Changsha IFS
Furong District, China
The 18th tallest building in the world
Changsha IFS Tower is a pair of skyscrapers in Changsha, Hunan, China, with Tower 1 rising 452 metres and Tower 2 rising 315 metres. Construction started in 2013 and completed in 2017. It is the 20th tallest building in the world and the tallest in Hunan. IFS stands for "International Finance Square". This twin-tower development is based on Harbour City, a hyper-connected retail development in Hong Kong. The Changsha complex sports an underground network of linkages to an interchange hub (Wuyi Square Station) for Changsha metro lines 1 and 2. The same underground passageway connects with one of the busiest pedestrian streets in China — Huangxing Road Pedestrian Shopping Street. The rectangular form of the glass-clad towers is interrupted by a series of metal fins that add a hint of complexity to their appearance and reduce glare for the interior office spaces. Tower 1 features a crown that incrementally sets back by several metres at three points. Like many towers that break the 400-metre barrier, reduced floor plate sizes at the top are best suited for hotel uses—with guest willing to pay a premium for accommodations at such heights. At the base, a block-sized podium contains a mega mall of 230,000 square metres. Changsha IFS Tower 1 also has 700 metres of retail street frontage, greater than that of its likeness, Harbour City. The retail mall, among the largest in Changsha an
Building data from Wikidata (CC0); heights normalised. Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).