Guangfa Securities Headquarters is a 308-meter tall super high rise office tower located in the Zhujiang New Town district of Guangzhou, China. The landmark building is set on a landscaped public plaza that serves as a new financial campus in the neighborhood. By rotating the building off the urban grid and tapering the facade, the tower design distinguishes itself from the surroundings while creating a secluded gathering area at the base. The tower orientation is set perpendicular to the more centrally located Canton Tower, creating an important visual connection that links Zhujiang New Town with Guangzhou CBD.

The super high rise tower used a composite structure which was a combination between a steel reinforced concrete core and steel tube columns along with an outrigger support system at the upper technical floor. All building shear loads are transferred to the central core and the outrigger system allows the building’s eight corner columns to be remarkably filigran at base in diameter of 1100mm. The size of the structural core is minimized by introducing a sky lobby on the 30thfloor of the building that allows different elevator groups to be stacked efficiently above each other in order to use same elevator shafts.

The tower program is divided into two parts by the sky lobby. In the lower part are situated rental office floors and the upper part of the tower are the headquarter office floors of Guangfa Securities.

The central cross core type design helps significantly to decrease the public circulation areas and helps to relocate of all sanitary functions into the unused elevator groups lobbies and thus the core maintains its compactness.

The external form of tower is articulated by three key zones: a soaring entrance lobby that improves connectivity with the surroundings, a sky lobby that offers a communal lounge and enhances vertical circulation, and an iconic crown that defines the tower's presence in Guangzhou city skyline. With only 30% site coverage allowed by zone regulations, we further optimized the base of the tower by tapering the width of the building footprint as it nears the ground. Every floor plan can accommodate up to 8 individual offices that smaller companies could rent out. At the upper part of the tower where are located the headquarter office levels, the tower core size is further reduced due to the less required elevator groups. This has a direct positive impact by allowing to have more usable floor area at the upper floors of the office headquarters. On the north side of the headquarter office zone, continuous atrium spaces have been introduced in order to allow more daylight to enter in the offices. Convenient indoor stairs create vertical connections in the atrium spaces which improve the vertical indoor office circulation between different office departments. An amenity space tops the building, offering a public zone where employees can relax, socialize and communicate informally. Throughout, the floorplans are designed to maximize natural light while creating open, comfortable, spacious and healthy office environments.

The facade design is conceived as a single system that is modulated to articulate distinct functional zones of the tower. This customized vertical mullion profile façade system is applied along the entire length of office tower and creates an aesthetic unity across the building facades and maximizes the cost-effectiveness. The façade mullion profiles are tapering outward from 40mm to 80mm, which makes them less dominant and visible and allow more daylight to enter inside the office spaces in the entire office tower. Throughout, the facade drives the design of interior spaces by creating a continuity between the inside and outside of the building. The design of the canopy at the base of the tower is reflected in the overlapped planes of the lobby’s ceiling. The mullions are developed to fit with a custom-designed adaptor that allows interior partitions to be tied into the facade. At the sky lobby, the mullions recede into the interiors, defining a soaring quadruple-height space at the perimeters of the plan that maximize views out over the city skyline. At the tower’s crown, the mullions sheathe the interior spaces of the sky lounge.

Leading an expert team of engineers, manufactures and sustainability consultants, Jaeger Kahlen Partner managed to integrate from the very initial stage of concept design highly sophisticated building systems that reduce the building’s environmental footprint and have a direct social impact on employee’s well-being and productivity. Efficient building floor plate with optimized structural and core design along indoor atrium spaces helped improve the office work qualities and tenants experience. Curved façade spandrel panels draw in and filter outside air which helps to enhance the indoor natural ventilation and improve office spaces thermal comfort. The entire facade uses high-performance, Low-E frit printed glass that reduces solar heat gain while maintaining views and daylighting. The extruded mullion profiles and cladding panels are built of recycled aluminum alloys, enhancing environmental sustainability while maintaining the level of finish quality appropriate for a headquarters for a global leader in the world financial economy.

Supported by a signature annex podium on the west for VIP lounge, with reflective water bodies and an impressive landscape, Guangfa Securities Headquarters integrates into the larger urban fabric and provides interactive social space to the city. The design surpasses dualities and combines form and function in a holistic approach. The super high rise office tower re-affirms our process of evolving concept from its rooted urban origins and integrating architectural detailing, facade systems and interiors into a holistic and memorable design.