Today marks the 20th anniversary of 911.

On this exact day 20 years ago, the world was stunned by a series of coordinated terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda on the United States that caused the deaths of 2977 people and the collapse of the iconic twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. When it happened, it was already evening over here in Malaysia and I only learnt of the news the next morning when my dad who went out for work called my mom (me and my mom at home) to turn on the TV for some sort of a breaking news that appeared throughout almost all channels.

I was only 10 years old back then but I remembered it very clearly. I watched in horror as images and clips of the planes crashing to the towers and their subsequent collapse are played. They are unforgettable. It is still so heart-wrenching to listen to the released audio recordings years later from those people trapped in the hijacked planes or the twin towers before their final moments. Seeing videos zooming in onto the people who stood right by the broken windows for fresh air and to call for help on the upper floors of the twin towers are truly distressing. And some of them jumping out of the building to their deaths. How can people be this evil and do this to them?

Four commercial airliners were hijacked. Two crashed onto the World Trade Center, one crashed onto the Pentagon at Washington DC and another one crashed onto a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania due to the passengers’ attempt to regain control and foil the terrorist’s aim to crash the plane into either White House or US Capitol at Washington DC. It was a day of terror and darkness for America and the 911 attacks remain the deadliest terrorist attack in human history.

20 years have passed on but the memory of that fateful day remains. National September 11 Memorial and Museum is built over the former site of the World Trade Center. Two giant sunken pools with man-made waterfalls sit at the footprint of the former twin towers. The memorial symbolizes the loss of life and the physical void left by the attacks. The waterfalls are intended to mute the sounds of the city, making the site a contemplative sanctuary. The names of 2983 victims (including 6 that were killed in 1993 World Trade Center bombing) are inscribed on bronze parapets at the perimeter of the 2 pools.

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A museum is also built nearby as part of the memorial and it houses over 14 000 artifacts, 40 000 images, over 3 500 oral recordings and 500 hours of video. The most striking redevelopment of the Ground Zero is the new One World Trade Center building. Completed in 2014, the tower is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex and soars to the height of 541 metres (1776 feet high which is a deliberate reference to the year when the United States Declaration of Independence was signed). 1WTC is currently the tallest building in the US.

A moment of silence for those who lost their lives in the 911 attacks. We all shall move forward, much stronger and united against terrorism.

‘No day shall erase you from the memory of time.’

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Lakhta Center is the winner of Emporis Skyscraper Award 2019

Full article below from http://www.emporis.com/awards/2019 :

The Emporis Skyscraper Award, one of the world’s most renowned prizes for high-rise architecture, goes to a project in Russia for the very first time in its 20-year history. The 462-meter-high Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg, designed by GORPROJECT and RMJM, is not only the tallest building in Russia, but is the tallest building in Europe and the fourteenth tallest building in the world.

When choosing the Lakhta Center as its favorite, the jury was impressed by the skyscraper’s unusual form. The exterior structure of the building consists of five wings that rotate almost 90 degrees. The twist creates a dynamic impression, giving the building the shape of a blazing flame, which resembles the logo of Gazprom, the natural gas producer that has taken up its new headquarters inside the building. The skyscraper was also able to score points with the jury due to its use of environmentally friendly and energy-efficient technologies. As the northernmost supertall skyscraper in the world, the building is exposed to extreme temperatures. A double skin façade prevents unnecessary heat loss and makes it extraordinarily energy efficient. In addition, thanks to the innovative use of infrared radiators, excess heat is not lost but fed back into the system.

Voted into second place, was the Leeza SOHO in Beijing. The unique office building with its round shape and twisted inner core was one of the last projects by star architect Zaha Hadid before her death in 2016. Especially striking to the jury was the atrium of the tower, which runs through the entire building from top to bottom and elegantly divides it into two halves. With a height of 194 meters it is also the highest atrium in the world. The continuous glazing of the atrium ensures that the building is flooded with light and allows an exceptional view into the building as well as to the busy streets of Beijing.

