How skyscrapers are built. Innovations in skyscraper construction

The world's tallest skyscraper is under construction April 18th, 2013

A couple of years ago, the Internet wrote about two projects of kilometer-long skyscrapers - the Nakheel tower in Dubai and the Mubarak al Kabir tower in Kuwait. However, the Dubai project was canceled due to the crisis of the Nakheel group, and the Kuwait project was stuck at the stage of approvals with the government.

However, a kilometer-high building will be erected on our planet in the near future. Back in 2011, it became known that Kingdom Holding, owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, signed a contract for the construction of the Kingdom Tower skyscraper in Saudi Arabia, the height of which will exceed 1000 meters.

The tallest skyscraper in the world - Kingdom Tower will rise more than 1 km. over the city of Jeddah, off the coast of the Red Sea. The tower will include hotels, residential apartments, offices and the world's highest observation deck. Adrian Smith was appointed as the chief architect of the project; he also designed the Burj Khalifa, as well as a number of other skyscrapers in the USA, China and the UAE (see his website). Amount Prisoner Kingdom Holding The contract is valued at $1.2 billion. Kingdom Tower will be the central and first stage of construction of the area Kingdom City, in the construction of which the Saudi prince is ready to invest a total of $20 billion.

Upon completion of construction, which will take 5 years, Kingdom Tower will surpass the Burj Khalifa, the current record holder, by at least 173 meters. Unique design feature Kingdom Tower There will be a sky terrace with a diameter of 30 meters, located at the 157th floor. In total, the tallest skyscraper in the world will have more than 200 floors. Construction is scheduled to begin in March 2012.

It is known that the main problem of such grandiose projects is their payback. At a press conference in Riyadh Prince Alwaleed assured that “this project will provide sustainable profits Kingdom Holding and its shareholders. We have been in discussions for four years to make it economically viable... This project is very feasible, and everyone is happy with its potential profitability.”

From the top of the tower, an area within a radius of about 140 km will be visible. It is assumed that the satellite city will consist mainly of luxury housing, hotels and business centers.

The architectural highlight will be a saucer balcony:

Regardless of which country this building is erected, the construction of an anthropogenic structure, more than 1 kilometer in height, is an important achievement, indicating considerable technical progress of all mankind.

Data project as well will be carried out by a joint organization from the companies EC Harris and Mace. The Guardian newspaper reports that it was this team that was involved in the construction of the tallest building in Western Europe - The Shard. This is the Shard Tower in London.

Directly ourselves construction will be handled by the Bin Laden Group, which is owned by the Osama bin Laden family. Invest construction of Kingdom Tower there will be a company called Jeddah Economic, which is controlled by Al Waleed bin Talal (Prince of Saudi Arabia). According to plan construction of the Kingdom Tower skyscraper should begin in the middle of this year and end in five years.

The project developer is the British company Hyder Consulting, and the architectural design will be carried out by Omrania & Associates from Saudi Arabia.

In April 2011, several news outlets reported that the construction plan had been accepted and the total cost of the structure would be about $30 billion.

The total cost of the project, including the satellite city, is expected to be US$20 billion (for comparison, the cost of constructing the tallest skyscraper at the moment, the Burj Khalifa, is US$1.5 billion), but the initial target was no more than US$10 billion.

Opened in 2010, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai has become the tallest building on the planet, a symbol of the triumph of engineering genius. But she is not destined to be a record holder for long. In different parts of the Earth, preparations are already in full swing for the construction of even more tall and complex skyscrapers, each of which has a height at least a kilometer.

Sky City. China

The Sky City Tower, although it will have a height of just under a kilometer, is likely to be the first to break the Burj Khalifa's record of 828 meters from the base to the top of the spire. The project involves the construction of a stepped 838-meter tower in the Chinese city of Changsha, on 202 floors of which there will be residential apartments, hotels, educational institutions, hospitals, offices, and shops.

But what is interesting is not so much the record height of Sky City, but the incredibly fast pace of construction of this building. The Broad Sustainable Building company, which will build it, is known throughout the world for its construction in just a few days. She plans to build this skyscraper in just 90 days plus 120 days of preparing the site for construction.

