W hen it is completed in 2014, the Shanghai Tower in Shanghai’s Lujiazui commercial district will stretch 632 metres into the sky, making it the highest skyscraper in China and second highest in the world, behind only Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, an 828-metre office, hotel and residential building.

Designed with sustainability in mind by global architectural firm Gensler, Shanghai Tower has a spiralling series of nine cylindrical buildings stacked on top of each other that will include distinctive sky gardens, grade A office and retail space, as well as a luxury hotel and cultural venues, making the building a destination location for how more and more people wish to live, work and play. The public spaces created by the nine atrium sky gardens will include restaurants, cafés, coffee shops and convenience stores, and multiple ground-level entrances and a subway station beneath the building will allow for grea