The tallest building in China and the world's second-tallest building was named best new skyscraper by a panel of international architecture experts. The prize goes to the Shanghai Tower, which beat more than 300 skyscrapers from around the world that soared at least 100 meters in height and which were completed in 2015.

The Shanghai Tower was named the best skyscraper in the world. Image: Gensler ArchitectsThe 632-meter tall Shanghai Tower was chosen as the year's best new skyscraper by Emporis, a German-based company that compiles a database of international building and construction projects. It has given away the annual Emporis Skyscraper Award since 2000. The jury panel chose the tower, designed by Gensler Architects, based on factors including design aesthetics, energy efficiency, and sustainability concepts.

The tower boasts a number of firsts from the concrete foundation to the soaring, twisting top.

The building required the largest-ever cement pour to fill the foundation's 18-ft concrete slab at its core. It took 61 hours of continuous pouring to deposit 21,000 cubic meters of the material.

The tower boasts some of the world's fastest elevators, which can transport people at a speed of 20 meters per second, and offers panoramas from the world's highest viewing platform that measures 561 meters in height.

But these "biggest-and-best" attributes might be outshone by the fact that the Shanghai building is also one of the worlds' greenest structures.

The tower has been awarded a China Green Building Three Star rating and a LEED Platinum Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The skyscraper, according to the designers, incorporates 43 different sustainable technologies, including renewable energy sources, landscaping to help cool the building, and a spiral cylindrical shape that helps improve the buildings' wind resistance and survive Shanghai's typhoon season.

It utilizes a 2,130-kW natural gas-fired cogeneration system onsite that will provide electricity and heat energy. It uses more than 200 wind turbines to generate around 10% of its electricity needs. These and other technologies have allowed the building to improve the buildings energy consumption by 21%, cut its carbon footprint by an estimated 37,000 metric tons yearly, and save $58 million in material costs.

In addition, the designers and engineers relied on energy-efficient technology to help meet sustainability goals. This technology included 6,700 water control valves, which the supplier, Danfoss, said is the largest order of valves it has received for a single building. The valves contribute to the efficiency of the buildings HVAC systems by controlling the balance of water flow in the building's kilometers-long piping system. The company also supplied 660 variable speed drives that will help ensure that the HVAC system's pumps, compressors and fans will never run faster than is necessary to meet specified temperatures.