Archinect - News

Jeddah Tower restarts construction after nearly seven years

2024-10-09T13:54:00-04:00

CNN is reporting on the resumed construction of Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower, the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS + GG) project that will become the world’s tallest structure once completed in 2028. Progress had been stalled at roughly one-third the height of the 3,280-foot building in January of 2018 due to labor shortages. The buttressed core utilized to achieve its final height could key a new wave of megatall designs as was outlined in the firm's 2022 title Supertall | Megatall: How High Can We Go? Some others to keep an eye on have been rumored for Thailand and Riyadh within the past year.

Thailand is in talks to build the world's tallest tower

2024-04-30T11:42:00-04:00

A group of investors led by a Dubai-based real estate developer is in talks to build a mixed-use tower in Thailand that may vie for the title of the world’s tallest building, according to Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

Thailand's prime minister met with a group of Middle Eastern and Chinese companies to discuss the plan. Among the groups consulted was Emaar, developers of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, currently the world's tallest tower.

Screenshot of the X/Tweet by PR Thai Government @prdthailand announcing the plan

As of 2024, the tallest building in Thailand is the Magnolias Waterfront Residences Iconsiam in Bangkok, measuring 70 stories and 1,043 feet tall. Meanwhile, it was reported last month by the UK's Architect's Journal that Foster + Partners was designing another scheme which would become the world's tallest building: a 1.2-mile-high skyscraper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Foster + Partners reportedly designing world’s tallest building: a 1.2-mile-high Riyadh skyscraper

2024-03-04T11:46:00-05:00

The UK’s Architect's Journal has reported that Foster + Partners is working on the design of a 2-kilometer-high (1.2-mile-high) skyscraper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. If delivered, the scheme would be the tallest building in the world, double the height of the Burj Khalifa, which currently holds the title.

According to AJ’s reporting, the development is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, with “international design names” such as SOM also previously linked to the project. The scheme is reported to be sited close to the King Khalid International Airport, whose design is being overseen by Foster + Partners. When completed, the 14,000-acre complex is expected to be one of the world’s largest airports.

Related on Archinect: Foster + Partners to design 'one of the world's largest airports' in Riyadh. Image credit: Foster + Partners

Archinect has reached out to Foster + Partners for comment about the alleged skyscraper.

The news comes one week after we reported on updates from Sa...

Burj Azizi, Dubai's future second-tallest tower, begins construction in the UAE

2024-01-22T15:27:00-05:00

The imminent start of construction of the Burj Azizi, a $1.5 billion new commercial high-rise in Dubai that’s billed to become the city’s second-tallest construction upon completion, has been announced in the United Arab Emirates by a prominent local developer named Azizi Developments.

The tower, which has yet to name an architect or specify its final height at topping out, will reportedly host a vertical mall, luxury residences, and an observation deck. Planned for 122 stories, it will rival the Lotte World Tower and China 117 Tower as one of just five structures in the world to be completed at over 120 stories in height. Its construction will take place not far from the record-holding Burj Khalifa on Sheikh Zayed Road, culminating in a new icon backers say is a gift to the city that has nurtured their business success over many years.

“This tower will be our legacy,” said the Chairman of the Azizi company, Mr. Mirwais Azizi. “With Dubai having given my family and I so much — safe...

Saudi Arabia is restarting construction on record-setting Jeddah Tower

2023-09-18T17:07:00-04:00

Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) has restarted work on the world’s tallest tower, the 1,000-metre-plus-tall Jeddah Tower project in Saudi Arabia. [...] The developer has invited contractors to bid by the end of this year for a contract to complete the record-breaking structure. Kingdom Holding Company CEO Talal Ibrahim Almaiman confirmed that the tender has been officially issued when contacted by MEED.

The Jeddah Tower project, designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, first appeared on Archinect in 2011 and is roughly one-third of the way through the construction of its record-setting superstructure, MEED reports. Progress had been halted in January of 2018 over labor shortages and was further delayed by the pandemic. The Saudi Binladin Group (or SBG), which originally managed the project, has since undergone a debt restructuring and will be replaced by one of 14 potential contractors hailing from Europe, China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Lebanon, and Kuwait.