In third place is 35 Hudson Yards in New York. The skyscraper is located in Manhattan and is part of a major Hudson Yard construction project bound to reshape the west side of Manhattan. 35 Hudson Yards is the tallest residential building of the Hudson Yards project and includes 143 apartments and a luxury hotel that extends over 11 floors. The 72-story building stood out to the jury particularly due to the use and mix of special building materials. The façade is made of Bavarian limestone and glass, adding to its unique appearance with several setbacks over its full height of 316 meters.

1ST PRIZE – LAKHTA CENTER (462m, 87 floors, St Petersburg, Russia)

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2ND PRIZE – LEEZA SOHO (207m, 45 floors, Beijing, China)

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3RD PRIZE – 35 HUDSON YARDS (308m, 72 floors, New York City, USA)

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4TH PLACE – TIANJIN CTF FINANCE CENTRE (530m, 97 floors, Tianjin, China)

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5TH PLACE – AURORA MELBOURNE CENTRAL (270m, 84 floors, Melbourne, Australia)

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6TH PLACE – 18 ROBINSON (180m, 28 floors, Singapore)

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7TH PLACE – THE PARAGON (157m, 48 floors, Chicago, USA)

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8TH PLACE – ONE THOUSAND MUSEUM (215m, 62 floors, Miami, USA)

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9TH PLACE – OMNITURM (190m, 46 floors, Frankfurt, Germany)

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10TH PLACE – ROSEWOOD BANGKOK (154m, 32 floors, Bangkok, Thailand)

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(Images in this post are from various online sources)

7 Sensational Modern Theaters in China.

Recently, I found an article to be very interesting as it looks into six very good-looking contemporary opera houses in China. Hence, I would like to share the article here below:

Pure Architectural Theater: 6 Sensational Chinese Opera Houses.

As China’s presence on the global economic stage has steadily risen over the past couple decades, so too has its desire to match its outsize economic influence with equally robust cultural institutions. Despite being one of the world’s biggest economies and a producer of the vast majority of consumer goods, China has been less recognized for its cultural output including the performing arts, theater and opera than for its booming population and rapidly expanding cities. But as China continues to grow its economic stature, inhabitants and cities for the near future, it also needs to provide the cultural space for these forces to express themselves.

The opera house is one architectural intervention for a city, state or culture to manifest its values and ambitions and in doing so proclaim a degree of cultivation and artistic cachet. In Western Europe, the opera house emerged in the 17th century, often financed by noblemen and wealthy merchants looking to solidify their cultural hegemony. This began to change in the 19th century, as opera houses became more democratic spaces financed by public institutions.

While this rich history is absent in China, we can see similar impulses behind the following collection of contemporary opera houses. These spanking new facilities provide spaces not only for opera, but a number of performing arts enjoyed by the public. Furthermore, they are a physical manifestation of the powerful forces of the country’s economy, the untapped cultural potential of the public, and the architectural destination-making pioneered by Gehry’s Bilbao. These Chinese opera houses reinterpret this enduring cultural institution for a new era and are tailored to a region witnessing dramatic physical, social and material transformations.

Dalian International Conference Center by Coop Himmelb(l)au, Dalian, China

The multifaceted, scaled aluminum façade on this Northern Chinese port city’s opera house contains within it a conference space for 2,500, a smaller 1,400-person theater and flexible exhibition spaces. The billowing and sinuous forms of the building pierced by unexpected angles are typical of Coop Himmelb(l)au’s Deconstructivist approach to architecture and well-suited to this changing typology.

Guangzhou Opera House by Zaha Hadid Architects, Guangzhou, China

Zaha Hadid’s similarly dramatic Guangzhou opera house is one of the most well-known realizations of China’s drive to jumpstart its urban cultural development. Set in one of the country’s largest megacities along the Pearl River, the building features two smoothed spatial “pebbles” clad in triangular granite and glass panels supported by a webbed steel frame that leaps into intrepid forms.