Construction of this skyscraper was supposed to begin in the summer of 2013, but has so far been postponed. True, preparatory work on the site where Sky City will grow is gradually underway.

Azerbaijan Tower. Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan also wants to build the world's tallest skyscraper. Growing revenues from the sale of oil and gas make it possible to implement very large social and infrastructure projects in this country, for example, the construction of the artificial Khazar Islands archipelago, the high-rise dominant of which will be a 1050-meter tower.

The construction of the archipelago began several years ago. Now the first public, residential and office buildings have grown on it, and the construction of the Azerbaijan Tower itself is expected to begin in 2015.

The project’s investors promise to put the Azerbaijan Tower building into operation in 2019, and to finish the entire artificial archipelago by 2020.

Kingdom Tower. Saudi Arabia

But still, most of the super-tall building projects are planned to be implemented in rich Arab countries. For example, Saudi Arabia lives with the idea of ​​​​building the tallest building in the world - they are haunted by the Burj Khalifa in the neighboring United Arab Emirates.

Construction of the Kingdom Tower skyscraper began in 2013 in the city of Jeddah. The height of this 167-story building will be just over 1000 meters. The exact data is still unknown - they will appear only after the facility is put into operation. Investors are afraid to make them public, fearing that someone will build a structure just a few meters higher and break the record.

Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece of the Kingdom Center mixed-use development, a $20 billion city of residential, office, hotel, retail and entertainment developments.

Madinat al-Hareer. Kuwait

They want to build a kilometer-long skyscraper in Kuwait. In June 2014, a building project called Madinat al-Hareer, whose height will be 1001 meters, was finally approved there.

The name "Madinat al-Hareer" translates as "Silk City", which alludes to Kuwait's glorious history as one of the world's silk trading centers. It was originally planned that this skyscraper would be built by 2016, but, apparently, this deadline will be postponed by at least two years.

Dubai City Tower. United Arab Emirates

Dubai is looking at the projects listed above with caution - they could break the height record of the Burj Dubai skyscraper in the very near future. But, on the other hand, in this city they don’t sit with their hands folded. There, work is in full swing to create a project for the world's first two-kilometer building.

The Eiffel Tower is used as the basis for the design of Dubai City Tower. But the dimensions of this Arab skyscraper will be seven and a half times larger than the French prototype. The height of the future tower will be 2400 meters.

The 400 floors of the Dubai City Tower will be connected not only by elevators, but also by a vertical train that can travel at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour and transport people from the bottom floor to the top in a matter of seconds.

Investors and authors of the Dubai City Tower skyscraper project expect it to be commissioned in 2025. The construction estimate has not been disclosed.

The availability of modern technologies and building materials provides architects all over the planet with the opportunity to constantly create bold designs for the tallest buildings in the world and turn them into reality. As a result, every year not only thousands of ordinary buildings, but also hundreds of skyscrapers appear in different countries. Some of them are typical, while others are so unique and recognizable that they bear the title of real architectural masterpieces. This article further presents a ranking of the 10 tallest buildings in the world in ascending order, taking into account the spiers and masts on their roofs.

"Nanjing Greenland"

This structure is also known as the “Zifeng Tower”, and it is located in the Chinese city of Nanjing. It consists of 89 floors and has a height of 450 meters. The commissioning of this skyscraper took place in 2010. Now the high-rise building, which is built in the shape of a triangle, has a mixed purpose. In particular, the lower floors house various shops and restaurants, while the upper floors are used as offices. The observation deck on level 72 offers beautiful views of the local area and the Yangtze River. The project was characterized by three conceptual positions - the aforementioned Chinese river, landscaped gardens and motifs of local mythology (dragons with iconography on columns).

Petronas Towers

In ninth position in the “World’s Tallest Building” ranking is the symbol of Kuala Lumpur (the capital of Malaysia) - the Twin Towers. The then Prime Minister of the state, Mahathir Mohamad, took an active part in their design. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​building them in the Islamic style, and more specifically, in the shape of eight-pointed stars. Both skyscrapers were built in 1998, consist of 88 floors and have a height of 451.9 meters. Inside they have conference rooms, art galleries and offices. The cost of the project reached 800 million US dollars. An interesting feature is that the structures were built on soft soil, so to strengthen it, piles about 100 meters deep were driven into the ground. This foundation is the most powerful on the planet to this day. A covered walkway has been constructed between the towers, one of the important purposes of which is fire safety.

