The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has recently announced the winners of the 2025 CTBUH Annual Awards – Awards of Excellence. As the world’s leading authority on tall buildings, CTBUH’s annual awards are widely regarded as the “Oscars of the skyscraper industry.” Through establishing height measurement standards, maintaining the global skyscraper database, and granting international awards, CTBUH aims to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and urban environments.
This year, Award of Excellence winners span more than 20 countries and regions worldwide and cover over 20 award categories, with a total of 92 projects receiving Awards of Excellence. Among them, four exemplary projects in China featuring Warmframe Technology were honored with awards including Best Tall Building, Best Structure, and Best Façade. All awarded projects will compete for the Overall Category Winners, to be announced at the CTBUH International Conference on October 8 this year, where the official award ceremony will also take place. Congratulations to the owners and project teams.
Shanghai Yunjishangpu Tower (Buro Ole Scheeren / Tishman)
As a new 280-meter-tall landmark in Shanghai’s Yangpu District, Yunjishangpu Tower overturns conventional office tower design through its “offset core” structural concept. Elevators and service shafts are relocated outside the main building envelope, fully liberating interior space and creating column-free, flexible floor plates. This configuration represents only about 3% of the world’s 500 tallest buildings. The primary façade challenge lies in maintaining thermal continuity around the exposed vertical shafts.
By integrating the Warmframe high-performance façade insulation blanket system within the service shaft curtain walls at height, the project preserves the transparency of its iconic façade while effectively interrupting thermal bridges formed by metal framing, significantly reducing winter heat loss risks. The project received the 2025 Best Tall Building Award (200–299 m).
“Gate of Science” Twin Towers, Shanghai Zhangjiang (Gensler / Zhangjiang Hi-Tech)
These 320-meter-tall supertall twin towers employ a parametric curtain wall design inspired by rippling water patterns of Jiangnan’s canal towns. The staggered unitized glass façade creates dynamic light and shadow effects, but the extensive glazing also introduces challenges related to solar heat gain in summer.
To achieve China’s Green Building Three-Star rating, the project team installed Warmframe high-performance insulation blankets within the curtain wall cavities, combined with photovoltaic glass and self-shading louvers to form a composite energy-saving envelope. The overall façade U-value was reduced to below 1.0 W/(㎡·K), delivering over 30% energy savings compared with conventional curtain wall systems. The project was awarded the 2025 Best Tall Building Award (300 m and above).
China Resources CCBD “Tree of Life”Xi’an (Heatherwick Studio / China Resources Land)
Centered on a 57-meter-tall vertical park known as the “Tree of Life,” Thomas Heatherwick’s design pays homage to Xi’an’s ceramic heritage through the use of 100,000 handcrafted ceramic panels. The curved ceramic façade features complex nodes that are prone to thermal bridging, while the differing thermal expansion properties of clay panels and metal supports further increase technical complexity.
The project adopted customized Warmframe high-performance façade insulation blankets to form a continuous thermal layer behind the ceramic panels, in combination with thermally broken anchors. This solution effectively mitigated condensation risks at complex interfaces. As a result, the façade system meets the energy performance requirements of LEED Gold and BREEAM Four-Star certifications while preserving the handcrafted glazed aesthetic. The project received the 2025 Best Structure Award.
China Merchants Bank Headquarters, Shenzhen (Foster + Partners / China Merchants Bank)
Inspired by China’s karst mountain landscapes, Foster + Partners developed a stacked volumetric form for the headquarters tower. The south façade features triangular bay window systems that expand views but pose significant air-tightness challenges due to complex geometric joints.
The project innovatively applied Warmframe high-performance façade insulation blankets as an internal lining within bay window units, achieving seamless thermal interruption at joint interfaces. Combined with the natural ventilation benefits enabled by the offset core configuration, the building’s overall energy consumption was reduced by 42% compared with ASHRAE benchmarks, contributing to the achievement of China’s highest Green Building Three-Star certification. The project received the 2025 Best Façade Award.
As an authoritative organization in the field of tall buildings, CTBUH’s evaluation criteria extend beyond height and aesthetics to place increasing emphasis on sustainability and energy performance. While pursuing distinctive architectural forms and advanced functionality, contemporary high-rise buildings commonly face challenges related to façade thermal performance, particularly thermal bridging and insulation continuity.
Warmframe’s high-performance façade insulation blanket represents an innovative technical solution to these shared industry challenges. By effectively interrupting thermal bridges and significantly improving thermal insulation performance—such as reducing overall façade U-values—the technology provides a practical pathway to enhancing the energy efficiency of high-rise curtain wall systems. Its application plays an important role in advancing green, low-carbon objectives across the building industry.