Beijing - The Skyscraper Center

31 January 2019

China Zun: Beijing’s New Icon, 2018’s Tallest

Wuren Wang, CITIC HEYE Investment Co. Ltd.

At 528 meters, China Zun was the tallest building completed in 2018, and became the new tallest building in Beijing. It is the anchor of...

12 December 2018

Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2018

CTBUH Research

The astronomical growth in tall building construction observed over the past decade continued in 2018, though the total number of completed buildings of 200 meters’...

05 February 2018

2017: Skyscraper History’s Tallest, Highest- Volume, and Most Geographically Diverse Year

This 2017 Tall Building Year in Review / Tall Buildings in Numbers data analysis report shows that more buildings of 200 meters’ height or greater...

01 September 2017

Site | Structure | Architecture – Projects that Create Change

Leo Chow & Mark P. Sarkisian, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

China’s rapid growth has created great opportunities for design and construction of projects that not only transform sites but cities. This work combines local, national,...

02 June 2017

Transport and the Megacity: Improving Vitality with Connectivity

John Prevc, Future Spaces Foundation

There is no easy answer to ensuring the world’s rapid urban population growth is managed sustainably and in a manner that promotes economic growth, social...

17 October 2016

Tall Versus Old? The Role of Historic Preservation in the Context of Rapid Urban Growth

Kate Ascher & Sabrina Uffer, BuroHappold Engineering

As cities aspire to become global metropolises, older low-rise structures are getting torn down to make room for new, often tall, buildings and neighborhoods. What...

17 October 2016

High Intensity Urban Order

Patrik Schumacher, Zaha Hadid Architects

Density via high-rise structures remains a primary agenda in our era of urban concentration. It is crucial to understand the societal forces that drive concentration:...

17 October 2016

Transport and the Megacity: Improving Vitality with Connectivity

John Prevc, Make Architects

The world’s urban population already accounts for more than half of the total population and is predicted to rise to 66% by 2050. Given that...

17 October 2016

How Big is Too Big? The Implications of Building Tall

May Wei, CallisonRTKL

Advances in technology and engineering have made it feasible to build truly awe-inspiring structures. But as the push to densify increases the pressure to build...

17 October 2016

How High Could Beijing Reach?

Long Ma, Jing Huang & Cheng Hou, BIAD

Can we still save our city? How high can buildings in Beijing arise? Beijing has so many ancient buildings; can they coexist harmoniously with skyscrapers?...

17 October 2016

21st Century Vertical Lifestyles - Intergenerational, Integrated Communities

Stephan Reinke, Stephan Reinke Architects Limited

How does the 21st Century youth culture of social media integrate and merge with an ever increasing tech savvy senior population? As our cities and...

17 October 2016

Climate-Responsive Exterior Enclosure Design

Keith Boswell & Michael Duncan, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

In this paper, three different solutions in three different regions of China illustrate best practices for the design and execution of optimized building enclosure systems....

17 October 2016

An Integrated Solution to Enable Safe Evacuation of Tall Buildings

Zhen Jia, Murilo Bonilha, Bill Li & Geeta Bora, United Technologies Corporation

Implementing real-time, efficient, and intelligent tall building egresses that ensure human safety in cases of emergencies can be extremely difficult. Most current egress strategies are...

17 October 2016

Megacities: Setting the Scene

Daniel Safarik, Shawn Ursini & Antony Wood; Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

The rise of the megacity presents unprecedented opportunities to understand the human urbanization phenomenon, and to observe the effects of multicore, polycentric cities growing together...

01 September 2016

The Structural Design of “China Zun” Tower, Beijing

Liu Peng, Cheng Yu & Zhu Yan-Song, Arup

The “China Zun” tower in Beijing will rise to 528 meters in height and will be the tallest building in Beijing once built. Inspired by...

26 October 2015

It’s Not About the Skyline, It’s About the Base Condition

Terri Boake, University of Waterloo

The rapid densification of cities is a fairly recent phenomenon and seems in many cases to be progressing without regard to important already established urban...

26 October 2015

Three-dimensional Exterior Bracing Systems for Tall Buildings

Rupa Garai, Mark Sarkisian, Neville Mathias & Andrew Krebs, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

The use of outriggers with and without belt trusses has become an expedient of choice for harnessing the three dimensional potential of tall buildings to...

31 December 2014

Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2014

Daniel Safarik, Antony Wood, Marty Carver & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH

An All-Time Record 97 Buildings of 200 Meters or Higher Completed in 2014 and 2014 showed further shifts towards Asia, and also surprising developments in...

16 September 2014

Case Study: China Zun Tower, Beijing

Robert Whitlock & Li Lei, Kohn Pedersen Fox; Luo Nengjun, CITIC Heye Investment Co. Ltd.; Liu Peng, Arup

China Zun Tower will be the flagship building of Beijing’s comprehensively planned 30-hectare central business district core. The 528-meter-tall tower will stand far above its...

16 September 2014

The Public Meaning of Skyscrapers: Shenzhen Stock Exchange and CCTV

David Gianotten, Rem Koolhaas & Sylvia Chan, OMA

Through the designs of Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, the paper illustrates the potential of skyscrapers in creating public meaning. This...

