The race to the top of the world’s skies is continuing this year, with China now boasting the world’s fifth-tallest Skyscraper to go with the second-tallest skyscraper it has already built.

If you ever thought there was not enough space in the air above the planet for yet more towering structures, think again: China is already continuing the race to the top of the world’s skies in 2017, constructing the world’s fifth-largest skyscraper.

The building towers a staggering 530 metres up from the ground, a feat of architecture conceived by designers Kohn Pedersen Fox and developed by New World Development Company. The firm has now officially finished construction on the 1,739-foot building, which is located in Guangzhou. Called the CTF Finance Center, the tower overlooks the Pearl River and is the country’s second tallest building, only 100 metres behind the Shanghai Tower – and at 632 metres, that is already world’s second-tallest skyscraper.

The CTF Finance Centre managed to complete just in time to claim the title for the tallest tower to complete in 2016, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), which has since confirmed it as the world’s fifth biggest skyscraper.

The mixed-use building spans an impressive 111 stories, including offices, a conference centre, hotel and an underground shopping centre that links to public transport. At the top, of course, is a viewing deck for looking across the city.

The glass-clad building has four notches on its exterior to denote its different functions, notes Dezeen, while the whole thing is supported by eight concrete columns, four levels of steel outriggers and six dobule-layer belt trusses. Around the exterior are vertical terracotta mullions as a tribute to traditional Chinese architecture – something that has led to the CTBUH hailing it as the “tallest application of terracotta in the world”.

The building is the tallest of three supertall buildings in the city, looming over the Guangzhou International Finance Center and the Canton Tower. Indeed, China is rapidly becoming one of the tallest countries in the world, thanks to its extravagant, excessively vertical tasts in buildings: the country’s skyscrapers made up two-thirds of all buildings completed last year over 200 metres in height.

Photo: KPF