TABLE OF CONTENT

BUILDINGS PAGE

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

BILBAO

1

MAKKAH CLOCK TOWER 2

BIRD NEST STADIUM

3

BAHRAIN TRADE CENTRE

4

BURJ KHALIFA

5

PETRONAS TWIN TOWER

6

ROTATING TOWER, DUBAI

7

SHANGHAI TOWER

8

TAIPEI 101

9

Page | 1

Designed by American architect Frank Gehry, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

building represents a magnificent example of the most groundbreaking 20th-century

architecture. With 24,000 m2, of which 11,000 are dedicated to exhibition space, the Museum

represents an architectural landmark of audacious

configuration and innovating design, providing a seductive

backdrop for the art exhibited in it. One of the most admired

works of contemporary architecture, the building has been

hailed as a "signal moment in the architectural culture",

because it represents "one of those rare moments when

critics, academics, and the general public were all

completely united about something”. The museum was the building most frequently named as

one of the most important works completed since 1980 in the 2010 World Architecture

Survey among architecture experts.

When the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened to the public in 1997, it was

immediately hailed as one of the world's most spectacular buildings in the style

of Deconstructivism (although Gehry does not associate himself with that architectural

movement), a masterpiece of the 20th century. Architect Philip Johnson described it as "the

greatest building of our time", while critic Calvin Tomkins, in The New Yorker, characterized it

as "a fantastic dream ship of undulating form in a cloak of titanium," its brilliantly reflective

panels also reminiscent of fish scales. Herbert Muschamp praised its "mercurial brilliance"

in The New York Times Magazine. The Independent calls the museum "an astonishing

architectural feat".

The museum is clad in glass,

titanium, and limestone

GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM BILBAO

Page | 2

The building at the center of the sacred site breaks over 30 world records; its giant

clock face is 43 meters in size, the minute hand measures 23 meters in length and the clock

drives weigh 21 tons a piece. Put together it is an engineering masterpiece, 35 times larger

than Big Ben and adorned in over 98 million glass mosaic tiles with 24-carat gold leaf. By night

over two million LEDs illuminate the tower clock making it legible from distances of over eight

kilometers.

The documentary The Mecca Clock

Tower explores the engineering breakthroughs

behind the development, fabrication and

installation of this unique timepiece. Together

with its partners, the architecture firm SL

Rasch in Germany faces some unusual

challenges. The team enters the project with a

high-rise building already under construction, a

tower not designed to support a 150-meter-high

clock tower and a strict weight limit of 82,000

tons. As the pressure mounts, the team battle to

construct the world’s largest clock at dizzying heights and in

racing winds.

The building is topped by a four-faced clock, visible from

25 kilometres (16 miles) away. The clock is the highest in the

world at over 400 m (1,300 ft) above the ground. The clock faces

are the largest in the world, surpassing the Cevahir Mall clock

in Istanbul.

MAKKAH CLOCK TOWER

Page | 3

The stadium (BNS) was a joint venture among architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre

de Meuron of Herzog & de Meuron, project architect Stefan Marbach, artist Ai Weiwei, and

CADG which was led by chief architect Li Xinggang. The stadium was designed for use

throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics and will be used again in the 2022

Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The

stadium is currently mostly unused,

after having been unsuccessfully

suggested as the permanent

headquarters of the Beijing soccer

team.

Located at the Olympic Green, the stadium cost US$428 million. The design was

awarded to a submission from the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in April 2003

after a bidding process that included 13 final submissions. The design, which originated from

the study of Chinese ceramics, implemented steel beams in order to hide supports for the

retractable roof; giving the stadium the appearance of a bird's nest. Leading Chinese artist Ai

Weiwei was the artistic consultant on the project. The retractable roof was later removed from

the design after inspiring the stadium's most recognizable aspect. Ground was broken on 24

December 2003 and the stadium officially opened on 28 June 2008. A shopping mall and a

hotel are planned to be constructed to increase use of the stadium, which has had trouble

attracting events, football and otherwise, after the Olympics.