16 September 2014

China Zun: Shaping the Future Skyline of Beijing

Weiping Shao, Beijing Institute of Architectural Design

Due to the site location, China Zun has been a high-profile project from the very beginning. The new height of 528m would make the China...

16 September 2014

Design Challenges of the 3 Tallest Buildings in North/ East/ South China

Kam Chuen (Vincent) Tse, Lung Wai (Herbert) Lam, Sheung Lai (Eddie) Leung & Leung Wing (Daniel) Ho, Parsons Brinckerhoff

This paper describes the MEP and VTS design challenges of the tallest buildings in three major cities in China; namely, Beijing, Suzhou and Guangzhou. The...

11 June 2014

Highest Helipads

CTBUH Research

In this installment of Tall Buildings in Numbers, CTBUH considers how helipads are used on skyscrapers, and which are the highest in the world. The...

26 February 2014

The New Context of Tall

Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten, OMA

On the occasion of receiving the Best Tall Building Worldwide award at the 12th Annual CTBUH Awards Symposium and Dinner for CCTV Headquarters, Beijing, Rem...

01 September 2013

Field Measurements of the New CCTV Tower in Beijing

Y. L. Xu & Y. Xia, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; S. Zhan, H. Xia & N. Zhang, Beijing Jiaotong University

The emergence of a growing number of tall buildings, often with unusual shapes and innovative structural systems, has led to the realization of the need...

23 September 2012

The Tallest 15 Cities in China

CTBUH Research

With over 1.3 billion citizens and a rapidly urbanizing population, China is developing tall buildings more than any other country globally. Currently it has 239...

21 September 2012

30 Years in China: An Architect/Developer’s Perspective

John Portman, John Portman & Associates

The Portman Companies were one of the first foreign entities to establish business relations in China, and have since become recognized for quality building design...

21 September 2012

Asia Agenda

Ole Scheeren, Büro Ole Scheeren

With Asia’s unparalleled and continued pace of growth fueled by economic development, the world order has shifted eastwards, and China has risen as the defining...

19 September 2012

A New Approach to Green Urban Development in Asia

Jeffrey Heller, Heller Manus Architects

Development in China has presented an opportunity for a new paradigm in the creation of large-scale, low-carbon /carbon-neutral high-rise, mixed-use urban centers. Two projects, one...

19 September 2012

Developing High Profile Branded Commercial Projects in China

Jerry Yin, SOHO

As one of the largest developers of commercial projects in China, SOHO China helped pioneer the concept of large-scale master-planned developments in Beijing, each with...

19 September 2012

Debating Tall: Is China's Property Bubble Ready to Burst?

KK Fung, JLL; Tianlun Jian, Economist

Soaring prices led many analysts to predict that a bubble was forming in China's housing industry prompted government measures to dampen the market. This quarter's...

12 September 2012

Big Shifts Ahead as China Enters New Era

Kevin Brass, CTBUH

Reports out of China these days are a jumble of mixed messages and conflicting imagery. One night network business news programs spotlight video of empty...

01 June 2012

A New Leader for Telecom Towers

CTBUH Research

With the recent completion of two megatall telecommunication/observation towers it is perhaps time to review these structures and also explain why they are distinguished from...

10 October 2011

The Synergy of a Destination: Three Successful Techniques in Global Mixed-Use Design

Ming Zhang, MulvannyG2 Architecture

The central business district is a feature common in nearly all modern cities. Regardless of location or cultural background, all successful CBDs share common aspects...

07 June 2010

Interview: Winy Maas, MVRDV

Winy Maas, MVRDV

The urban future of Chinese cities could take the shape of supersized parabolic structures in and around current cities. Imagine a range of various green...

31 December 2009

Tallest Buildings Completed in 2009

CTBUH Research

Trump International Hotel & Tower named tallest building completed in 2009; Successful year for the American high-rise. Over half of all buildings 200m or taller...

02 October 2008

Case Study: CCTV Building - Headquarters & Cultural Center

Chris Carroll, Paul Cross, Xiaonian Duan & Craig Gibbons, Arup

The new headquarters of China Central Television contains the entire television-making process within a single building. The 234m tall tower redefines the form of the...

03 March 2008

Challenging Preconceptions of the High-Rise Typology

Rem Koolhaas, OMA

The skyscraper was born over 100 years ago, when the elevator made it possible to have access to previously unimaginable levels of a building. This...

31 December 2007

Tallest Buildings Completed in 2007

333 meters high with 72 stories and 480 suites, Rose Rotana Tower in Dubai leads the list of the 10 tallest buildings completed in 2007....

01 May 2006

Jin Mao Tower’s Influence on China’s New Innovative Tall Buildings

Mark Sarkisian, Neville Mathias, Eric Long & Aaron Mazeika, SOM

The 56 story, 232 m tall Jinao Tower in Nanjing, China, is a next-generation tower which maximizes performance, efficiency, and occupant experience. Its faceted form...

10 October 2004

Performance-based Design of Smoke Extraction for the Basketball Gymnasium of Wukesong Culture and Sports Center

Zhang Jingyan, Huo Ran, Wang Haobo, et al., University of Science and Technology China

Through numerical simulations, this paper examines the hyperboloidal smoke extraction shaft technology in the basketball gymnasium of Wukesong Culture and Sports Center.