Construction halted on the hotel — which, even in its incomplete state is the twenty-second largest skyscraper in the world — in 1992, following rumors that the North Korean government ran out of money for the project, or that the building was a victim of faulty engineering, or both. The results spell a massive embarrassment for the North Koreans, though it has inspired a few international devotees: A pair of German architects and self-described “custodians of the pyramid’s diverse manifestations” have set up Ryugyong.org, which they describe as an “experimental collaborative online architecture site” that contains 3-D models of the monster.

Design (LEED) certification for the building. To obtain that certification, Lin said, Taipei 101 will invest NT$60 million (US$1.8 million) over the next 18-month certification process to undergo hundreds of building modifications.

After the transformation is completed, Taipei 101 is estimated to save NT$20 million in energy costs each year. Lin said that Taipei 101 wants to be an international model of environmental protection and social responsibility.

“Taipei 101′s management team is expecting to make it an icon of green building industry in Taiwan and worldwide,” Lin said. “As the world’s tallest building, Taipei 101 aims to raise people’s awareness about our environment and be a pioneer of international green building certification for existing buildings, ” he added.

At least that is the rumour setting the internet ablaze at the moment – an official announcement has yet to be made.

Witnesses in Dubai say the tower has hit well over 800m and will not be going any higher and Wiki claims topping out was achieved 17 January.

Local media reports the skyscraper is being prepped for an 09/09/09 soft opening.

What we do know for sure is that workers are adding an antenna with a blinking light to the tower.

Samsung Engineering and Construction has confirmed its’ workers are on the job.

Next up is a 632-meter, 128-floor building dubbed Shanghai Tower. China’s latest fantastical super-tall shopping, office and hotel skyscraper is designed to curl heavenward, incorporating “green” elements such as rainwater capture and wind redirecting technology. Gardens will grow in between and around what are essentially nine cylindrical buildings stacked atop one another, all of it visible through a transparent façade.

Shanghai Tower is being built by a consortium of companies owned by the municipal government — two years ago the local government had put the project on hold amid a big corruption scandal. San Francisco-based Gensler is the designer, while the design institute of Shanghai’s Tongji University will act as the local partner.

Shanghai Tower is set for a 2014 completion.

Shanghai Tower

The Ryugyong Hotel is an unfinished concrete skyscraper. It was intended for use as a hotel in Sojang-dong, in the Potong-gang District of Pyongyang, North Korea. Its 105 stories rise to a height of 330 m (1,083 ft), and it contains 360,000 m² (3.9 million square feet) of floor space, making it the most prominent feature of the city’s skyline and by far the largest structure in the country. At one time, it would have been the world’s tallest hotel.

It’ll be a bit short, however, of the tallest tower in the world, despite some news sources calling it that, with the Burj Dubai already at 2,087 feet and expected to grow to an insane total of over 2,600 feet. But still, 2000 feet is nothing to scoff at, putting it higher than the CN Tower, the Taipei 101 and the Sears Tower.

The top of the tower will feature a restaurant and the requisite broadcast antennae, but it’s not known what’ll be in the rest of the building. The cost is expected to be around 60 billion yen, or $555 million, and it should be completed in 2011

The sky tower was earlier planned in Freedom Park on the old Central Jail premises, but was scrapped because it would have attracted a lot of tourists, leading to traffic problems.

The proposed tower will be built to boost communications, tourism and commercial activities. It will be a major landmark in the southern part of the city.

A special feature of the tower is that it will be a major revenue earner for the BBMP. With a microwave dish platform at an altitude of 410 metres, the tower will enhance overseas and inter-departmental communications of government organizations like the Railways, All India Radio (AIR), police and Doordarshan.

Four floors will be earmarked for these organizations.

This apart, four floors will be set aside for private telecom giants, who will set up their infrastructure.

The floor diameter at 350 metres serves as a microwave disc platform to facilitate live telecast of major events within a radius of 100 km. Visitors can get a bird’s eye view of Bangalore from here.

More here…

The Kuwait Municipal Council approved Wednesday the development plans of Madinat Al Hareer, a multi-purpose economic, commercial and residential development in Subiyah. It is owned by Madinat Al Hareer Corporation, a government firm.

