Guohua Finance Center
Exploring a New Urban Vernacular through Generative Design
Planetworks was tasked with designing a mixed-use development near Shanghai’s historic quarter that would serve both its occupants and the surrounding community. To balance leasing efficiency and skyline views with solar and glare constraints, we turned to generative design — parametric, data-driven design tools — delivering a win-win for both developer and the neighborhood.
The Challenge
Shanghai enforces some of the strictest development codes in the world, particularly near residential areas. “Right-to-light” laws require that existing homes receive at least two hours of direct sunlight each day, forcing new buildings into a prescribed solar envelope that often conflicts with a developer’s goals for efficient floor plates and marketable skyline views.
The complexity was compounded by glare mitigation requirements which further limited the use of glass on the façade, while the presence of the historic Song House next door demanded sensitivity to context. Together these constraints created a tangle of competing objectives — one that could not be resolved by intuition-led design alone.
Generative Design
To resolve these constraints, we turned to generative design — a data-driven design method that uses algorithms to explore thousands of possibilities against defined rules. Using Rhino and the Galapagos evolutionary solver, we modeled countless variations of the building massing, testing each against the solar envelope while also optimizing for skyline views.
The most successful forms fit tightly within the solar envelope yet angled in ways that required applied experience and architectural judgment to rationalize the top-performing options — refining the floor plates and leasing depths into an efficient, market-ready plan.
We applied a similar targeted process to the facade as a type of “urban camouflage” which adapts to its environment, much like a chameleon. Just as the building’s form evolved to meet light and view constraints, its skin needed to respond to the historic character of the neighborhood. Drawing from the off-white Shanghai render and copper-toned rooftops of the surrounding quarter, the palette grounds the project in place while projecting a contemporary identity. To balance glare requirements, the facade’s apertures behave like a chameleon’s shifting skin: solid where neighboring towers are closest, translucent where views open to the skyline.
Results
For occupants, the effect is tangible — greater privacy and reduced glare where the building faces residences, and expansive vistas where it looks outward across the city. This adaptive balance was achieved through ten panel types, blended in a calibrated gradient from more solid to more transparent. The system delivered design precision without construction complexity, ensuring compliance with codes while enhancing the daily experience of those inside. The result is an architecture that is not only efficient and responsive, but one that makes its performance felt directly by the people who inhabit it.
An Architecture of Algorithms and Atmosphere
Generative design gave us the ability to explore thousands of possibilities, but it did not provide the answers alone. The computer revealed unexpected forms and façade logics; our role was to interpret, refine, and shape them into an architecture that could serve people, respect its context, and perform for the planet. The result is a building that merges algorithmic precision with atmospheric experience — proof that data-driven tools, guided by human craft, can create places that are both performative and deeply humane.
