Guangzhou International Finance Center is a landmark tower which defines the emerging international strength of China’s third largest city and serves as a landmark for Guangzhou Zhujiang New Town’s main axis, which links the commercial district in the north with the Pearl River to the south. At the time of its completion it was the fourth tallest building in China and the ninth tallest building in the world. Its elegant simplicity belies the complex geometry of form and structure which makes it possible. Each of the three façades of the curved triangular plan are also curved in section with a radius of 5.1km set out asymmetrically with the widest point at a third of the height, tapering to its narrowest point at the top. There is no spire, and the three curved façades continue up beyond the highest floor and, in some views, seems to disappear to infinity. The highest point is a helicopter landing pad which hovers over the central atrium just overhanging the perimeter cladding. The inside of this atrium, with its crystalline geometry, sparkles with abundant daylight and is taller than the height of London’s St. Paul\'s Cathedral, including its dome.

Its rounded triangular plan responds to the need for efficient internal space layouts and excellent environmental performance. The tower has a mixture of uses including office space, a luxury hotel and a top floor observation area. Office floors occupy levels 2 through 67 and a Four Seasons hotel is on levels 67 through 103. The tower has a triple height 12 m (39 ft) high entrance lobby which rings the base of the tower and allows secure access to the building’s double decker shuttles and standard lift groupings. The main lobby also connects via escalators to a secondary office lobby located at the lower basement level, which in turn allows access to below ground retail and the MTR station. A further dedicated lobby and set down has been formed at ground level for the hotel. At ground level, the tower connects with a substantial podium complex containing a retail mall, conference center and serviced apartments. The tower and podium connect to a large retail mall and transport hub below ground, with a retail loop encouraging connections underneath a landscaped central axis.

The building utilizes the world’s tallest constructed diagrid structure which is clearly expressed though the building’s façade and gives the building considerable character. The diagrid members are formed from concrete filled steel tubes which provide both good stiffness and fire protection to the structure. However, two hour fire protection was still required in order to meet codes and this was trowel applied directly to the building’s primary structure. The tubular diagrid structure “nodes-out” every 12 stories to form 54 m (177 ft) high giant steel diamonds. At the base of the tower the structural members are 1800 mm (70 in) in diameter and reduce in size up the building to 900 mm (35 in) at the top of the building.

The structural core takes much of the gravity load of the building’s floors and is linked back to the diagrid perimeter structure via floor beams to create a stiff “tube-within-a-tube” structural system. The inherent stiffness in the structure minimizes steel tonnage while providing inherent stiffness and resistance to acceleration and sway, thereby maintaining high comfort levels for the building’s occupants. This stiffness and resistance to acceleration means that no damping of the structure is required.

The building has been designed to be a low carbon and sustainable building. The shape of the building has been designed to reduce the effects of wind, thereby reducing the necessary size and weight of the structure. In addition to fundamental passive measures such as orientation, sustainable building systems have been incorporated into the design which address issues such as comfort, maintenance and cost while paying due regard to environmental sustainability and energy conservation. These include: solar thermal hot water; air-side energy recovery; heat recovery chiller; ice storage system; desiccant dehumidification; high-rise air discharge pressure CFD analysis; free cooling system; and variable air volume.