Ping An Finance Centre | KPF - Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

KPF worked with client Ping An Insurance Company to design a supertall headquarters that would become the physical and iconic center of Shenzhen’s burgeoning central business district, the Futian District. It connects to both neighboring commercial and residential properties and the Line 1 Gou Wu Gong Yuan metro station. Comprising 100 office floors above a retail and conference podium, the tower will accommodate 15,500 workers and 9,000 daily passengers to an observation deck.

With Hong Kong’s International Commerce Centre to the north and Guangzhou’s CTF Finance Centre to the south, the Ping An Finance Centre completes a trio of KPF-designed vertical centers linked by high-speed rail, representing a sustainable model for urban development within an area of rapid economic growth.

The structure’s stone supports, rendered as chevron-shaped columns, converge at the tower’s height and mediate the tension of the earth to a single point in the sky. Sheathed in glass and stone, the podium is defined by a central atrium that acts as a public vestibule and sun-lit space for meeting, shopping, and dining. Designed for local weather resistance, the tower’s tapered façade reduces wind loads by forty percent and its stainless steel piers form a protective net against lightning strikes.