Harbin Opera House by MAD, Harbin, China

Occupying a gigantic site of almost 450 acres along the Songhua River, this three-petaled opera house, cultural center and public outdoor space is composed of ascending curvilinear forms that seem to sprout from the wetland landscape and warmly envelop patrons from the elements. The white aluminum cladding of the exterior mirrors the harsh winter climate, while the seemingly hand-sculpted Manchurian ash of the auditorium provides a cozy counterpart.

Wuxi Grand Theatre by PES-Architects, Wuxi, China

A series of structural steel roof wings overhang the cubic volumes of this multipurpose opera house and feature LED-lit undersides of perforated metal. The terraced pavilions of the entrance and outdoor spaces are illuminated by decorative columns that continue into the lobby to become structural supports. The design incorporates elements of traditional temples and the crystalline forms inspired by Finnish geography.

Grand Theater Tianjin by gmp – von Gerkan, Marg, and Partners Architects, Tianjin, China

The semicircular roofline of this theater extends from a stone public plaza and opens up towards the head of the adjacent lake. The three volumes of the building are sheltered by this cantilevered form that fans out like a traditional bandshell and exposes the functional spaces towards the outdoors.

Bayuquan Theater by Shanghai Dushe Architectural Design DSD, Bayuquan, Yingkou, China

This smaller-scale opera house was designed with traditional Chinese theater in mind, and the bent thatches of the aluminum façade recall the billowing fabrics in the classic performances. The building is organized like a traditional theater, but can also be rotated and shifted according to programmatic needs.

The article above came from this original source (including the images):

http://architizer.com/blog/chinese-opera-houses/.

However, I think the author of that article must have left out the…

National Centre for the Performing Arts by Paul Andreu, Beijing, China.

It is nicknamed ‘Giant Egg’ due to its form. The centre, an ellipsoid dome of titanium and glass surrounded by an artificial lake. This is another amazing opera house in China that is deserving to be in that list too.

(Image by Vaughan Jordan)

(Image by SilverKris)

Walkabout around KLCC for a good look on skyscrapers.

Today, I was free and I decided to go for a walk around Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) region to gaze on the many tall buildings clustered in that area. I think I’m the only one that would purposely do this due to my strong interest on skyscrapers. This particular stretch of place where I took photographs of buildings is somewhere in between Jalan Tun Razak intersection and Petronas Twin Towers. It’s a gloomy day and I managed to take these images before the heavy downpour in the afternoon just now.

Ilham Baru Tower – under construction (topped out), height about 270-300 metres tall, among tallest in the city, looks a bit like Hong Kong’s Bank of China Tower with the zig-zag pattern, I like the shading devices (can see in the pictures below) of which from a bit further away, you will not see the shading devices. They blend in to the glass cladding of the whole structure.

Troika Towers – 3 towers of residences by famous architect, Norman Foster, the tallest residential building in Malaysia at over 200 metres for the highest tower, I like the distinctive and sculptural appeal of the design.

View of iconic buildings from left to right: KL Tower (telecommunication and sightseeing tower of 421 metres high), Petronas Tower 3 (above 260 metres high), and Petronas Twin Towers (world’s tallest twin buildings at 452 metres).

Naza Tower – under construction (topped out, spire still not installed), a height of over 270 metres including spire, like the smoothness of the facade.

Felda Tower with the already mentioned Naza Tower at the back. Felda Tower – over 210 metres tall, the roof ‘capping’ is ‘light’ and interesting, the cut-in portion that runs all the way to the top also looks good.

The tower’s base has a green wall feature. Wonderful.

The Oval – twin tower of residences, all glass around.

 

The Intermark – previously named Empire Tower, over 230 metres tall, I like the slim design of the building which is already there over 20 years ago.

A bunch of shorter buildings (residential) nearby.

From left to right: Le Nouvel Towers and K Residences, both are over 200 metres tall and are right besides the Petronas Twin Towers.

Le Nouvel – under construction (topped out), designed by famous architect Jean Nouvel, looks interesting with the hanging planter boxes (some already with plants as can be seen below) that realizes the ‘vertical garden’ concept, there is also a skybridge!

