A mile-high skyscraper, almost double the height of today’s tallest building, may become a reality by 2025 as developing countries splurge cash in an ego-fuelled race to construct the world’s highest tower.
“If you have enough money, I’m sure the human mind can create a lot higher,” said Timothy Johnson, an architect and chairman of the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, in a recent interview. “Who are we to say it’s good or bad. People want to push higher and higher. That’s just human nature, isn’t it?”
Planning for the next milestone, a 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) building, may be under way before 2020 and completed five years after that, Johnson said, without giving further details. Johnson designed the Sail at Marina Bay in Singapore, the world’s 10th tallest residential building.
Today’s highest skyscraper — the 828-metre (2,717-foot) Burj Khalifa in Dubai — is set to be overtaken by the 1 kilometre Kingdom Tower in Jeddah when it’s completed in 2018. Developing countries are eclipsing the United States and Europe in the “megatall” category of 600-metre-plus buildings, fuelled by faster economic growth and a desire to show off their wealth.
The council has been recognised as the arbiter on building height and the body that determines the title of “The World’s (or Country’s or City’s) Tallest Building,” according to its website.
Johnson said he had discussed with a Middle Eastern developer a plan for a building with a height of 1 1/2 miles about four years ago. The plan was shelved because of the economic turmoil in the region, he said, declining to identify the developer.
“We actually discovered you can do it,” Johnson said.
The challenges are finding materials to replace steel and cement, and identifying methods beyond traditional elevators to move people. The world’s next tallest building is unlikely to be in the US or in Europe, he said.
Frank Lloyd Wright, the architect who designed New York’s Guggenheim Museum, sketched fantasy skyscraper “The Illinois” in 1956 that would have been a mile high. The tower called for 76 atomic-powered, quintuple-deck lifts, including express elevators that could reach the top of the 528-story building in a minute.
“Maybe the one-mile building will be in Africa, a place that needs to somehow say ‘look, we are also here,’” Johnson said.
China completed 23 buildings over 200 meters last year, more than any other country, according to the council.
The 492-metre World Financial Center in Shanghai is the tallest tower in China and the third in the world. The 632-metre Shanghai Tower in the city’s Pudong business hub is set to be the world’s second-highest building when construction is completed in 2014.
The world’s No 2 skyscraper today is the 508-metre Taipei 101 in Taiwan. Chicago’s 442-metre Willis Tower, the eighth tallest, is the only building outside of Asia or the Middle East in the top 10.
Johnson said he isn’t concerned about the impact of China’s economic slowdown on the construction of skyscrapers. The nation’s economy is poised for its weakest expansion in 22 years, adding to risks in a global economy that is grappling with Europe’s debt crisis and an anaemic recovery in the US.
At least 12 banks and brokerages have cut their gross domestic product forecasts for China, with UBS, Morgan Stanley and Barclays predicting the nation’s growth will sink to 7.5 percent this year, the lowest since 1990. That compares with 9.3 percent in 2011.
“It might take time to fill up those buildings, but China in general has the capacity to continue to grow,” Johnson said. “Maybe you are not going to take your money back in two years, but in five or even 10 years.”
Beyond 1 kilometre, skyscrapers would likely need to have two or three buildings interconnected, with horizontal elements bracing the “legs,” Smith said. The horizontal areas could be used as sky-terraces, or sky-decks and lobbies for people to travel within the building, he said.
Five of the world’s tallest 20 buildings in 2020 will be located in three countries in the Middle East: the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to the council.
“What’s happening in the Middle East is a bit of ego,” said Johnson. “A lot of this is built with oil money. There isn’t necessarily the demand, however the people building these want to push human ingenuity.” WP-BLOOMBERG
