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Saudi Arabia to build world's tallest tower (3,280 feet)

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J

Jarrod38

Member
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/world...ld-tallest-building-ever/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
Dubai, long champion of all things biggest, longest and most expensive, will soon have some competition from neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Dubai's iconic Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, could be stripped of its Guinness title if Saudi Arabia succeeds in its plans to construct the even larger Kingdom Tower in Jeddah -- a prospect looking more likely as work begins next week, according to Construction Weekly.

Consultants Advanced Construction Technology Services have recently announced testing materials to build the 3,280-feet (1 kilometer) skyscraper (the Burj Khalifa, by comparison, stands at a meeker 2,716 feet, or 827 meters).

The Kingdom Tower, estimated to cost $1.23 billion, would have 200 floors and overlook the Red Sea. Building it will require about 5.7 million square feet of concrete and 80,000 tons of steel, according to the Saudi Gazette.

Building a structure that tall, particularly on the coast, where saltwater could potentially damage it, is no easy feat. The foundations, which will be 200 feet (60 meters) deep, need to be able to withstand the saltwater of the nearby ocean. As a result, Advanced Construction Technology Services will test the strength of different concretes.

Wind load is another issue for buildings of this magnitude. To counter this challenge, the tower will change shape regularly.

"Because it changes shape every few floors, the wind loads go round the building and won't be as extreme as on a really solid block," Gordon Gill explained to Construction Weekly. Gill is a partner at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the design architects for the project.

Delivering the concrete to higher floors will also be a challenge. Possibly, engineers could use similar methods to those employed when building the Burj Khalifa; 6 million cubic feet of concrete was pushed through a single pump, usually at night when temperatures were low enough to ensure that it would set.

Though ambitious, building the Kingdom Tower should be feasible, according to Sang Dae Kim, the director of the Council on Tall Buildings.

"At this point in time we can build a tower that is one kilometer, maybe two kilometers. Any higher than that and we will have to do a lot of homework," he told Construction Weekly.
Click to expand...
140416164143-saudi-freedom-tower-cloud-view-horizontal-gallery.jpg

140416162047-saudi-freedom-tower-sky-terrace-vertical-gallery.jpg

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At that sky terrace.
 
G

GSG Flash

Nobody ruins my family vacation but me...and maybe the boy!
Don't see the point tbh.

It's not as if it's a tourist attraction(like the Burj Khalifa) considering that no one's crazy enough to go to SA as a tourist.
 
T

TCRS

Banned
dick waving, nothing more. I hate how they've ruined mecca. I mean I ain't no muslim, but a historical site is a historical site. you don't build vegas on top of it.
 
V

Volotaire

Member
I always find these architectural feats stunning. A testament to the skill of human craftsmanship. Another foot forward towards the inevitable 'city buildings'.
 
M

Madness

Member
GSG Flash said:
Don't see the point tbh.

It's not as if it's a tourist attraction(like the Burj Khalifa) considering that no one's crazy enough to go to SA as a tourist.
Click to expand...

What else do you do with a shitload of oil money when you're not really worried about creating a social utopia? They probably want to cement the Kingdom of Saud as the richest and most affluent in the middle east. Build a tower that shows the reach and ability of "the Kingdom".

Plus who knows in the future. As long as the US supports them, they'll stay the way they are. But in 30 years, who knows what the global political landscape is like? Maybe they'll see the UAE and Qatar as tourist and business havens and want the same.
 
X

xbhaskarx

Member
This makes total sense because there's not a lot of space in the empty desert that is Saudi Arabia so you have to build vertically... I don't think these Arab sheiks with more money than sense grasp exactly why skyscrapers were first built in places like Manhattan.
 
Y

You Are Viewtiful

Member
All that juicy, delicious slave labour.

I think Kuwait is planning to build a mega skyscraper too. Burj Al Hareer I think it was called. I haven't heard about it an a while though, that plan was super crazy.
 
Lamel

Lamel

Banned
Seems pretty cool to me, we all know they are rich as hell so they obviously are going to spend their money on crazy stuff. It's still a remarkable engineering and architectural endeavor. I don't get the hate (other than the slave labor thing, if that is true then this is fucked).
 
S

Syncytia

Member
GSG Flash said:
Don't see the point tbh.

It's not as if it's a tourist attraction(like the Burj Khalifa) considering that no one's crazy enough to go to SA as a tourist.
Click to expand...

I would go.

The bigger issue is that tourist visas practically don't exist in Saudi Arabia.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Isn't there a correlation with nations making bigger and bigger structures with how much excess money the government wastes and a bigger gulf between the care for the wealthy elite versus the lower classes?

Spec Ops The Line mentioned that with Dubai. Could be a false assumption on my part.
 
D

Damaniel

Banned
Now they just need to put one of these in a part of the world where they don't treat 50% of the population like property.

Sorry - I refuse to travel anywhere near that part of the world or give them a single cent of my tourist dollars as long as they continue to be as socially backwards as they are.
 
GungHo

GungHo

Single-handedly caused Exxon-Mobil to sue FOX, start World War 3
I wonder if you'd be able to see the Kabaa from the top floor or if all the Las Vegas shit they put around it in Mecca would block the view.
 
D

Damaniel

Banned
FullMetalx117 said:
The amount of hate for Saudi Arabia in this thread...
Click to expand...

Well, you can't say it's not deserved. I especially feel bad for women living there; I heard a story not long ago about women dying because (male) paramedics are unable to respond to women-only venues. Their solution? Train female EMTs. However, they can't drive the ambulances because it's illegal for women to drive, so they have to have (male) drivers, and therefore have to call ahead to make sure that the women are 'decent' enough for an unrelated man to be in the vicinity (that is; in a car outside the building, but just close enough that he might accidentally get a glimpse).

Do you know how the civilized world fixes this type of problem? They don't have it in the first place, because they don't treat their women like property! They can't run out of oil fast enough.
 
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