The buildings which can beat Tallest Building in the world
The buildings which can beat
Tallest Building in the world
The
Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest tower in the world, with 2716.5-feet of aluminum
and steel, and its 26,000 hand-cut glass panels. The Burj Khalifa blows away
the next-nearest skyscraper, which is Taiwan's 1670-foot Taipei 101, and the
building has even surpassed ultra-tall, ground-cable-supported radio antennas.
Architects'
vertical leapfrogging, however, isn't likely to stop at the Burj Khalifa. While
the tower will be a tough one to beat, it is likely to remain at the pinnacle
for only about another half-dozen years. Developers around the world have
proposed numerous new skyscrapers. Some projects have leapt off the drawing
boards, though plans for many record-breaking towers have been scuttled because
of the global economic spasms of the past couple years. (The original name of
the Burj Khalifa, the Burj Dubai, was changed at the last minute to recognize
United Arab Emirates president Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who as emir
of Abu Dhabi gave struggling Dubai a $10 billion bailout last month.)
So
what buildings could be the next to rise up and steal the Burj Khalifa's crown?
Here are eight future contenders.
1. Burj Mubarak al Kabir
Location
/// Madinat Al Hareer (City of Silk), Kuwait
Projected
Height /// 3284 ft
(Photograph
by Eric Kuhne and Associates)
This
mammoth structure will rise to exactly 3284 feet, or 1001 meters. The height,
in meters, is an allusion to the classic collection of Middle Eastern and South
Asian folk tales One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, says London-based
architect Eric Kuhne, whose firm designed the tower. To break the kilometer-high
mark (which is 3281 feet), the $7 billion-plus Mubarak al Kabir will have three
interlocked towers that support the overall structure. These towers, or
"blades," pinwheel about a triangular central shaft that holds
elevators and mechanical equipment. Each blade twists 45 degrees as it rises,
for strength, and expands slightly at the top. This Kuwaiti landmark will
therefore place more mass and usable space near its zenith compared to other
towers, says Kuhne, to avoid the structure having too thin and flexible a tip.
To dissipate high-altitude, tower-buffeting gales that could blow at 150 miles
per hour, the Mubarak al Kabir will see the first architectural deployment of
vertical ailerons—the normally horizontal flaps airline passengers see on a
plane's trailing wing edge that help counter wind disturbances. "They will
look like continuous ribbons running vertically along the six leading edges of
the three blades," Kuhne says. "As [the ailerons] are constantly
moving, and catching the sun while they adjust, sunlight will glint off their
surfaces. It will add a gentle rippling reflection to the edges of the blades
that will add dynamic sparkle to the tower," Kuhne says. The Burj Mubarak
has a projected completion date of 2016.
2.1 Dubai
Location /// Dubai, United Arab
Emirates
Projected Height /// Three towers:
1969 ft, 2625 ft and 3281 ft
Miapolis
(Photograph
by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture)
Building
higher also means building wider. That is why the 3280-foot 1 Dubai will be
built with three towers. "What tends to happen is as these buildings get
taller, the base needs to be wider, but it gets to the point that it's just too
wide to be a single building and you start to pull things apart or separate
them," says Peter Weismantle, director of supertall building technology at
Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture. The smallest tower of 1 Dubai will
come in at around 1970 feet and the tallest at about 3280. All three emerge
from a tripedal base architects call the saddle. A canal will flow between 1
Dubai's three legs, letting boats sail underneath. Further support for the
towers comes from the connecting skybridges where tower residents will be able
to congregate. Designers envision building the skybridges at the saddle and
then using a jacking mechanism to hoist them into place. Clearing the site for
the project began in 2008 but has since been put on hold thanks to the state of
the world economy. If and when construction begins in earnest, 1 Dubai will
take somewhere between seven and 10 years to complete.