In an attempt to hide steel supports for the

retractable roof, required in the bidding process, the team

developed the "random-looking additional steel" to blend the

supports into the rest of the stadium. Twenty-four trussed

columns encase the inner bowl, each one weighing

1,000 tons.

BEIJING NATIONAL STADIUM (BIRD’S NEST STADIUM)

Page | 4

The Bahrain World Trade Center is a 240-metre-high (787 ft), 50-floor, twin tower

complex located in Manama, Bahrain. The towers were built in 2008 by the multi-national

architectural firm Atkins. It is the first skyscraper in the world to integrate wind turbines into its

design. The wind turbines were developed, built and installed by Danish company Norwin A/S.

It currently ranks as the second-tallest building in Bahrain, after the twin towers of the

Bahrain Financial Harbour.

The two towers are linked via three sky

bridges, each holding a 225 kW wind turbine,

totaling to 675 kW of wind power capacity. Each of

these turbines measure 29 m (95 ft) in diameter,

and is aligned north, which is the direction from

which air from the Persian Gulf blows in. The sail-

shaped buildings on either side are designed

to funnel wind through the gap to provide accelerated wind passing through the turbines. This

was confirmed by wind tunnel tests, which showed that the buildings create an S-shaped flow,

ensuring that any wind coming within a 45° angle to either side of the central axis will create

a wind stream that remains perpendicular to the turbines. This significantly increases their

potential to generate electricity.[3]

The wind turbines are expected to provide

11% to 15% of the towers' total power

consumption, or approximately 1.1 to 1.3 GWh a

year. This is equivalent to providing the lighting for

about 300 homes, 258 hospitals, 17 industrial

plants, and 33 car engines. The threE urbines were

turned on for the first time on 8 April 2008. They are

expected to operate 50% of the time on an average

day.

BAHRAIN TRADE CENTRE

Page | 5

Construction of the Burj Khalifa

began in 2004, with the exterior

completed 5 years later in 2009. The

primary structure is reinforced concrete.

The building was opened in 2010 as part

of a new development called Downtown

Dubai. It is designed to be the centrepiece

of large-scale, mixed-use development. The decision to build the building is reportedly based

on the government's decision to diversify from an oil-based economy, and for Dubai to gain

international recognition. The building was named in honour of the ruler of Abu Dhabi and

president of the United Arab Emirates, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan; Abu Dhabi and the UAE

government lent Dubai money to pay its debts. The building broke numerous height records,

including its designation as the tallest tower in the world.

Burj Khalifa was designed by Adrian

Smith, then of Skidmore, Owings &

Merrill (SOM), whose firm designed the Willis

Tower and One World Trade Center. Hyder

Consulting was chosen to be the supervising

engineer with NORR Group Consultants

International Limited chosen to supervise the

architecture of the project. The design of Burj Khalifa is derived from patterning systems

embodied in Islamic architecture, incorporating cultural and historical elements particular to

the region, such as in the Great Mosque of Samarra. The Y-shaped plan is designed for

residential and hotel usage. A buttressed core structural system is used to support the height

of the building, and the cladding system is designed to withstand Dubai's summer

temperatures. It contains a total of 57 elevators and 8 escalators.

BURJ KHALIFA

Page | 6

Soaring to a height of 451.9 metres, the 88-storey twin structure is Kuala Lumpur's

crown jewel. Majestic by day and dazzling at night, the PETRONAS Twin Towers is inspired

by Tun Mahathir Mohamad's vision for Malaysia to be a global player. Together with master

architect Cesar Pelli, the international icon powerfully captures the nation's ambitions and

aspirations.

The towers were designed by Argentine architect Cesar

Pelli. They chose a distinctive postmodern style to create a

21st-century icon for Kuala Lumpur. Planning on the Petronas

Towers started on 1 January 1992 and included rigorous tests

and simulations of wind and structural loads on the design.

Seven years of construction followed at the former site of the

original Selangor Turf Club, beginning on 1 March 1993 with

excavation, which involved moving 500 truckloads of earth

every night to dig down 30 metres (98 ft) below the surface.

