Sun 25 Nov 2007
The Qatari government is close to buying most of London’s £400m Shard of Glass development, skyscraper that has not yet been built, Doha Time reported.
The 66-storey London Bridge Tower, otherwise known as the Shard of Glass, is built in south London this will become one of the tallest buildings in Europe.
Sun 25 Nov 2007
Michael Schumacher, a veritable landmark in motor racing history, is to become an actual landmark.
To enable Schuey to continue to tower over the rest of the field, so to speak, a German company undertaking construction projects in the Gulf emirate of Dubai is building the Michael Schumacher Business Avenue. The construction project is to be highlighted by a 29-floor dual-purpose commercial/residential tower. The champion himself is expected to fly out to Dubai – where he already has his own island – to kick-start the project, which is expected to begin construction within the next three months.
Believe it or not, Schumacher won’t be the first German-speaking, former Ferrari-driving, multiple-world-championship-winning F1 driver to get a complex named after him in the Dubai development: the Niki Lauda Twin Towers are located nearby.
Sun 18 Nov 2007
Sat 17 Nov 2007
Kuwait is building the world’s tallest tower at 1,001 meters in Madinat al Hareer, also known as the City of Silk. When completed, the Burj Mubarak al-Kabir will beat a residential tower undergoing construction in Dubai estimated to rise between 700 to 800 meters.
(more…)
Mon 21 May 2007
The Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibtion Centre looks a lot like something out of Star Wars. Unlike the traditional high-rise building, the design for the Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre accommodates all primary functions, such as the convention centre, hotel rooms, apartments, offices and retail space in a giant sphere.
Sat 19 May 2007
Don’t like the view? Wait a few minutes and it will change.
In skyscraper-crazy Dubai, tall isn’t enough. In a design to be unveiled today in the oil-rich emirate, David Fisher, an Italian-Israeli architect, has dreamed up a 68-story combination hotel, apartment and office tower where the floors would rotate 360 degrees. Each floor would rotate independently, creating a constantly changing architectural form.
Each story of the tower would be shaped like a doughnut and be attached to a center core housing elevators, emergency stairs and other utilities. Wind turbines placed in gaps between the doughnuts would generate electricity.
The doughnuts won’t rotate fast enough to give guests upset stomachs. A single rotation would take around 90 minutes. “It’s quite slow,” says Mr. Fisher.
Fri 20 Apr 2007
The city’s planning board has endorsed a proposal for a twisting lakefront tower that would become the nation’s tallest building.
With Thursday’s approval from the Chicago Plan Commission, the design and site plan for the 2,000-foot Chicago Spire goes to the city zoning committee next week.
“This is a wonderful project, and everyone is very enthused,” said Constance Buscemi, spokeswoman for the city’s planning department.
Technorati Tags: Chicago, Fordham Spire, Tallest Building in the world
Mon 26 Mar 2007
The City of Guangzhou - host city to the 2010 Asian Games is also set to house one of the world’s tallest buildings. The new TV Tower will be one of the tallest buildings in the world - reaching 610m in height and is hoped will attract 10,000 visitors daily. The 610-metre-tall twisted, tapering tube is formed by the rotation between two ellipses which form a ‘waist’ in the centre of the building. All the giant building’s functional workings are hidden at the base and all infrastructural connections are met underground. This level supports other facilities as well, including a museum, dining facilities, commercial space and car parks. Slow-speed panoramic and enclosed high-speed double-decker lifts serve both entrance levels. Between 80-170m will consist of facilities like a 4D cinema, restaurants, coffee shops and outdoor gardens. At 170+ there will be an open-air staircase which spirals almost 200 metres higher. The building is set to be finished late 2009, in time for the games.
Dutch Information Based Architecture (IBA) is the prime contractor on this project.
Tue 19 Dec 2006
Forget the kilometer-high Burj Dubai under construction in the Persian Gulf’s fast-growing city-state. A British consortium is building something even wilder, which surely qualifies as the world’s largest bona-fide gadget: The Time Residences tower, a solar powered skyscraper that will use the electricity thus generated to rotate through 360 degrees.
“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]
Mon 31 Jul 2006
Approximately 805 tons of steel are being produced in Luxembourg to create the first 27 "extra-large" steel columns of the Freedom Tower, World Trade Center developer Larry A. Silverstein, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive director Kenneth J. Ringler Jr. and Tishman Construction Corporation chairman Daniel R. Tishman announced July 27. The steel will serve as part of the below-grade structure for the historic Freedom Tower and will be delivered to the World Trade Center site by the end of the year.
Production of the first steel for the Freedom Tower began this week at a plant in Differdange, Luxembourg that specializes in producing the heaviest I-beams available in the world, called "Jumbo Sections." Arcelor, one of the world’s largest steel companies, is making the high-strength, "grade 65" steel columns that are being supplied for this project. Despite being one of the smallest countries in the world, Luxembourg is a heavyweight in terms of steel production. Historically, the presence of rich iron ore reserves in the south and the use of modern techniques makes steel producing and processing a booming sector for the country.