3.Miapolis
Location /// Miami, USA
Projected Height /// 3000 to 3281
ft
Miapolis
(Photograph
by Kobi Karp/Thornton Tomasetti/EDSA/Miapolis)
The
160-story Miapolis will rise nearly 3300 feet on Watson Island in Biscayne Bay,
just west of Miami Beach and east of downtown Miami. The $22 billion Miapolis
complex will host an indoor amusement park, luxury condos and apartments,
office space, a performing arts center, and a marina. With Miapolis, planners
hope to demonstrate the potential economic benefits of high-profile real
estate: developers say it could bring in nearly a billion in annual tax revenue
and pump over twice that into the local economy as visitors flock to South
Florida's newest attraction. For now, the project remains on the drawing board
at architectural firm Kobi Karp, and there is no shortage of artist's
impressions of the many facets of Miapolis. The designers want the complex to
be environmentally responsible and intend to have the building receive a LEED
Platinum rating by the U.S. Green Buildings Council. Further information about
Miapolis is scant for now as developers are tight-lipped about the project,
though lead developer Guillermo Socarras says he will be announcing new details
in a few weeks. Meanwhile, Socarras is in talks with the Federal Aviation
Administration about getting clearance on Miapolis' soaring height, given the
proposed site's proximity to Miami International Airport.
4.Nakheel Tower
Location /// Dubai, United Arab
Emirates
Projected Height /// 3281 to 4593
ft
Nakheel
Tower
(Photograph
by Woods Bagot / Nakheel Harbour & Tower)
This
cylindrical megatower has eight spires that come to a point at the building's
peak. Though an official target height has not been revealed, the Nakheel Tower
is likely to crest 3280 feet. Its designers, the international firm Woods
Bagot, aim for the Nakheel Tower to be the first true realization of a vertical
city. Over 15,000 people will live, work and socialize in this spire with a
ground footprint the size of a New York City square block. The placement of
support columns is based on a radially symmetrical 16-point star pattern and is
inspired by Arabic patternmaking. The pattern makes engineering sense because a
symmetrical building bears the load evenly among its structural units,
according to a 2009 case study on the Nakheel Tower published in the journal of
the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The trickiest part about
designing the Nakheel Tower, according to the study, was dealing with so-called
vortex shedding from winds, which can cause damaging vibrations. Instead of
funneling wind around its metal and glass skin, the Nakheel Tower takes the
uncommon approach of having large gaps in the midst of the building, with a
double set of slots that let gales pass right through. Every 25 floors or so,
big disk-like skybridges bind the towers together and serve as village squares
for high-rise dwellers, as in 1 Dubai. Also as in 1 Dubai, the Nakheel Tower's
completion date has been held up because of unfavorable market conditions,
though some early construction work did get underway before the stall. A
completion date has not been announced and the project may never resume.
5.Sky City 1000
Location /// Tokyo, Japan
Projected Height /// 3281 ft
Sky
City 1000
(Photograph
by Takenaka Corporation)
The
Takenake Corporation proposed Sky City 1000 back in 1989 to tackle Tokyo
population-density problems. Tokyo-like congestion prompts a demand for green
space and office space that vastly exceeds supply, and also introduces a host
of environmental and social issues, from pollution to uncomfortably packed
commuter trains. Takenake's solution: Build up—way up—and place green spaces in
the sky. "The feature of our proposal was making artificial land in the
air," says Masato Ujigawa, manager of the engineering department at
Takenaka. To achieve this, Takenake will first start with a base that is 1300
feet per side, a footprint that equates to several city blocks (Burj Khalifa's
triangular footprint is just 300 feet or so). Then, in accordance with its
name, Sky City 1000 will rise a full thousand meters (3281 feet), consisting of
14 levels stacked on top of one another. Each level will act as its own
"town," with a park-like plaza area in its center ringed by
residences, schools and businesses. The structure would hold 10,000 homes and
be used in some capacity by 130,000 people. Construction has not begun on Sky
City 1000 since Japan's population has begun shrinking as of 2005, Ujigawa
says. Nevertheless, Ujigawa says that ideas originally espoused by the Sky City
1000 project have since been used in more conventional construction. These
include concrete reinforced with carbon fibers instead of iron to cut down on
weight, and self-contained water-service systems in buildings that treat sewage
and reclaim water.
