The futuristic 71-storey Pearl River Tower now rising 310 metres into the skyline above Guangdong will offer tenants 'green' credentials and an address that aims to become known as the world's most environmentally friendly office building when it opens next year.
Designed with maximum energy conservation in mind as the headquarters of Guangzhou Tobacco (a unit of state-owned China National Tobacco Corp), the building includes wind turbines and solar energy-capturing photovoltaic cells, underfoot ventilation, internally ventilated double-wall facades, external solar shading devices, and radiant heating and cooling ceilings.
Hu Baiju, the chief engineer of the development, said the design would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 3,000 tonnes a year.
Leasing of the skyscraper, which has a gross floor area of 210,000 square metres and is in Zhujiang New Town, will begin soon, according to Guangzhou Pearl River Tower Properties, the unit set up by China National Tobacco to manage the development.
The tobacco firm will have to pay rent to its subsidiary if it moves into the building.
Huang Huiyong, the vice-general manager of Guangzhou Pearl River Tower Properties, said: 'The tobacco company, if it moves into the building in the future, will only be one of the tenants.'
He did not elaborate on what had motivated a tobacco firm to build China's most ambitious green building.