International Commerce Center in Hong Kong

The height of this structure is 484 m. It consists of 118 floors and was put into operation in Kowloon in 2010. It mainly houses offices, shops and shopping centers. The top seventeen floors are occupied by a five-star hotel with a huge swimming pool on the last floor. Initially, it was planned to build a 102-story structure with a height of 574 meters, but due to the ban on building buildings higher than the surrounding mountains, the project was revised.

Shanghai World Financial Center

This representative of the "World's Tallest Building" rating was built in 2008. The World Financial Center in Shanghai is 492 meters high and consists of 101 floors. The skyscraper can boast of several prizes and awards as the best high-rise building in 2008 and the owner of the highest observation deck on the planet. The structure has passed the seismic stability test and is capable of withstanding an earthquake of up to magnitude seven. Moreover, even at the design stage, the architects provided three options for saving people during a fire. On every twelfth floor there is a protected area where you can hide from a fire or wait for rescuers.

"Taipei 101"

In sixth position on the list is a skyscraper from Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. The building consists of 101 floors and its height is 508 meters. The high-rise building, built in 2004, harmoniously combines ancient Chinese architecture and modern postmodernist traditions. Between the 87th and 91st floors there is a giant pendulum ball weighing 660 tons, which significantly reduces the likelihood of collapse in the event of an earthquake or hurricane. The structure, which is predominantly made of steel, aluminum and glass, is supported by 380 pillars made of concrete and extending underground to a depth of 80 meters.

CTF Finance Center

This high-rise building is located in the Chinese city of Guangzhou. It is also known as the International Financial Center. The skyscraper was built in the modernist style and was officially opened in 2010. As of today, it belongs to the category of “the tallest buildings under construction in the world”, since work on its construction is still ongoing. According to the architects' plans, they should be completed in 2016. Then it will be a whole complex consisting of two towers. The height of the completed western building, consisting of 103 floors, is now 441 meters. The complex also includes a 28-storey building, which is connected to the existing tower through a 4-storey common basement. The impact of air flow on the building is practically reduced to zero due to its streamlined shape.

Freedom Tower

Located in the American city of New York, the Freedom Tower is a skyscraper with a height of 541.3 meters. It should be noted that this is the tallest building in the world that is used exclusively for offices. Moreover, it is the largest high-rise building in the entire Western Hemisphere. The Freedom Tower became the main structure of the new World Trade Center, built to replace the complex destroyed by a terrorist attack in 2001. The building itself is 417 meters high up to the roof, and the remaining 124 meters fall on the 758-ton spire installed on it. On the outside it is lined with glass with a bluish tint, so it looks very beautiful.

Royal Clock Tower

The representative of Saudi Arabia closes the top three in the top tallest buildings in the world. The structure is located in the world famous city of Mecca and rises 601 meters. It consists of 102 floors and was officially opened in 2012. The skyscraper is the largest on the planet in terms of construction volume and boasts the highest clock on Earth. The mosque with the main Islamic shrine (Kaaba) is located directly across the road. The Royal Clock Tower houses a hotel that proudly bears the title of the highest in the world. It can accommodate about 100 thousand people at the same time.

Shanghai Tower

In second place in the “World’s Tallest Building” ranking is a super-tall structure called Shanghai Tower, the construction of which is currently being completed in the Chinese city of the same name. According to the project, its height will be 632 meters, and the number of floors will be 128. The cost of its implementation, according to preliminary estimates, will be 4.2 billion US dollars. It is expected that its official commissioning will take place in 2015, despite the fact that construction work started in 1993. The frame itself has already been erected, and now only finishing work is underway. The skyscraper is multifunctional and consists of nine separate vertical zones. The finishing is made using durable glass, which provides not only protection from external weather conditions for people, but also natural ventilation.

