Monday October 11, 2004 Tallest building
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Source: MIT's Magazine of Innovation Technology Review July/August 2004. There is a new holder of the record of worlds tallest building. That's Taipei 101. Looking like somebodies idea of a paper-chain of pagodas, and with occupation scheduled for the Fall of 2004 (which presumably is about now), it's 508 metres high. |
Previous holders of the tallest building record include the Empire Estate building, and the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Shanghai World Financial Trade Center (currently under construction) is scheduled to come in at 492 metres.
There are two proposed projects that might make the Taipei 101 record short-lived. The Freedom Tower in New York (541 metres) and the Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (height estimates ranging from 560 to 705 metres depending what you read).
To see more on the worlds top ten tallest buildings, check here.
After 9/11, part of me is sceptical about the sense of building such high structures, but the article goes on to say
And basic structural improvements fortify these buildings. Unlike the World Trade Center, the new skyscrapers have hardened-concrete cores that house elevators and stairways, better protecting potential escapees from fire and blast damage.
This feels like the architectural equivalent of the reasoning behind why some people take Zantac, then eat a meal that they know will disagree with them.
[Technorati Tag: Architecture]
( Oct 11 2004, 06:59:26 AM PDT ) [Listen] Permalink Comments [3]
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For another interesting fact about Taipei 101, see the last paragraph of my weblog on the explosion of the LCD business, where I quote a report by WSJ regarding an LCD factory that will consume 140,000 tons of steel: "That's nearly twice as much of it as Taipei 101, the world's tallest skyscraper that opened last year in the capital city."
Posted by M. Mortazavi on October 11, 2004 at 02:26 PM PDT #
Posted by Steven Baker on October 11, 2004 at 04:53 PM PDT #
Posted by Rich Burridge on October 11, 2004 at 08:38 PM PDT #