Architect Gordon Gill had told reporters for CNN to "Never say never" when asked last fall whether or not construction would ever resume.

Previously on Archinect: Jeddah Tower construction reaches 63rd floor

Once completed, the tower will stand slightly over 1 kilometer (3,280 feet) in total height, though the exact figure is said to be kept secret. The megatall tower is currently projected to add $12.5 billion US...

China bans construction of skyscrapers over 500 meters tall, citing safety concerns

2021-07-08T12:09:00-04:00

China’s National Development and Reform Commission has implemented an outright ban on the construction of buildings taller than 500 meters, following mounting safety concerns over the quality of some tall projects. The move is seen as a formal ratification of an in-principle ban on new buildings taller than 500 meters announced last year.

The ban follows concern over quality problems and safety hazards for tall buildings in China, stemming from inadequate oversight. In May, we reported on the evacuation of the 291-meter-tall SEG Plaza in Shenzhen, following concerns over mysterious wobbling and swaying felt within the building. The South China Morning Post also notes that the ban is fueled partly by an oversupply of office space in Chinese cities due to three decades of intense skyscraper construction.

Previously on Archinect: Panicked evacuation after mysterious wobbling is felt in Shenzhen skyscraper

In addition to a structural height cap of 500 meters on new buildings, local a...

2020 Tall Buildings Report: pandemic contributes to decline in completions

2021-01-18T13:43:00-05:00

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has published its latest annual web report, Tall Buildings in 2020, with plenty of facts and figures on the state of the skyscraper construction industry during a year full of pandemic-related uncertainty.

With 106 completions of buildings 200 meters and taller in 2020, the number constitutes a 20-percent decline compared to 133 completions in 2019.

Completions Timeline. Illustration courtesy of CTBUH.

While the two tallest buildings completed in 2020 are in New York City (Central Park Tower and One Vanderbilt), the United States ranks with 10 completed tall buildings only a distant third in both total number of completions as well as sum of heights compared to China (56 completions) and the United Arab Emirates (12 completions, all in Dubai).

The ten tallest buildings completed in 2020 are:

Central Park Tower, New York City, United States,
98 floors, 472 m / 1,550 ft
Design Architect: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
One Vanderbi...

Work halted on world's next tallest tower, Calatrava-designed Dubai Creek Harbour Tower

2020-12-09T13:59:00-05:00

Dubai largest listed developer Emaar Properties has halted new building work after a construction boom in recent years led to oversupply in the Gulf city, its chairman said on Monday. Dubai’s real estate market, where supply has outstripped demand for much of the past decade, has come under additional pressure this year from the coronavirus crisis.

"We as a group have stopped supply," said Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman of Dubai's largest developer Emaar Properties, after denying similar claims back in April.

The suspension includes work on the new Dubai Creek Harbour mega-development and its centerpiece, the Santiago Calatrava-designed Dubai Creek Harbour Tower which aims to take over the title of world's tallest building from the currently reigning Burj Khalifa — another Emaar property.

The ambitious project broke ground in 2016.

Calatrava-designed Dubai Creek Tower completes massive concrete pile cap

2018-06-04T15:11:00-04:00

Concrete placement work for Dubai Creek Tower's pile cap has been completed two months ahead of schedule. A 20m-thick, multi-layered pile cap has been developed for the $1bn (AED3.67bn) Dubai Creek Tower, which is part of the 6km2 Dubai Creek Harbour master development. The pile covers and transfers the load to the foundation barrettes.

Image: Emaar Properties.

Up to 16,000 tons of steel reinforcement, reportedly twice the weight of the Eiffel Tower, have been buried in the sandy Dubai ground to support (what has been promised to become) the world's tallest tower at a yet to be disclosed height: the Dubai Creek Tower designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Calatrava's megatall Dubai Creek Tower completes design development

2018-02-15T14:52:00-05:00

The design development programme for Dubai Creek Tower is fully complete. BMT, an international design, engineering and risk management consultancy, announced that it had taken the Emaar Properties project "to 100% design development". Wind engineering experts from BMT have completed aerodynamic shape optimisation studies, wind loading analyses, and façade wind pressure assessments for the project.

Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, stopped by the Santiago Calatrava-designed Dubai Creek Tower megaproject last month and inspected the monumental foundation work of what may soon be the world's tallest building (the final height is still kept a secret but was announced to surpass the 829.8 m/2,722 ft of the current and nearby record holder, the Burj Khalifa).

Jeddah Tower construction reaches 63rd floor

2018-02-08T15:05:00-05:00

Construction of the world's tallest skyscraper in Jeddah is going ahead, the head of the consortium behind the $1.5 billion project said, despite the detention of some businessmen backing the plan in Saudi Arabia's crackdown on corruption. [...] Construction has reached the 63rd floor and the superstructure - the concrete shell and the cladding - is to be completed next year, Jomah said, adding that delays in some areas were inevitable because of technical challenges.

Progress on the soon-to-be tallest structure on earth has been troubled for a while, with the main contractor (and partial owner) Saudi Binladin Group going through a financial rough patch and, more recently, several project officials and royal family members being targeted by the country's anti-corruption crackdown.

Despite the challenges, work is going ahead on the 1,000 m/3,281 ft Jeddah Tower (formerly Kingdom Tower) designed by Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, and construction recently reached the 63rd floor.

Report: The year 2017 in skyscrapers

2017-12-14T19:25:00-05:00

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is out with the latest edition of its annual web report, the 2017 Tall Building Year in Review, and it's a real treat for every serious skyscraper geek: interactive charts, rankings, and plenty of visualized data about all 144 buildings of 200 meters' height or greater that reached completion within the past 12 months.

Skyline: the tallest 2017 completions. Click here for a super high-resolution version.

Taking the top ten spots for 2017 completions are five towers in China, three in Dubai, one in South Korea, and one in Los Angeles (the United States had only one tower among the top 50 this year):

Ping An Finance Center, Shenzhen, China,
115 stories, 599 m / 1965 ft,
Design Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Lotte World Tower, Seoul, South Korea,
123 stories, 555 m / 1819 ft,
Design Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Marina 101, Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
101 stories, 425 m / 1394 ft,
Design Architect: National Engineering Bure...

Completion of Jeddah Tower, the world's tallest building, pushed back to 2019

2017-05-17T14:02:00-04:00

Completion of the world’s new tallest tower, Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, has been pushed back to 2019, its developer said yesterday. Formerly known as Kingdom Tower, the structure is to reach more than a kilometre in height, which means it will surpass Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Construction began in April 2014, and was to have finished in 2018. [...] “The project was delayed... but it’ll open (in) 2019,” Prince Alwaleed said during a media visit to the site, reports AFP.

"Saudi Binladin Group has been hit by a fall in work brought by lower Saudi public spending following the collapse in oil revenues," GCR reports. "Last year workers in Mecca burned buses in protest over unpaid wages amid reports of mass lay-offs."

Groundbreaking for Calatrava-designed Dubai Tower — (potentially) the world's tallest building

2016-10-11T16:03:00-04:00

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid on Monday "broke ground" on the world’s tallest tower – a structure that will define Expo 2020 as the Eiffel Tower defined Paris for its 1889 World Fair. "The new tower sets another challenge in the history of human architecture – a race the UAE deserves to lead," said Sheikh Mohammed [...]. The futuristic design, chosen by Sheikh Mohammed, was by Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava Valls [...].

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Dubai's ruler, laying the foundation stone for the 'The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour' project on Monday. (Image: WAM)

The structure's final height has not yet been revealed — the 1km-high Kingdom Tower, currently under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is also reaching for the title of 'World's Tallest Building.'

The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour project previously in the Archinect news:

Calatrava's megatall Dubai tower: engineers complete wind tests and seismic studies

2016-07-28T14:05:00-04:00

[...] has completed advanced wind tunnel tests on The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour, which is set to be 100 metres taller than the 828-metre Burj Khalifa when complete. Emaar said the wind tests were crucial in defining the final height and design aspects, while the project’s Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava Valls added that they "were an important component in the structural design stage, and we have deployed innovative engineering techniques to confirm the strength of the new icon".

