Guangzhou International Finance Centre in China wins 2012 RIBA Lubetkin Prize

Date:

13 October 2012

Press office contact:

Beatrice Cooke
T: +44 (0)207 307 3813
E: beatrice.cooke@riba.org

Guangzhou International Finance Centre in China by Wilkinson Eyre Architects has won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) 2012 Lubetkin Prize for the best new international building. Now in its sixth year, the RIBA Lubetkin Prize is awarded to the architects of the best new building outside the European Union.

The presentation of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize trophy took place at a special ceremony this evening (Saturday 13 October) in Manchester.

The Guangzhou International Finance Centre in China is a 440m tower and the tallest building in the world by a UK architect. It has a mixture of uses including office space, a luxury hotel and a top floor sightseeing area. At ground level, the tower connects with a substantial podium complex containing a retail mall, conference centre and high quality serviced apartments. The successful plan responds to the need for efficient internal space layouts and excellent environmental performance.

The three outstanding buildings competing alongside the Guangzhou International Finance Centre for the 2012 RIBA Lubetkin Prize were:

One KL, Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia by SCDA Architects
Solaris, Singapore by TR Hamzah and Yeang and CPG
Sperone Westwater, Bowery, New York by Foster + Partners

Speaking about Guangzhou International Finance Centre, RIBA President and judge, Angela Brady said:

“With exceptional vision and skill, Wilkinson Eyre Architects have given their clients and the city of Guangzhou an outstanding new 103 storey landmark. The tower’s diamond shaped structure, exposed throughout the offices, atrium and hotel, looks simple but is the hugely complex key to the success of this building. It not only allows the dramatic tapering atrium and raked floors but brings environmental benefits by using 20% less steel than similar buildings. Guangzhou International Finance Centre is a worthy winner of this important prize.”

The 2012 RIBA Lubetkin Prize jury was chaired by RIBA President Angela Brady with architects Deborah Saunt, Cindy Walters, Philip Gumuchdjian and RIBA Head of Awards Tony Chapman.

The RIBA Lubetkin Prize was established in 2006. It is named after the world-renowned architect Berthold Lubetkin (1901 - 1990). The winner is presented with a unique cast concrete plaque, based loosely on Lubetkin’s design for the Penguin Pool at London Zoo, commissioned by the RIBA and designed and made by the artist Petr Weigl.

Notes to editors

1. Images of the RIBA Lubetkin Prize winner and shortlisted buildings can be downloaded from here: https://www.box.com/s/d3919612816b35b7e81f|

2. For further information contact Beatrice Cooke in the RIBA Press Office, 020 7307 3813 or beatrice.cooke@inst.riba.org|

3. The judges citation for the Guangzhou International Finance Centre follows:

Guangzhou International Finance Centre

Guangzhou, China

Architect: Wilkinson Eyre Architects

Client: Guangzhou Yuexiu City Construction

Structural Engineer: Arup

Services Engineer: Arup

Contractor: China State Construction Corporation

Contract Value: £600 million

Date of completion: June 2011

Gross internal area: 380,000 sq m

The Guangzhou International Finance Centre is the tallest building designed by a British architect, anywhere in the world. Wilkinson Eyre won the competition with a slender triangular mixed use tower rising to 103 storeys out of a podium containing shopping and a connection to the subway system and three levels of parking, as well as two linked smaller towers of accommodation.

The main tower is 66 floors of offices and 38 floors of a Four Seasons hotel arranged around a dramatic tapering atrium. For all the smoothness of its crystalline skin, this is a building that expresses its diamond shaped structure to the world through its glazed facades and internally to the user of every office and hotel room through the presence of raked concrete-filled steel tubes that form the structure.

The beauty of the diamond shaped grid is its inherent stiffness, which in turn gives it its strength. Each diamond is 54 metres or twelve storeys high, reducing the amount of steel required for the construction by a remarkable 20%.

Originally planned as one of a matching pair of towers either side of a grand pedestrian boulevard leading to last year’s Lubetkin shortlisted Opera House by Zaha Hadid, it was also designed with a double skin. That fell victim to the client’s understandable desire for more floor space (and certainly the generosity of the floorplate between core and skin is one of the building’s major selling points). Instead the sun protection that a double skin would have afforded has had to be built into the glass – hence the dark grey appearance, again a distinctive merit of the finished tower.

This is a hugely complex project that appears to be extraordinarily simple, like most of the best things in life.

4. The Royal Institute of British Architects champions better buildings, communities and the environment through architecture and our members. www.architecture.com|