Some call it the "bottle opener" building, but the architects aimed for great serenity and grace in the chaotic Lujiazui skyline. Nancy Zhang takes a look at the world's third-tallest skyscraper Shanghai planners like things big and splendid. So they decided to build the Shanghai World Financial Center in Pudong rising to 492 meters, so far the world's third-tallest building.

For better or worse, sheer height gives buildings landmark status. And the SWFC certainly is a 101-story stunner, notable for a huge trapezoidal opening at the top (the "bottle opener") and scimitar-like curved sides.

It seems to have a shape-shifting quality. Curved and covered entirely in glass, the US$1 billion building that opened in August reflects the sky by day and the lights of Pudong by night. Architects aimed for "a great serenity," grace and elegance.

The statistics: At 492 meters, it surpasses Jin Mao Tower, now the second-tallest building in Shanghai. It has the world's highest observation deck at 474 meters, floor space of 381,600 square meters, 64 elevators and escalators. Rent is US$3 per square meter per day - the most expensive in town.

It was funded by Japanese developer Minoru Mori and took 11 years to complete. It was halted twice, once during the Asian financial crisis, and again for a redesign to make it taller.

Records come and go, and next year the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates will hold the record for both occupied and unoccupied buildings - over 800 meters.

Fortunately, the architectural design of the SWFC is also a league above the rest.

The building's strongest claim to fame is its all-surpassing height. It is rich in symbolism. Its height represents the success of Shanghai's development and confidence in the future.

When it was commissioned by the Shanghai Municipal Government in 1993, the financial center was planned to be the tallest building in the world. Mori brought in veteran skyscraper architects, the American firm Kohn Pedersen Foxx. KPF designed the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, DC, the Grand Hyatt Tokyo, and Plaza 66 in Shanghai.

Despite their high-profile portfolio, KPF brings a surprisingly low-key ideology to the art of building highrises.

"Our firm is characterized by our efforts to make a building fit with its surroundings. We hope the building is not recognized as a KPF building, but as one that's right for Shanghai," says architect Eugene Kohn, one of the founders.

The building is planted in Lujiazui, which is saturated with around 80 big-budget buildings of multiple architectural styles. The 88-story Jin Mao Tower, evocative of a complicated pagoda, is right next door. KPF chose to emphasize simplicity.

"Pudong ... (is) a visually chaotic, competitive environment ... The SWFC was to be largest building, so we wanted it to have a great serenity, to be graceful and elegant rather than active," says William Pedersen, chief architect and KPF cofounder.

To the architects, height was not important. The SWFC, dramatically simple in appearance, is rich in Chinese symbolism.

The original circular opening at the top represented a traditional Chinese moon gate - a circular gate in the walls of a rectangular garden. Pedersen calls a tall building "a link between the earth and the sky, so what better place to have a moon gate than where you can see the real moon through it?"

That design didn't last long. Back in 1995 when Pedersen first pitched the design to the Lujiazui Development Corp, a judge told him cryptically: "Perhaps this building is acceptable, but certainly not desirable."

Only a month later when he read a Hong Kong magazine did he realize that the moon gate somewhat resembled the rising sun of the Japanese flag.

KPF compromised by putting a bridge across the lower half of the circular opening, then changed it to a trapezoid.

As it turned out, the trapezoid was easier and cheaper to build. It created a spectacular, glass-floored observation deck that would not have been possible with the original design.

For the body of the building, the architects chose the Chinese symbol for earth, a square, and sky, a circle. It's a common misconception that the original moon gate opening was the "sky" symbol.

Unlike other buildings, such as the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai Grand Theater, which literally places a circle on top of a square, the SWFC combines the two shapes much more subtly.

With 70 floors dedicated to offices, 14 to hotel space, and the rest to entertainment and observation decks, the building had three types of space requirements. While offices ideally require large floor space shaped like a square doughnut, with the core cut out for elevators, a hotel requires a thinner rectangular shape for a central corridor opening onto small rooms.

"To get the ideal dimensions for both offices and hotels, we placed a rectangle shape diagonally across a square base, so that the building tapered to a thin ridge at the top. The heavy base tapering to a light rooftop dramatizes the tall building as a link between the earth and the sky. We also cut circular arcs into the building to create the tapering, which represents a cosmic arc, the circular symbol for the sky."

The curve creates different-sized offices.

"With smaller floor space further up, it caters to the habits of different clients," says Kohn. "For example, Americans like bigger offices, whereas Europeans prefer smaller ones."

The aesthetic symbolism is practical as well. Pedersen designed the smooth, glass-covered exterior with practical energy efficiency in mind.

"We wanted to reduce the energy consumed by the materials used in the building - what we call embodied energy. Jin Mao Tower, for example, has hundreds of corners, tremendous amount of texture which all requires energy to create. Our building is by contrast powerful in its shape but very economical in its use of material."

Having designed more than 30 projects in China, Pedersen is proudest of the Shanghai World Financial Center.

"I'm over 70 and at the end of my career. I've never had an opportunity to design something like this - very few architects get that opportunity. Not so much because of the height, but in the way it represents the future of highrises. It's a city within a city, and when you're in it you have almost everything available to you. It's an example of what tall buildings can be."

Despite its elegance, reviews by city residents are somewhat unflattering. While the Jin Mao Tower is recognizably inspired by a pagoda, the trapezoidal opening at the top of the SWFC has been compared to a humble bottle opener on the grand skyline.

The architects laugh, a bit awkwardly. "Well, that wasn't the intention," says Kohn.

Shanghai's Lujiazui skyline is not finished yet. The Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center are two in a planned trio of super-tall structures. The third tower is planned to be 80 meters taller than the SWFC. Construction has not started and completion depends on the economy.

China, and Asia in particular, has already overtaken New York as home of skyscrapers.

"It makes sense with urbanization to build tall and on top of subway lines so people can get to the building," says Pedersen. "It's happening all over Asia, and it will happen all over the world. It's the most energy-efficient way."

Energy efficiency aside, what does highrise living mean for lifestyles and human communities?

"From our perspective, Asians are more comfortable with highrises than almost any other cultural group," says Pedersen. "My sense is that Asians feel comfortable living in cities because of their family structure - they are used to the give and take of living densely together."