The construction of the tallest new building in the world begins
The construction of the tallest new building in the world begins, The days of the reign of the Burj Khalifa are numbered. The promoters of the Kingdom Tower, in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have just announced that the works to build this mega skyscraper will begin on April 27. If the building follows what was planned, it will be the first human structure to surpass the kilometer of height, passing by Burj Khalifa and its 828 meters.
The building is promising but has not yet got the title. Kingdom Tower has been in the project since the early 2000s, and the plans have been modified several times since 2008. In 2012, they started pouring concrete to form the foundations, more than 100 meters deep, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Since then, the works have not progressed but, according to BD Online, the promoters of the project have been able to officially start it. Those responsible for the construction will be the British companies EC Harris and Mace. The latter is the same firm that has raised the skyscraper of Renzo Piano, The Shard, in London.
The initial budget of the Kingdom Tower is 1,200 million dollars, but there are still some details that do not know how they will be resolved because a building of such height has never been built. The elevators are one of those doubts. Adrian Gill, one of the studio partners Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture responsible for the design of the building commented, in an interview with Bloomberg, that the elevators are likely to have to take breaks to avoid damaging the passengers’ ears due to changes in Pressure.
The architect behind the project is Santiago Calatrava Valls, the man who made the World Trade Center PATH Station. When finished the tower will have a 360-degree observation deck that will provide panoramic views of the entire city. Impressive, do not you think?
In addition, it was attended by the president of the project promoter –Emaar Properties-, Mohamed Alabbar, and the executive director of Calatrava International, Micael Calatrava.
Micael Calatrava told Efe that the challenge “is to create a work of art for the world, not only for the people of the United Arab Emirates
About the building:
The building will have twenty floors of apartments, a hotel, restaurants, gardens and several observatories with 360-degree views over Dubai. The materials that will be used will be of modern engineering, mainly glass and resistant cables, which will assemble the tower with the ground and whose design is inspired by the delicate ribs of the lily leaves.
The new project of Calatrava, which has a budget of 1,000 million dollars (892.4 million Euros) and is expected to be completed for the start of the Universal Exhibition of Dubai 2020, will be the center of a future city that It will have six square kilometers.
The tower will be located next to the Creek – the Dubai River – and the National Wildlife Reserve of Ras al Jor, a place protected by the UNESCO Ramsar Convention and which houses more than 67 species of waterfowl.
This great urbanization, which aims to become a world tourist destination, is inspired by tradition and aims to return to the cradle of the emirate’s history and culture. The Dubai Creek Harbor complex developed jointly by Emaar Properties and Dubai Holding will have a total of 3,664 office units, 39,000 homes, 22 hotels with 4,400 rooms.