Covering 250 square kilometers, it will include the world tallest structure, a 2-sq. km. natural desert reservation, duty free area, a new airport, tourist-oriented establishments and business centers. It is estimated to cost $86.1 billion (25 billion dinar).

The project aims to reduce Kuwait’s dependence on revenues from oil. Half of Kuwait’s gross domestic product, valued at $60.72 billion in 2006, came from petroleum. The country holds 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves.

Dubai’s standing tallest structure is Burj Dubai at 422.5 meters with 120 storeys. It is one of five completed building in the world with more than 100 floors. Next to Burj Dubai are New York’s Empire State building measuring 381 meters and Chicago’s John Hancock Centre with 344 meters.

Dutch Information Based Architecture (IBA) is the prime contractor on this project.

Work that should have begun in the first quarter of last year won’t start until April at the earliest following the collapse of Switzerland-based Schmidlin Ltd Facade Technology, said George Efstathiou, a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, which designed the tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Delays to the US$900 million, 160-storey skyscraper are a setback to Dubai’s plans to create a 202-hectare district featuring hotels, offices, apartments and the world’s biggest shopping mall as it seeks to become the Middle East’s No. 1 tourist hub. While the tower’s internal structures have already passed the 100th storey, the lack of a facade means work on fitting out the building can’t begin.

“It’s very unusual for a tower to be this tall without cladding,” Efstathiou said yesterday in an interview on the sidelines of the “Building Tall” construction conference in Dubai.

“The cladding is the enclosure of a building, so any interior work that needs dry conditions cannot be completed if it’s not in place.”

Wolfgang Rudolph, US general manager of Permasteelisa SpA’s Josef Gartner unit
“But we have a new contractor on board and they have a local partner and a scheme to get us back on track,” he said.

The facade for the Burj Dubai, comprising thousands of metal panels, will now be provided by Hong Kong-based Far East Aluminium Group, Efstathiou said.

“The cladding is the enclosure of a building, so any interior work that needs dry conditions cannot be completed if it’s not in place,” said Wolfgang Rudolph, US general manager of Permasteelisa SpA’s Josef Gartner unit, one of the world’s largest producers of so-called curtain walling.

Schmidlin Ltd Facade Technology, based in Aesch, Switzerland, filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 22 last year. The company said at the time that the high-risk and technologically-challenging nature of its work had led to spiraling costs, leaving it “massively in the red” since 2003.

“We didn’t want to build just another building or tower, we wanted to create something unique – a precious place to live – a genuine contender to be one of the great buildings in the world,” said Tav Singh, director of Dubai Property Ring, the Dubai arm of UK-based property investors UK Property Group.

The completed tower will offer 200 expensive apartments for people who want to spend lots of money to screw up their circadian rhythym. Singh said they want to build many more such towers, with one for every time zone.

More..Rotating tower to be solar-powered [Gulf News]

Well, what about the world’s first rotating skyscraper?

Commissioned by the Dubai Property Ring, a firm of UK-based developers, the 30-storey apartment block will use solar energy to power 20 electric motors that will rotate the tower through 360 degrees over the course of a week.

“This will be a fair building,” says Nick Cooper, the British engineer working with MG Bennet and Associates of Rotherham, which will build the mechanism. “Everybody will have the same views for the same amount of time.”

Mr Cooper is not referring to “fair” as in “funfair” – though the building is, it has to be said, the spectacular proposed centrepiece of the giant City of Arabia amusement park, complete with animatronic dinosaurs, which is due to open in 2009.

Time Residences will comprise 200 apartments. Its 80,000-tonne bulk will rest on a series of more or less friction-free polymer bearings. “It moves very slowly,” says Mr Cooper. “It is not a theme park ride.”

The “dancing” skyscraper, to be named Infinity Tower, will rotate 90 degrees as it rises while maintaining a constant floor-plate throughout its height. SOM Managing Partner George Efstathiou, AIA, predicts that the tower’s winding shape will make it the marina’s principal landmark, and perhaps a symbol of Dubai itself. According to Efstathiou, the building will offer its residents views of the waterfront without disrupting the vistas of neighboring buildings.

The 995-foot-high tower will comprise 456 residential units, ranging from studios to full-floor penthouses. It will include a street-level shopping arcade, conference centers, lounges, a child-care center, a health spa, exercise facilities, and an outdoor pool.