"Burj Khalifa"

The ranking of the tallest buildings in the world is confidently headed by the Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper from the city of Dubai (UAE). Its peak is at an altitude of 828 meters. The building was erected in 2010 and consists of 136 floors. In its shape it resembles a stalagmite. Initially, the facility was planned as a city within a city, which would have its own lawns, parks and boulevards. There are three separate entrances to the skyscraper. From the 1st floor to the 39th floor, there are offices and the Armani Hotel. This is not surprising, since the design of the hotel was personally developed by Giorgio Armani. On the site from levels 44 to 108, the architects built 900 apartments, and from 111 to 154 they equipped office space. There is an observation deck on the 124th floor.

Without a doubt, located in the city of Dubai, the tallest building in the world amazes the human imagination. Be that as it may, many high-rise buildings and dozens of skyscrapers appear on our planet every year. Many of them, even at the construction stage, can well be considered as potential competitors to the representatives of the above rating. A clear indication of this is the fact that some of them are already considered real architectural masterpieces and are recognizable throughout the planet. The most iconic objects that can already be safely included in the list of “The World’s Tallest Buildings of the Future” are considered to be Zhongnan Center (China), Lotte World Tower (South Korea) and World Tower (Mumbai).

The first of the mentioned structures, according to the project, should have a height of 730 meters and consist of 138 floors. If all work is completed according to schedule, then its official opening will take place in 2020. After this, the building will become the tallest in China. The project is estimated at $4.2 billion.

The height of the Lotte World Tower skyscraper in Seoul is expected to reach 556 meters. Its construction should be completed in 2016. The architects plan to place offices, shops and a hotel inside.

As for the World Tower, the building should welcome its first visitors next year. The tallest building now in Mumbai - the Imperial Tower - this structure will be almost twice as large. In addition to shopping centers and offices, it is planned to build approximately three hundred luxury apartments, the cost of which will start at $1.5 million.

In Miami (USA), they plan to build a building that will surpass the height of the current tallest skyscraper in the world - Burj Khalifa (formerly Burj Dubai) - by 147 meters. Let me remind you that in January of this year in the United Arab Emirates, the above-mentioned Burj Dubai was put into operation, and now the tower is the tallest building built in the world. If the project is approved, the height of the new tower in Miami will be 975 meters.

The Burj Dubai is undoubtedly an ultra-modern structure, a real architectural miracle, a new wonder of the world, if you like, which is looked at with admiration by millions of people around the world. The height of this skyscraper is 162 floors (828 meters), and the area of ​​the complex is 344,000 square meters.


However, the architects from the KOBI KARP studio, whose headquarters are located in Miami, look at the Burj Dubai not only with admiration, but also with professional interest and passion, since they have been working on the Miapolis tower project for many years. for your hometown.


The future potential record holder for tallest buildings will be located on Watson Island in the Miami city limits. By the way, the demand for real estate in Miami is constantly growing, as are the prices for apartments and villas. New York is not lagging behind in this regard - not everyone can afford to buy an apartment there.


"Miapolis" will have a height of 160 floors, on which there will be about 2,000,000 square meters of retail space, more than 1,000 apartments and almost 800 hotel rooms, more than 1,000,000 office spaces, as well as an amusement park, an observatory and, of course, a huge number of cafes and restaurants.

Of course, when creating such a grandiose building project, architects by default prescribe its maximum dependence on alternative energy sources. The Miapolis skyscraper will have millions of square meters of solar panels, many wind turbines, a modular green roof system, as well as a system for purifying stormwater and wastewater, desalination of salt water and many, many other “green” environmental technologies.

In addition, the new record-breaking tower will improve the economic situation in the already wealthy city of Miami. It is expected that the construction of this skyscraper will employ about 46,000 people, and once the building is put into operation, it will create about 35,000 jobs, and annually it will contribute $39 million to the city treasury and $2.5 billion to the local economy. In fact, all that remains is to finalize the project and find investors to build this new architectural miracle...

Based on materials from en.wikipedia.org

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Present to your attention tallest building in the world. Maybe you think this is the Ostankino Tower? No, it is the tallest building in Europe, as described in.

But the tallest building in the whole world is skyscraper in Dubai(see), whose height is 828 meters. Just imagine, a little more - and in front of you is a kilometer-long structure!

