The Tallest Buildings in the World

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has started construction on a 75-story helix-shaped tower in the Dubai Marina, one of the wealthy Emirate’s prime residential neighborhoods.

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.

Bahrain could become home of the world’s tallest skyscraper if a project by Danish company Henning Larsens Tegnestue A/S gets the go-ahead. Company project director Louis Becker, who was in Riyadh yesterday, is planning to have a meeting about the proposed project with a building contractor in Bahrain later this week. The company’s design for a skyscraper measures 1,022 metres - double the Taiwan Taipei 101, which is currently the world’s tallest building at 506 metres.

It was chosen by the Bahrain contractor because of the company’s previous experiences of building in Saudi Arabia, according to a report in the Copenhagen Post.

The company designed both the Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1984 and the Royal Danish Embassy in 1987, in Riyadh.

The project is awaiting approval from His Majesty King Hamad and is expected to be formally announced on May 7, said the report. Mr Becker has reportedly been working on plans for the project for a year.

The project, which would take about seven-and-a-half years to build, would comprise five towers - modelled after the five pillars of Islam. The tallest would reach 1,022m, have 200 storeys and house 30,000 people.

The second tallest would measure 600m.

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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP has won an international competition in China to design one of the most environmentally-sustainable buildings in the world, the Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm announced today.

SOM — in cooperation with the Guangzhou Pearl River Engineering Construction Supervision Corp., and Guangzhou Design Institute — will design Pearl River Tower, a 69-story corporate headquarters, for the CNTC Guangdong Company. The tower will be located in Guangzhou China, a subtropical port city of 6.6 million located 182 kilometers from Hong Kong.

"This project represents our commitment to sustainable design," SOM Managing Partner Thomas Kerwin said. "It also represents our commitment and spirit of mutual collaboration with China"s design professionals, government and industry in pushing sustainable design best-practices."

Sleek and cutting-edge, Pearl River Tower will be an instant icon. SOM"s design and engineering teams sought to create a visually-appealing building that produces as much energy as it consumes.

"The tower will absorb its environment and use it to its advantage," said project design architect, Gordon Gill of SOM. "It is a high performance instrument shaped by the sun and the wind."

The tower boasts an array of design and mechanical features. Winds directed into openings on the mechanical floor would power turbines that operate the tower"s heating, cooling and ventilation systems. Solar collectors convert the sun"s energy into electricity. Energy consumption is diminished by maximizing natural day-lighting, reducing solar gain in air conditioned spaces, retaining rainwater for consumption by HVAC systems and using the sun to heat the hot water supply. Stack venting, heat sinks and slab cooling cool the building.

SOM Consulting Design Partner for the tower Adrian D. Smith said the design "embodies the strategies of energy conservation and energy production we have endeavored to integrate into supertall projects for over a decade."

SOM was selected over seven design firms from four countries. CNTC Guangdong Company President Xiang Jin Cheng said the design "is the prototype for the intelligent building of the future — highly efficient, sustainable and self sufficient."

Groundbreaking is scheduled for July 2006 with occupancy in fall 2009.….more here….