Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai, China

Just one giant beer bottle to go, and Shanghai's set to party.Height: 492 meters

Cost to build: US$1.2 billion

Completion date: August 2008

Fast fact: The square “bottle opener” opening at the top that is designed to reduce stress of wind pressure, and was originally circular. However, Shanghainese citizens and the city's mayor protested, claiming it was too similar to the rising sun design of the Japanese flag.
Just eight meters shy of the half-kilometer mark, this giant bottle opener overtook Gin Mou Tower in 2008 as the tallest building in China, and is the latest addition to Pudong’s smoggy skyline, signifying the city’s emergence as a global financial hub.

Like many magnificent architectures in China, the Shanghai World Financial Center has a subtle connection to Chinese beliefs: the opening atop represents earth reaching up to the sky, symbolizing an interaction between the two realms. 

Originally, this opening was round. The central government forced the change to the current trapezoid, complaining that a circle was too close to Japan's rising-sun symbol. 

Overall structure

THE MEGA-STRUCTURE

The Mega-Structure concept is shown in Figures 2 and 3 (both Figures omit intermediate floors). To resist the forces from typhoon (hurricane) winds and earthquakes, three parallel and interacting structural systems were incorporated:

1) The mega-structure, consisting of the major structural columns, the major diagonals, and the belt trusses.

2) The concrete walls of the services core.

3) The interaction between the concrete walls of the services core and the mega-columns, as created by the outrigger trusses.

The concept for the structural system reduced the cost of the structural system while responding to the essence of the architecture, as well as successfully responding to the limitations of the existing foundation piling. At the same time, the new structural system provided for speedier construction.

Seeking to improve the quality of the office spaces, on each of the four orthogonal faces, the new structural system decreases the perimeter framing from seventeen wide columns to just three narrow columns. Hence, building occupants will be provided an extraordinary sense of openness and unparalleled views of the surrounding city of Shanghai.

By adjusting the stiffness of the perimeter mega-structure and the outrigger trusses, both the shears and the overturning moments resisted by the concrete walls of the services core can be either increased or decreased. In this way, the weight of the services core is subject to control by the structural engineer. The design both controlled the thickness of the services core concrete walls and optimized the design of the outrigger trusses.

The mega-structure is only subtly displayed behind the windows of the building. Architecturally founded on a heavy stone base, the mega-structure gives the impression of both strength and of permanence. Indeed, it is one of the goals of Mori Building Company to communicate these two attributes, while displaying the wonderful elegance of the building form.