The race for the world’s tallest building continues: The Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is to be more than 1 Kilometer (3,280 feet) in height - construction to begin soon.
The architect Adrian Smith of the Chicago-based office Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture is responsible for the design of the the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the world’s next tallest building. Smith has experience with high performance buildings as well as with reaching for the top: He was already the leading designer while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for on the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is currently the tallest building in the world with 828 m in height.
To combat the wind forces that occur with any building of this size – and imaginably even more so with a building of 1 kilometer (3,280 feet) in height – the wind dynamics at every floor need to be changed. Therefore a highly reflective glass façade will be introduced that is continuously sloped while each successive floor plate will be reduced by 4 to 8 inches in size.
The tower will be divided into three wings to form a tri-podal structure that is supported by a central core. This core will be braced by two-feet thick concrete walls lining double-loaded corridors.
5.7 million square feet of floor space are proposed - the program: offices, hotel rooms, and residential units, serviced by a fleet of 59 elevators.
A highlight is to be the 100-feet-diameter sky terrace and helipad cantilevered off of the 157th floor, roughly 2,000 feet in the air.
Construction on the foundations of the Kingdom tower is expected to begin soon and should be completed within the next five to six years.
