Shenzhen on the Chinese border with Hong Kong could get the world's second tallest building if a new development goes ahead.
The main building will be the new headquarters for one of China's largest financial companies, Pingan Insurance who are aiming for something truly big with a 115-storey tower that will reach 646 metres to its tip.
The scheme is a needle sharp tower with a pointed spire and strong stone vertical lines running up the cladding accentuating the height further and providing a contrast with the glass they stand in front of and the corners which are entirely glazed until it's peak. This is amplified even more by the gradual tapering the tower takes on it as it rises.
It's a shape that plays on the soaring shapes of iconic highrise buildings like the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building and is also intended to tip a nod to Chinese mythology by combining with the skyline to create a "dragons spine" outline.
At ground level it splays out and connects with a large public plaza with the entrances cutting diagonally into the foot of it. So large are they, a service road to drop people off by car also winds through the ground level.
Connected to it is a long six-storey podium intended to be a shopping mall with an hourglass footprint that also provides links to a second shorter tower that will be "only" 307.5 metres in height. This will be a hotel building.
There's an element of one-upmanship going on here. Despite being proposed later, the Pingan International Financial Center is being aimed for a 2013 completion whereas the now under construction Shanghai Center will be completed a year later
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