A research was carried out on the typical commercial building model definition within the Pearl River Delta region, South China. As a first step, drawings of over 200 actual commercial buildings located in this area were collected. The basic information, including the size, shape, orientation, envelope thermal parameters as well as the inside spatial distribution of these buildings were statistically analyzed. A k-means clustering analysis was applied on different building design factors to determine the most representative value. Three different kinds of typical commercial building floor models were created based on the statistical and analytical results. With different combinations of the building floors, a series of typical commercial building models could be defined. The purpose of this study is to establish a unified typical commercial building model for the Pearl River Delta region, thereby providing a standard for the simulation research of building performance and indoor environment quality. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.