CTF Finance Centre

An icon that represents the urban growth and prosperity of Guangzhou, the CTF Finance Centre, the city’s tallest tower, adds an elegant crystalline form to the skyline. The building design derives naturally from efficient integration of program and sensitive response to urban context. Its form is sculpted at four major transition points: 1) office to residential; 2) residential to hotel; 3) hotel to crown; and 4) crown to sky. Instead of tapering to accommodate smaller floorplates required for different programs, the tower sets back at four angled parapets to allow for lush sky terraces and dramatic skylights. These chiseled setbacks reflect not only the program, but also the tower’s relationship to its surroundings, and are sculpted to acknowledge the various heights of nearby towers. The façade design carefully directs attention to the building’s verticality, emphasizing the supertall’s height with terracotta mullions that extend from the tower base and wrap around the building’s setbacks. Terracotta is simultaneously an important part of Chinese artistic culture and a material used the world over, nodding to Guangzhou’s reputation as both a historic Chinese city and a global trading center.