The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour project previously in the Archinect news:

Megatall Shanghai Tower receives CTBUH signboard officially marking it as China's tallest and the world's second-tallest

2016-05-17T13:48:00-04:00

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) joined officials of Shanghai Tower in unveiling the commemorative signboard designating Shanghai Tower the tallest building in China and the second-tallest building in the world. With a height of 632 meters, Shanghai Tower is only the third “megatall” building of 600 meters or higher in the world.

A tall plaque for a tall building: attendees of the ceremony included (from left to right) CTBUH China Office Board Member Junjie Zhang, President, ECADI, China Tall Building Awards Jury; Jiaming Cao, President, Architectural Society of Shanghai, China Tall Building Awards Jury; CTBUH China Office Director Daniel Safarik; CTBUH Chairman David Malott, Principal, KPF, China Tall Building Awards Jury; Chunhua Song, Former Vice-Minister, Chinese Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, China Tall Building Awards Jury Chair; Jianping Gu, General Manager, Shanghai Tower Business Operation & Management Co., Ltd.; Yi Zhu, Managing Principal, Pacific Rim Regional Director, Thornton Tomasetti, China Tall Building Awards Jury; Xiaomei Lee, Principal, Managing Director, Gensler. Photo © CTBUH.

Shanghai Tower previously in the Archinect news:

"A notch taller" than Burj Khalifa: check out these new renderings of Santiago Calatrava's megatall Dubai tower

2016-04-11T19:35:00-04:00

Back in February, Santiago Calatrava was announced the winner of the competition to design an observation tower for the massive Dubai Creek Harbor development: a showstopping (it's Dubai after all) megatall and superslender observation tower, soon to be "as great as the Burj Khalifa and the Eiffel Tower."

Now the project's developer, Emaar Properties, has revealed further details about the design and released new fancy renderings to gaze at.

"The design has clear reference to the classic art from the past and the culture of the place while serving as a great technological achievement," said Santiago Calatrava about his competition winner. "In my whole career, I have perceived technology as a vehicle to beauty and to art. This project envisages an artistic achievement in itself, inspired by the idea of welcoming people, not only from Dubai and the UAE, but from the entire world. It is a symbol of an abiding belief in progress."

Asked about the final height of the ambitious structure...

Megatall Jeddah Tower, formerly Kingdom Tower, 20% complete

2016-03-17T13:18:00-04:00

Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, which is set to the world’s tallest building, is over 20% complete, according to the developers. The planned 1km-tower has already reached the 37th floor and is on track for completion by 2018 [...]. Although the number of habitable floors has not yet been revealed [...] expects it to be around 167 floors tall on completion. Jeddah Tower, formerly known as Kingdom Tower, is set to overtake the 830-metre Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the world’s tallest tower.

Kingdom—pardon—Jeddah Tower previously in the Archinect news:

As 432 Park Ave reaches completion, the number of supertall skyscrapers in the world is now 100

2016-01-13T15:21:00-05:00

There are now officially 100 supertall (300-plus-meter) skyscrapers in the world following the completion of 432 Park Avenue in New York City. The construction of supertall buildings has increased at an astounding rate in recent years, an indicator of the tremendous growth within the global tall building industry. Whereas the first 50 supertalls took 80 years to complete – between 1930 and 2010 – the total number of supertalls has doubled from 50 to 100 in just five years.

"With supertall skyscrapers becoming increasingly common, many look to the megatall (600-plus-meter) distinction as the new frontier for the world’s tallest buildings." Buckle up, everyone.

Race to build Dubai's second tallest tower heats up

2015-05-21T13:25:00-04:00

Dubai is home to the iconic 828-metre high Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, but companies here are now vying to claim second place on the list of tallest towers in the emirate. [...] the trend of building 'megatall' towers — those which reach more than 600 metres high – is likely to increase, particularly in the Middle East. [...] Currently, Dubai has 917 high-rises and 465 skyscrapers, states Emporis, which collates data on building worldwide.