Front, you will see the under-construction Four Seasons Place – expected to be over 340 metres high and be the third tallest in Malaysia once completed.

View of the city from KLCC Park. Seen at the back is the under-construction Banyan Tree Signatures which is expected to reach height of about 240m when completed.

You can see Ilham Baru Tower, Troika Towers, Citibank Tower, Felda Tower, The Oval, PNB Building, Naza Tower and Binjai Residences in the picture below.

This collection of photos would not be complete with some shots of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers. Also visible in the image below is KL Tower.

From left to right: Petronas Tower 3, Petronas Twin Towers, Maxis Tower, Le Nouvel, K Residences. Would not be bored after looking at these pictures for hundreds of time.

Just about a decade ago, this adjacent area nearby to the twin towers is quite empty with only few highrises scattered around many low-rise buildings (many are decades old). Fortunately, the growth of the city is quite steady over the years and we observed more new towering buildings being constructed in this region (many are even over 200m tall respectively). The density of buildings in this area kept on increasing and it’s good to enhance the overall city skyline of Kuala Lumpur to be one of the best in the world.

(Copyrights reserved to all the images above which were taken by me in early August 2015. Kindly ask for permission if you want to use any of the images in this post)

One World Trade Center officially opened yesterday as the current world’s third tallest building.

After a lengthy 8 years of construction, the rebuild of the destroyed World Trade Center complex reached another milestone yesterday with the opening of the One World Trade Center building. It is the tallest in the master planning of the area set for rebuild after the 911 tragedy in 2001. Construction started in 2006 for the tower, which was once known as the ‘Freedom Tower’. After topping out in 2012 and spire installed a year later, One World Trade Center is now fully completed and has opened its door to the public yesterday.

Occasionally, I would update construction progress of this tower from time to time in my blog here, just like what I did to other supertall skyscrapers in on-going construction currently like Shanghai Tower, Kingdom Tower, etc. I’m happy that it is now completed, which officially made it to be the third tallest building in the world currently. Skyscraperpage website updated its tallest buildings’ diagrams very quickly. You can view it here: http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=200.

Some technical datas of the tower below:

Height: 541.3 metres (1776 feet) to top of spire. 1776 feet is in reference to the year of United States’ Declaration of Independence.

Height to top of roof: 417 metres. This figure is in reference to the height of the previously destroyed twin towers of the World Trade Center complex.

No. of floors: 94.

Architect: David Childs (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill). Master planning: Daniel Libeskind.

Total floor area: Over 3.5 million square feet.

Here are some few more most recent images of the completed One World Trade Center, standing proudly above the rest in New York City. It is the tallest skyscraper in Western Hemisphere.

 

I am not really amazed by its design. It’s architecture is a bit too simple, and the very long pinnacle on top doesn’t really match to the building in proportion. But I am impressed with its massive height. I also like the clean facade of the building totally covered with glass that enables it to reflect the sky as though it looks invisible or transparent. Still looks good on New York City. The image below is breathtaking.

(Images in this post are from Skyscrapercity forum web page on One World Trade Center topic)

 

Shanghai Tower reached full height in its construction and is now the world’s second tallest building.

To all skyscrapers’ fans, this is a great news. After nearly six years of construction, the Shanghai Tower has finally topped out officially when it reached its full height on its construction early this month. It has topped out a year ago, but only reached its final height when the last part of the roof is secured in place. And its final height now stands at 632 metres (2 073 feet).

If you are still unsure of how high that is, then imagine it’s double the height of Paris’ Eiffel Tower. Only behind Burj Khalifa (828 metres), Shanghai Tower is now the world’s second tallest building. It is also China’s tallest building, and is one of the three buildings in the world (not including TV towers) that stood above 600 metres mark. Looking up to the top of the building may break your neck.

So, what isn’t better than showing here some most recent images of the tower.

