“Like in every city: after money, after power, you want strength. After strength, you want to establish something, leave something for the world.”
The skyscraper was born in the United States, but raised in Asia, where tall buildings seem to have become the only way to make a mark on the international scene. After all, a majestic skyline is the sign of a city open to business and trusting in future growth.
Over a century ago, New York and Chicago demonstrated that the skyscraper is — fundamentally — a solution to an economic problem: to allow hundreds of people and companies in the same place at the same time is an efficient approach to promoting urban density, offering a competitive advantage to the city.
Since the ‘90s, the tallest buildings in the world have been constructed in the East. But today, in 2020, the Burj Khalifa of Dubai (828 meters divided across 163 floors) will give up its title as tallest skyscraper in the world. Taking its place is Jeddah Tower, or Kingdom Tower, now under construction in Saudi Arabia.
Design for the skyscraper comes from Chicago’s Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architectures — the same studio that designed the Burj Khalifa — and is a masterpiece of structural engineering featuring avant-garde glass to keep interiors cool and elevators using carbon fiber to go higher than ever before.
With 200 floors, the Jeddah Tower will reach 1008 meters, becoming the first building to ever pass the one kilometer mark. Inside, visitors will find luxury apartments, restaurants, shops, offices, a Four Seasons hotel, and the highest astronomic observatory in the world, not to mention a balcony suspended 652 meters in the air (although some claim many of the buildings floors will remain empty as they’re too narrow for apartments or offices).
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