The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is probably one of the most impressive feats of engineering ever accomplished by man:
At 828 meters tall and using an absolute shed load of glass and steel, it’s awe inspiring, and is certainly a building I would love to visit. However, the Burj isn’t going to remain the world’s tallest building for that long. This week, Saudi Arabia announced plans to start construction on the Kingdom Tower:
The Kingdom Tower, being built in Jeddah, is set to stand at over 1000 meters high, or 3280 feet if you’re old fashioned. The estimated cost is $1.2bn and will have the worlds tallest observation deck which will be situated on the 157th floor:
The structure is said to require over 5.7m square feet of concrete and around 80,000 tonnes of steel. Any figure you look at with this building, it is massive. Personally, I would have liked to have seen the numbers involving glass. Specifically how much of it will be required and what type of glass they are going to use. If it was me, I would be specifying a high grade of self cleaning glass. I wouldn’t want to put any men at work at one kilometre high in the sky!
What this skyscraper also represents is the way in which humans are going to have to live on this planet. I won’t go into it much in this post as I have a post planned on this that will go into greater depth. But going forward, expansion outwards won’t always be an option. We’re going to have to look skywards if we want to fit a growing population into this Earth.
More stats on this staggering building can be found here: http://www.kingdomtowerskyscraper.com/
As always, all comments welcome on this!
Another placeless glass monstrosity that could be in any one of 15 cities worldwide. The clamour for height just makes for a stupid pointy glass thing like the Shard.
Much rather see something much smaller but much more unique and memorable like Burj Al Arab , Gherkin , Shanghai World Financial Center etc.
I went to the top of the Burj Khalifa on my honeymoon last year, and ill be honest it is the most impressive building ive ever seen. Just its sheer height is impressive enough, but the views it creates across Dubai’s skyline are fantastic, as are the views from the top as you can imagine. I have to say there is also a magical feeling of being stood at the top of the man made world, especially as it was with my new wife, really was a moment i wont ever forget. With regards to Kingdom Towers, i say bring… Read more »