 

Spectacular building in a spectacular city. Shanghai Tower’s impressive height made it stood out easily above the rest of the many buildings in Shanghai that are already tall including its neighbours, the Shanghai World Financial Center (492m) and Jin Mao Tower (421m). I’m not only amazed by its height, but also by its free-flowing undulating design as the building’s form rises from the ground to the top. Clean, neat and fluid facade.

Here’s some interesting data regarding Shanghai Tower:

Height, architectural: 632 metres.

Height, to top of roof / tip: 632 metres.

Height, to highest occupied floor: 561 metres. 

Floors above ground: 128.

Floors below ground: 5.

No. of elevators: 106.

Tower’s General Floor Area: 420 000 metre square.

Building function: Hotel, office.

Energy Label: LEED Gold.

Architect: Gensler (Marshall Strabala as Chief Architect)

More data here: http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/shanghai/shanghai-tower/.

Also not to forget that I like how this building addresses multiple ‘green’ / sustainability issues on its design (hence certified as LEED Gold) which should be seen as an example by others. Set to be completed and opened next year, I’m looking forward to visit this building soon. Going up to its observatory which will be the world’s tallest observatory (even taller than the one in Burj Khalifa that is only at about 400m level) would be certainly an overwhelming experience especially the opportunity to view the city’s skyline from this crazy height.

Shanghai Tower is going to be epic when the lighting is on soon. Looking from this angle (image above), the city can still cater for more supertall skyscrapers in near future since its economy is rapidly booming and the escalating interest on building big and tall in China.

(Images in this post are from skyscrapercity.com)

The 911 Memorial Museum, New York opens to the public with escalating controversy as expected.

The 911 Memorial Museum is a museum built to honour and remember the victims and survivors of the 911 terror attacks on United States back in September 11, 2001. It is located next to the former site of the World Trade Center twin towers which had both collapsed from the tragedy. The former ‘Ground Zero’ is now turned into a huge plaza with two massive sunken pools that marks the base of the collapsed towers respectively. Each of the poetically reflecting pools is surrounded with stone engraved with names of the deceased victims from the tragedy.

Yesterday, the memorial museum finally opened its door to the public and it has since provoked a range of reactions. For years, there have been tensions over how any memorial at this site would look and operate. Visiting the museum will be surely providing an emotional experience. The displays includes artifacts, large and small, from firetrucks to personal objects of people who worked in the two towers. The museum’s artifacts range from the monumental, like two of the huge fork-shaped columns from the World Trade Center’s facade, to the intimate: a wedding ring, a victim’s voice mail message. The exhibits tell the stories of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, as well as of survivors and first responders.

 

Museum Director Alice Greenwald said the museum is “about understanding our shared humanity,” while former mayor Michael Bloomberg called it a reminder “that freedom is not free.” But the road to this museum’s opening has been fraught with controversy. One of the harsh critiques is that some people are considering the museum as a tourist spot that earns money off (or indirectly) from those who perished in 911 attacks. That sounds immoral. There are also roughly 8000 unidentified human remains kept in the museum, and that made people thinking that they are paying money to visit a cemetery! That’s a bit true too.

People also criticized heavily on some of the items sold in the gift shop of the museum that are hurting some people’s feelings particularly from the families of the perished victims from the tragedy. Well, I think that the museum’s operators or the authority should realize where they are standing and should be sensitive to all these issues before opening its door to the public. ‘Respect’ should be in their mind. In my personal opinion, it is still fine to have a museum to honour or to remember that fateful day, but people’s feeling should be taken care of in such situation. Nevertheless, the museum do receives some positive feedbacks too. Its controversy is expected, but this is what made the tour of the museum more interesting, isn’t it?

If I am given the chance to visit New York City, I would certainly take some time to drop by at this museum too. I’m worried my eyes would be filled with tears by looking at the emotionally-induced exhibits displayed. Even when I’m not a US citizen and that the tragedy was back many years ago (13 years to be exact), I still felt sad for the 911 tragedy.

