With the global proliferation of the international style in high-rise design since the 1930s, towers have widely been designed as acontextual. A tower form in New York City could be designed in the same way as a tower form in Dubai. Climate, context, and local culture were rarely considered as architecture globalized. This created a placeless way of designing that led to a rebellion by Postmodernists that, in many ways, is still being fought.

Shanghai Jin Mao rejects this acontextual design approach by allowing the tower forms and placement to result from zoning constraints, solar envelope and view studies. Chinese zoning codes tend to push tower masses to the center of a given site. For this site, the design pushes the tower elements to the edge of the setback requirements, creating a central, communal space at the heart of the site.

The towers themselves have façades that react to existing structures on the surrounding blocks. The outcome is a pair of eccentrically shaped towers that allow the public into the center of the site while maximizing views and solar access. The tower is no longer an acontextual box that could be built anywhere; it is of its city, not just in it.

Internally, a system of stacked atria serve to connect adjacent floors to one another, creating a heightened sense of place for users and allowing for triple-height spaces throughout the stack. These atria aim to solve the problem of isolation caused by the repeated stacking of identical floors with no connection to one another, which is true of almost all towers built today. To further break down the sense of isolation, the tower summits have been given over to semi-public spaces, including outdoor and indoor spaces, café options, and green space throughout. This allows building users to experience a variety of spatial types high above the ground, and provides the user with a more varied experience throughout the project.