6.Bionic Tower
Location /// (Originally Proposed
For) Shanghai, China
Projected Height /// 4029 ft
Sky
City 1000
(Photograph
by Eloy Celaya)
The
roughly $15 billion Bionic Tower will break from traditional engineering
principles, introducing radical design elements for the 4029-foot-tall tower,
according to Eloy Celaya, an architect with ECE Arquitecturas and one of three
principal Spanish designers of the Bionic Tower. Instead of vertical
foundations, Celaya envisions a "floating foundation" similar to a
tree's roots, with a tangle of many hundreds of anchors in the ground. For
supportive, criscrossing trusses, the Bionic Tower will draw inspiration from
bird bones, which are light and hollow. The twelve stacked neighborhoods within
this vertical megalopolis will receive water, energy and other supplies by
means of 92 vertical columns (much like the xylem and phloem transport systems
in vascular plants), which will double as structural supports. Though the
concept for the Bionic Tower was originally pitched to Shanghai, China about a
decade ago, at present the prospects for this tower being erected someday are
iffy.
7.Kingdom Tower
Location /// Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Projected Height /// 3281-plus ft
Sky
City 1000
This
is a photo of the existing Kingdom Centre in Riyadh. Images of the Kingdom
Tower in Jeddah are not yet publicly available. (Photograph by Ameen Mohammad)
This
skyscraper was initially billed as the Mile-High Tower in 2008, though the
record-setting height ambitions have since been cut by nearly 2000 feet.
Updated design plans have not yet been revealed for the Kingdom Tower, but the
winner of a design contest between Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Adrian
Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture should be announced in a few weeks. Marshall
Gerometta, of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the group that
certifies supertall building heights, says that the Kingdom Tower probably is
the best bet in the near term to overtake the Burj Khalifa. Funding appears
secured for this building, which will be the centerpiece of a new $27 billion
planned urban area in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, overseen and financed by the
Kingdom Holding Company. The first mile-high setup called for the creation of
two stabilizing mini-towers to support the main tower. The mini-towers, at
nearly 1000 feet each, about the height of the Eiffel Tower, will be dwarfed by
the central spire. Many supertall building tops have an "expected"
lateral movement of 10 feet or so, and to mitigate this swaying effect, a massive,
computer-controlled object called a damper will be placed within the mile-high
structure. What the eventual building will look like and how it will be
engineered remain open questions, though Gerometta says he heard the Kingdom
Tower was going to represent "a new generation of skyscrapers."
8.Millennium Challenge Tower
Location /// TBD
Projected Height /// 6076 ft
Kingdom
Tower
(Photograph
by Omero Marchetti Workshop)
This
concept tower has also been referred to as the Al Jaber Tower in accordance
with its possible placement in Kuwait. This tower would soar to a full nautical
mile, 1852 meters, or over 6000 feet. Italian architect Omero Marchetti, the
founder of the Millennium Challenge 1852 project, says "to reach [a marine
mile] you cannot use concrete, orthogonal grids, traditional systems, mortars,
[and] cranes." The building would dispense with right angles and
perpendicular planes as these structural engineering norms make large
quantities of cast iron and concrete "follow an unnatural and twisted
geometry," Marchetti says. He has instead looked to the hexagonal matrices
of snowflakes, which as structurally supported objects combine high volume with
low weight. Marchetti says that currently three groups of investors in
different parts of the world are interested in making the Millennium Challenge
Tower a reality, a step he believes is necessary to make a sustainable planet.
"I think we have not a second chance, or if you prefer, we have not a
second planet," Marchetti says. "I tell you that this is the future,
which is up to us to capture now."
About Author:
I am Thomas Britto here to share my experiences in the civil engineering field to all my readers.Today many students are struggling to buy books at high prices. So I decided to start a blog and share my experience and knowledge with all my readers.
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