the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA). The project supports the TEDA masterplan by anchoring the office, hotel, retail, and housing district with a supertall tower and retail structure, on the axis of the government center and local transit station. The 97-story skyscraper houses Class-A offices, 300 luxury serviced apartments, and a five-star, 350-room Rosewood hotel.

Tianjin CTF Finance Center
© Seth Powers

The tower’s design synthesizes architectural, structural, and functional requirements. Square in plan, with rounded corners, the geometry maximizes the efficiencies of its three programmatic uses—office, hotel, and apartments—arranged to match the optimum spans for each of these uses. With longer lease spans for the office floors, and shorter spans to maximize views at the apartment and hotel levels. The tower’s curving facade is a result of techniques used to optimize structural efficiency. Its crystalline glass panels stretch from the lobby to the crown to give the building’s integrated design a bold monolithic expression.

Tianjin CTF Finance Centre
© Seth Powers

The office space is organized in a clear, consistent configuration from the core to the exterior wall, and access is efficient, with a square central bank of local elevators serving three zones of 36 office floors. The apartments have private elevators, with access from shuttles to a sky lobby, and the generous floor plates enable flexible room layouts. The hotel, accessed from its own sky lobby, is best suited to the smaller floor plates, with corners for panoramic views.

Tianjin CTF Finance Centre
© Seth Powers
Tianjin CTF Finance Centre
© SOM

At ground level, three landscaped vehicle drop-offs provide access to the tower’s respective uses, and sleek glass-and-steel canopies extend to shelter visitors. A five-story luxury retail mall covers nearly half the site and provides interior links to the office tower and hotel lobbies.

Brian Lee

There isn’t any way that this building would have been achieved without a very close collaboration between architects and engineers, and even interior designers.

Brian Lee

A model for structural efficiency

Tianjin CTF’s composite structural system is shaped to complement and coordinate with the architectural massing while balancing the ductility and stiffness required for the tower’s location in a high seismic zone. The tapering building shape, along with a porous crown and multiple wind vents, significantly improves building performance and acts as a brace system. The diagonalized zones allow for increased stiffness at the base of the building to meet stringent Chinese dual-system code requirements, while the vertical zones create regions of high ductility to dissipate seismic energy and mitigate earthquake forces. These elements also channel gravity loads to counteract lateral loads, effectively using the building’s own weight to resist seismic and wind forces.

By optimizing and fine-tuning the structural design, SOM’s integrated architecture and engineering team dramatically reduced the steel quantities required for construction. These material savings further reduced seismic forces due to decreased mass, eliminated the need for a damping system, and considerably reduced construction time and cost. The Tianjin CTF tower is a striking fusion of structural and architectural expression, utilizing an innovative structural system and creative detailing to deliver a strong, efficient, high-performing, and cost-effective design.

Tianjin CTF Finance Centre
© Seth Powers

The future of supertalls

Tianjin CTF has been designed to LEED Gold standards, with a range of sustainable strategies, including a high-performance envelope, optimized daylighting, and green landscaping. The tower breaks norms with its rigorous integration of engineering and architectural development to achieve the highest efficiencies in material performance. As Chinese cities continue to grow and evolve, the rational and efficient use of the environment and its resources become more urgent. The success of the multi-program supertall tower—an effective building block of high density and iconic marker for the vitality of the city center—demands a continued evolution of integrated architectural and engineering strategies. A science-based and creative inside-out approach to designing and engineering mixed-use supertalls is a crucial step in shaping sustainable urbanization—not only in China, but in growing cities around the world.

Tianjin CTF Finance Center
© Seth Powers
Tianjin CTF Finance
© Seth Powers

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