Tuesday, May 6, 2014

World’s first kilometre-high tower faces unique challenges


It gives new meaning to the phrase “the sky’s the limit.”
Construction of the world’s first kilometre-high tower is now under way in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and one Canadian expert in tall buildings says there are no real physical limitations when it comes to how high skyscrapers can scrape.
“Technically, we can pretty much do anything we want. It’s just that if you were going to build a 20-kilometre tower, and it would take 100 years to build, it becomes unreasonable in terms of management and payback,” says Richard Witt, a principal of Quadrangle Architects Ltd. and the chair of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Canadian chapter.
Read more about the challenges of building tall in this article from The Globe and Mail.