The foundations and below-ground works of the new Taikang Financial Centre in Wuhan completed this week. Construction of the three towers within the development has now. Founded in 1996, Taikang Insurance Group has grown to become one of the largest providers of insurance, asset management, health and elderly care in China.

The new Taikang Financial Centre will be a centre of excellence, developing effective systems and networks that will provide a new ecosystem of support for people of all ages across China. Using the new technologies developed within the Taikang Financial Centre, the group will continue its commitment to supporting community development, healthcare, education and well-being throughout the country.

Informed by Wuhan’s position as a central hub of China’s information and transport networks, Taikang Financial Centre’s design is a circular composition of three interconnected towers within the Hankou Riverside Business District's urban masterplan that integrates the Yangtze River park and wetlands to the east as well as the city’s new Central Park to the south. These new public parks are integral to Wuhan’s sponge city programme that enables the natural storage and infiltration of rainwater to slow its release and aid flood prevention while also facilitating its reuse.

With an adjacent station on Line 1 of the city’s metro network, the centre’s Tower One faces the city while Tower Two faces the river and Tower Three offers views of the park. A garden courtyard that extends vertically as an urban canyon between the three towers. Further public spaces and amenities are located on skybridges connecting the towers at higher floors that includes the rooftop garden terrace providing panoramic views across the city and Yangtze River valley. 

Moving upwards from the shared central courtyards at ground level to the centre’s skybridge terraces and rooftop gardens that surround its central canyon, the design creates a kaleidoscope of the city in a series of interwoven public spaces over many levels.

Targeting LEED Gold certification from the US Green Building Council, the circular composition of the Taikang Financial Centre’s three towers provides self-shading throughout the day. External fins with a tapered profiles extend from each glazing mullion for additional façade shading whilst maintaining unobstructed views of the city. The centre’s high-performance envelope ensures natural daylighting throughout each floor while reducing the centre’s heating and cooling requirements. MEP systems have also designed to reduce emissions and energy consumption via smart monitoring and control systems using high-efficiency pumps, fans, boilers and chillers as well as waste heat recovery from the exhaust air. Water consumption is reduced with low flow-rate fixtures and the planting of native drought-tolerant vegetation while the development’s rainwater management system is integrated within the district’s sponge city programme.