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Emaar Sign Agreement For 1000m Tower
22-10-2010
Despite an economic slowdown in much of the world and falling oil prices design work has continued on the Smith and Gill penned Kingdom Tower in Jeddah.
The scheme will be the landmark building for a new urban quarter called Kingdom City that's being developed via a subsidiary of Kingdom Holding, Jeddah Al Eqtisadiah. The company has signed a development agreement with Emaar, the construction company that has built much of Dubai, to continue the development of the scheme and reunite the team that constructed the Burj Khalifa, formerly the Burj Dubai, in Dubai.
The intentions are to create what will be the tallest building in the world, although as of yet no one has much idea of just how tall it will be. Heights mentioned have gone all the way from 1,001 metres upwards.
One possible answer to these could be the same approach as taken to be Burj Khalifa that grew and grew in height as it was constructed with the public having an idea of how tall it would be precisely until the spire was finally erected.
This isn't the first time that the world's tallest building has been shrouded in mystery - the Chrysler Building was erected under similar circumstances with the developer mindful that if the height was publicized before completion someone else may have wanted to beat them to the title.
The vague plans that have so far surfaced, which are no doubt at an early stage, show a needle shaped building above it rising to a pinprick at 1001 metres.
Within the scheme could be something similar to the plan the architects previously did at Skidmore Owings and Merrill. That contained office space, a hotel, serviced apartments, and three groups of residential apartments plus penthouses up to 694.4 metres with a function room at the height of 781.5 metres.
Smith and Gill have long seen supertall buildings as more than just standard skyscrapers full of accommodation. Here the plans could include some clever power generation by harnessing the speeds at the top of the tower to provide it with power, something that would have dramatic results if you have 300 metres of space to install a vertical wind farm in.
At the same time, the height of the building guarantees that the air temperature at the top of it is significantly lower than at ground level, and this too can be exploited and recycled around the structure to reduce the need for air conditioning.
Of course, much of this is theoretical and subject to change as the project gets fleshed out but if Kingdom City does go ahead, the models have always shown the megatall building at its very heart that will finally push mankind above 1 kilometre.
Construction will start in 3 weeks