Images and information sources:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/reactions-911-museum-and-memorial-opening-180951513/?no-ist

http://globalnews.ca/news/1341315/photos-inside-the-911-memorial-museum-in-new-york/

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/19/us/9-11-memorial-museum-gift-shop/

http://www.cntraveller.in/news/911-memorial-museum-opens-new-york-today

http://www.911memorial.org/museum (official website of the museum)

 

Update again for the supertall Shanghai Tower.

From now on, I think I couldn’t get my eyes off the updates on the under-construction Shanghai Tower at least for once in a month. I have been frequently visiting the Skyscrapercity forum websites to check on construction progress of several supertalls and Shanghai Tower now got the most of my attention. The tower has recently had its structure topped out at an approximate height of 600 metres above ground, but it will few months later that the glass crown will finish the tower to final astonishing height of 632 metres.

I think I had written quite a lot of posts regarding this very impressive-looking tower on this year alone. In previous years, the building’s construction was still at early stage and was no where to be seen in the midst of Pudong skyline, Shanghai. However from this year onwards, the building started to get noticeable even from very far distance as it continues to rise up quickly and towering all other surrounding buildings including its’ two neighbouring supertalls; 492m Shanghai World Financial Center and 421m Jin Mao Tower. Even when it’s now not completed yet, but Shanghai Tower had already bring about a strong visual or impact to Shanghai’s breathtaking city skyline.

The skyscraper which is designed by Gensler, is now already the tallest building in China, and once fully completed next year, it will be officially the tallest structure in China too (surpassing Canton Tower, Guangzhou which stands at a height of 600 metres) and also becoming the world’s second tallest building (only behind 828 metres tall Burj Khalifa, Dubai). When completed, the Shanghai Tower will join the Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center to form the world’s first adjacent grouping of three supertall buildings. Three supertalls in one area alone plus the Oriental Pearl Tower nearby too. Awesome!

Shanghai Tower will consists of 12 floors of Class-A office space, retail, a luxury hotel and cultural venues. The uppermost floors will feature the world’s highest non-enclosed observation deck which will then surely offers wonderful panoramic views of the city while making things on the ground level appear as tiny as an insect. The luxury hotel in the tower will be called Jin Jiang Hotel and is located between the 84th and 110th floors, which will then also be the tallest hotel in the world at the time of its completion. The tower will also hold records for the fastest single-deck and double-deck elevators, as well as world’s furthest-travelling single elevator at 578.5 metres, surpassing record held by Burj Khalifa.

Besides than its awesome height that could easily pierce the clouds (I think so)- (from the image above, you can see even the tower’s shadow crosses over  the river to the other side of the city too, proving its impressive height), it is also the tower’s smooth flowing design that caught my interest. Well, Chinese symbolism regards it as a dragon twisting and flying to the sky. Hmm…a blue dragon then. Its’ double layer glass concept is also interesting and is already visible in one of the images shown in this post. Now, after looking at those beautiful images of the tower, I felt like I couldn’t wait any longer to visit the city soon so that I could be there on my own and enjoy looking and visiting the tower once it is completed and opened to public. Shanghai Tower has now been one of my most favourite skyscrapers in recent years.

(All images in this post are from skyscrapercity forum website pages discussing on this particular tower.)

Shanghai Tower topped out!

This is just amazing! I already expected that this building; Shanghai Tower is going to rise fast, but not to such awesome speed! The construction of the tower began in end 2008, and on this day, the tower’s construction achieved a milestone by having the structure of the tower topped out. Shanghai Tower, designed by Gensler is a supertall skyscraper of 632 metres high with 121 stories. It would be located next to the other two Shanghai’s supertall, Shanghai World Financial Center (492 metres) and Jin Mao Tower (421 metres), and also accompanied with nearby icon, Oriental Pearl Tower (468 metres).

Today, the final beam of the tower is placed at a height of approximately 580 metres above ground. That impressive height is already way beyond the highest point of Taipei 101, the tallest completed building in Asia currently (not including Middle East). Well, that is just the structure. What’s left would be the finishing glass cladding to the top of the tower to bring its full height to 632 metres and this is expected to be observed by end of this year. And yes, this tower doesn’t requires any spire or pinnacle to add up to its already-impressive height. Wonderful. Wow, my first two words to describe the tower still under-construction now right after I looked at the image below is ‘massive’ and ‘wow’.