It is important to emphasize that this is not just some kind of engineering design. The Dubai Tower is a full-fledged building with 163 floors. Here, in fact, is the building itself:

The full name of the tallest building in the world is Burj Khalifa, which is translated from Arabic as “Khalifa Tower”. The opening took place in 2010, despite the fact that construction began in 2004. This is what the future monster looked like at the initial stage:

The grand opening was originally planned for September 2009, but the developer ran out of money in his account, so the event was rescheduled for January 2010.

Since 2008, the Dubai Tower has officially grown to such a size that it is considered the tallest building to ever exist in the world.

Before this, the palm belonged to the famous Warsaw radio mast. But it fell in 1991. Although even if it existed until today, it would still not be comparable to the Khalifa Tower, since its height was “only” 646 meters.

By the way, the cost of the project itself is indicated at a tidy sum of about 1.5 billion dollars. The architectural development of the project was carried out by an American architect who already had experience in the construction of similar structures.

It’s no wonder that the tallest building in the world was designed as a “city within a city.” After all, the internal area is 344,000 m². By the way, during the construction of the Dubai Tower or, as it was then called, “Burj Dubai,” the planned height was not disclosed.

However, the developer has officially stated that this will be a building in the world. This was done so that if there was information about the construction of a taller building, the designers could redo the entire project so that the record belonged to them. Ambition, my friend!

Photo from a helicopter

An interesting fact is that the weight of the structure when empty is 500 thousand tons.

Considering the multifunctionality of this giant, the skyscraper has 3 entrances: to the hotel, apartments and offices.

The purpose of the world's tallest building

Floors 1 to 39 are occupied by the Armani Hotel and various office spaces. This is considered the most “simple” arrangement option.

Floors 44 to 108 are equipped with “ordinary” apartments. So I came home from work, went up to the 105th floor and, as if nothing had happened, went to the kitchen to eat. But you can see clouds outside the window!

By the way, an interesting fact: the entire hundredth floor belongs to an Indian named B. R. Shetty.

Here we can add that highest observation deck in the world located at an altitude of 555 meters. It is located in the same building on the 148th floor.

An artificial tower rises above the main building, complementing the magnificent appearance of the building.

A special concrete was developed for the Dubai Tower that can withstand temperatures of +50 °C. There are 57 elevators inside, which can reach speeds of up to 10 meters per second. This is official information, since there is an opinion that elevators are installed here, moving at a speed of almost 18 m/s.

Despite the fact that the Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, it barely heats up. This is due to special glasses that reflect the sun's rays.

By the way, it takes three months to clean the outside of the building, and they do it every day. In principle, this is no wonder, because the outer surface area of ​​the skyscraper is equal to 17 football fields. And the washing, after all, happens at a height.

The air inside is constantly cooled and... aromatized. Yes, yes, what can you do for your own comfort! Moreover, the scent was created specifically for the Khalifa Tower. Air is supplied through special grilles in the floor.

Interesting facts about the tallest building in the world

1. Construction started in 2004 and moved at a speed of 1-2 floors per week.
2. The number of workers who took part in the daily work of constructing the building was 12,000 people.
3. Most of the workers were from South Asia and lived in deplorable conditions. They were paid extremely little and their salaries were delayed. Due to widespread violations, there were many injuries and often deaths. This is information from a BBC investigation. Only one death was officially reported.
4. The material consumed is 60 thousand tons of steel reinforcement and 320 thousand m³ of concrete.
5. Concrete structures ended on the 160th floor; the remaining 180 meters of the tallest structure were made exclusively of metal structures.
6. The Burj Khalifa skyscraper is not anchored in rock, as is done in its New York counterparts.

Records of the tallest building in the world

1. In the entire history of the world known to us, there has not existed a taller ground structure than 828 meter Dubai Tower.
2. We have already mentioned the interesting fact that the building is not anchored in the rock. The record is that this is the tallest structure that is considered free-standing.
3. The record for the number of floors is 163. The previous record is far behind - only 110 floors.
4. We have already talked about the highest observation deck - this is also a world record.

In the end we can only add that in the same