They are the colossi of architecture and symbols of power. And the concrete giants do not stop growing at a dizzying rate. Taller and more impressive buildings are being built every time, a race towards the sky that has also moved from continent to continent. New York has long ceased to be the city of skyscrapers. The great watchtowers no longer rise in North America, but in Asia and the Middle East and with heights that exceed half a kilometer. Here are the 10 tallest buildings in the world; if they could be stacked, they would form a column of more than four miles.
With 530 meters and 97 floors, the Tianjin Chow Tai Fook Finance Center, better known as the Tianjin CTF Finance Center, began construction in 2013 and took six years to complete. Those responsible for this futuristic building with a glass skin are the SOM studios (Skidmore, Owings
This skyscraper in the Chinese city of Canton (Guangzhou) bears the name of its owner, the Chow Tai Fook company. It is tied in height with the Tianjin building, thanks to the fact that the latter is crowned by a long antenna, but in reality the Cantonese building has a higher ceiling height. Offices, residences and a hotel are spread over its 116 floors. Its construction was completed in 2016. Work of the Wilkinson Eyre Architects studio.
It is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere and stands on the site of the Twin Towers, brought down in the 9/11 terrorist attack. The One World Trade Center was inaugurated in 2014, it has an observation platform (a common element in the rest of the buildings on the list) at a height of 381 meters open to the public. Its size is not a trivial question: it measures 1,776 feet (541.3 meters) in honor of the year in which the United States Declaration of Independence was promulgated. Its construction began in April 2006, and it was inaugurated in 2014. With an estimated cost of 3,000 million euros, it is one of the safest buildings in the world. Its shapes and structure are the work of Owings
Spectacular tower designed by the architecture firm KPF for the capital of South Korea. The Lotte World Tower has a total of 123 floors, a swimming pool not suitable for those who suffer from vertigo -it is located on the 85th floor- and the fastest elevator in the world, capable of lifting visitors from the street to the top floors in less than a minute. Inaugurated in 2016, it has residential use, offices, a hotel, a cinema, an aquarium, and even a concert hall.
This colossal and fine skyscraper has not yet been officially inaugurated, but the structure has already been crowned since 2019, making it the sixth tallest building in the world with 597 meters and 128 floors. At its top, a gigantic diamond-shaped structure is being added as a finish. Its design and construction was carried out by the Chinese companies P
The Chinese city of Shenzhen boasts since 2016 of a skyscraper that has fallen two feet short of measuring 600 meters. The Ping An Finance Center has 115 floors served by 76 elevators. Designed by the architectural firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the building has been named after its owner, the Ping An insurance company.
El Abraj Al-Bait, “the house” in Arabic, a commercial and residential complex made up of seven gigantic buildings with up to 120 floors. Four thousand people can gather at the same time in its space for prayer, while the highest tower is a hotel with 10,000 rooms, prepared to accommodate the pilgrims who participate in the Hajj every year. Its construction began in 2005 and was not completed until 2012. The architect is Dar Al-Handasah and the Saudi Binladin Group, the construction company.
Unrivaled symbol of the Shanghai panorama since 2015, the Shanghai Tower is an original 128-story glass building, covered by a glazed exterior façade twisted on itself. Gensler architects shaped this human structure that currently occupies the third step of the podium of the 10 tallest buildings in the world.
Merdeka 118, also known as PNB 118 or KL118, will be inaugurated in the coming months, becoming the tallest building in Malaysia and second in the world. The 118-story glass and steel structure is said to resemble Tunku Abdul Rahman’s raised hand as he proclaimed Malaysia’s independence at Merdeka Stadium. Plotted by Fender Katsalidis and built by Samsung C
There is no taller building in the world since 2004. It is called Burj Khalifa, Khalifa Tower, in honor of the president of Abu Dhabi. To build this giant 162 floors and 828 meters, the labor of 12,000 workers was necessary, while 2,000 people work in its management and maintenance. Owned by Emaar Properties, one of the largest real estate companies in the world, the Buj Khalifa was designed by the firm SOM with a budget of more than 1,000 million euros.
Two projects currently under construction will once again change the top 10 tallest buildings in the world. On the one hand, in 2021 the project to build the new Lakhta Center II skyscraper in Saint Petersburg was presented. With its 703 meters and 150 floors, it is only behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. However, this and the rest of the giants in the classification will be small compared to the Jeddah Tower (Jeddah Tower), also known as Kingdom Tower, called to be the first building to reach 1,000 meters in height. However, this brutal project has been at a standstill since 2018, since its promoter, Prince Al Walid bin Talal, went from being the most renowned Saudi businessman in the world to falling out of favor due to the country’s political intrigues. The works were paralyzed at 317 meters, but in recent weeks an injection of state capital has been announced to resume them.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