Now, this is fast speed construction. When completed, the tower would be the world’s second tallest building (only behind Burj Khalifa at 828 metres). It will also be the tallest structure of any kind in China (surpassing Canton Tower in Guangzhou at 600 metres), and tallest building in Asia. However, I believe the building will not hold those records very long due to impressive demands for supertall buildings particularly in China. Hence, in few years time, it will be overtaken by some other skyscrapers as expected. But it will still stands proud, tall and amazing over the city of Shanghai. Impressive smooth twisting design with double-glass layer concept.

Wow. What a fantastic aerial view of Shanghai shown above. You can definitely spot the Shanghai Tower. (click on the image for large version) What’s left for the tower now would be the interior design, testing and running of services, exterior cladding and finishes. It will be opened to public next year. I’m looking forward to visit Shanghai soon so that I can have the opportunity to go up to the tower’s observatory and enjoy the breathtaking view of Shanghai skyline.

(Images in this post are from skyscraperpage forum website discussing on this particular building.)

Construction update: Shanghai Tower rises up so quick!

Shanghai Tower, is a supertall skyscraper currently under construction in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China. Designed by Gensler, it will be the tallest of a group of three supertall buildings in Pudong, the other two being the Jin Mao Tower (421 m) and the Shanghai World Financial Center (492 m). Shanghai Tower is slated for a height of 632 metres with over 120 floors. When completed, it would become the tallest building in Shanghai, tallest building of any kind in China, and the world’s second tallest building, only behind Burj Khalifa.

Construction of the tower started on late 2008 and is expected to be completed by next year (2014). Looking from its current construction speed, I believed this tower would be completed on time without any major issues. Thanks to the impressive efficiency shown by the construction workers, the tower now reaches around the height of 530 metres, only around 100 metres left from its final peak. Its central core had almost reached its final level already, and the construction had approximately reached above 110th floor. What’s left would be only structures of several floors above, interior works, external cladding, services installation, and extension of its cladding to the top to reach full height. There is no spire in this design which I’m happy for it as such design is not suitable for an addition of pinnacle to raise its height.

 

The tower is now expected to top out by end of this year. But from even now, it is the tallest building in China already, towering above its two neighbouring supertalls. Let’s move on to a bit of its design. The tower take the form of nine cylindrical buildings stacked atop each other, totalling 121 floors, all enclosed by the inner layer of the glass facade. Between that and the outer layer, which twists as it rises, nine indoor zones will provide public space for visitors. The transparent façade is a unique design feature, because most buildings have only a single façade using highly reflective glass to lower heat absorption, but the Shanghai Tower’s double layer of glass will eliminate the need for either layer to be opaqued.

This building looks impressive to me. I like how the idea of twisting form which symbolises something like a dragon flying up to the sky as reported by Chinese media and also the double-glass concept. Then, came a number of sustainability approach I have learnt from my previous research towards this building which is very good and helps to make it an efficient green building, a very essential element in buildings nowadays. The height is crazy, and I’m looking forward to visit the building if I am given the opportunity. What’s more impressive to me now is its construction progress. I was shocked just now when I checked on its progress. Too quick! Crazy! The tower now stands so huge and tall even when it’s not even finished yet. Marvelous! A massive architectural piece is coming up!

 

Shanghai is so beautiful especially at night. It has one of the best skylines in the world. Too bad, I have had not been there before. Perhaps, I would choose to only visit the city once this Shanghai Tower is completed and opened to the public. It would be an impressive trip to me observing so many modern skyscrapers in the city. China is now in a massive construction boom. Even not long after Shanghai Tower is completed, its title of tallest building in China would quickly be overtaken by 660 m tall Pingan International Finance Center in Shenzhen by 2016.

(All images in this post are from skyscrapercity forum on topic of this particular building. Information in this post are from various credible sources throughout the world wide web)