The construction of the superstructure commenced on

1 April 1994. Interiors with furniture were completed on 1

January 1996, the spires of Tower 1 and Tower 2 were

completed on 1 March 1996, and the first batch of Petronas personnel moved into the building

on 1 January 1997. The building was officially opened by the Prime Minister of Malaysia's Tun

Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad on 1 August 1999. The twin towers were built on the site of Kuala

Lumpur's race track. Test boreholes found that the original construction site effectively sat on

the edge of a cliff. One half of the site was decayed limestone while the other half was soft

rock. The entire site was moved 61 metres (200 ft) to allow the buildings to sit entirely on the

soft rock.[8] Because of the depth of the bedrock, the buildings were built on the world's deepest

foundations. 104 concrete piles, ranging from 60 to 114 metres (197 to 374 ft) deep, were

bored into the ground.

PETRONAS TWIN TOWER

Page | 7

An 80-storey ‘Dynamic Tower’ will be standing in Dubai by 2020 is everything goes to

plan, architectural firm Dynamic Group has told us. When built it will be the world’s first

skyscraper consisting of separate rotating floors attached to a central column, and inside

there will be luxury apartments (natch).

If you’re wondering what a rotating skyscraper actually is, it’s very much as the name

suggests. Residents will be able to control the rotation speed and direction of their apartment

through voice activation. Fancy catching a bit of afternoon sun? “Turn left 90 degrees.” Want

to mess around with the window cleaner? “Rotate right, max speed.”

Proposed back in 2008 by architect David Fisher, the tower aims to be 420m tall, which

would make it the second tallest building in Dubai, as well as the second tallest residential

tower in the world behind New York’s 432 Park Avenue (which stands at 425.5m).

The Dynamic Tower will also

generate its own energy through 79 wind

turbines placed between each floor, as well

as solar panelling that will coat both the roof

of the building and the roof of each level.

The surplus energy acquired from

the turbines and solar panels will produce enough electricity to power five other similarly sized

buildings.

The tower will also be the world’s first prefabricated skyscraper, with Fisher saying that

up to 90 percent of the tower, excluding the central column, could be built in a factory and then

shipped to the construction site.

Doing so would not only decrease both the costs of the project and the amount of

workers needed, but would also allow for the tower to be built up to 30 percent quicker than a

skyscraper of a similar size. Saying that, the project is still set to cost Dhs1,212,007,500 (yes,

that’s billions).

DUBAI ROTATING TOWER (DYNAMIC TOWER)

Page | 8

The Shanghai Tower is a 632-metre (2,073 ft), 127-storey megatall

skyscraper in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai. As of 2016, it is the world's tallest building, by height

to highest usable floor (Level 127, 587.4m). It also has the world's highest observation

deck within a building or structure (Level 121, 561.25 m), and the world's fastest elevators at

a top speed of 20.5 m/s (74 kph). It is the world's second-tallest building by height to

architectural top (behind Dubai's Burj Khalifa, 828 m) and the world's third-tallest structure

(behind Tokyo Skytree, 634m).

Designed by Gensler and owned by the Shanghai city government,[2] it is the tallest of

the world's first triple-adjacent super-tall buildings in Pudong, the other two being the Jin Mao

Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. Its tiered construction, designed for high

energy efficiency, provides nine separate zones divided between office, retail and leisure use.

Construction work on the tower began in November 2008 and topped out on 3 August

2013. The exterior was completed in summer 2015. Although the building was originally

scheduled to open to the public in June 2015, as of October 2016, most of the building is still

closed. The observation deck was opened on 1 July 2016.

SHANGHAI TOWER

Page | 9

Taipei 101 (Chinese: 臺北101 / 台北101) – stylized as TAIPEI 101[1] and formerly

known as the Taipei World Financial Center – is a landmark supertall skyscraper in Xinyi

District, Taipei, Taiwan. The building was officially classified as the world's tallest in 2004, and

remained such until the completion of Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2009. In 2011, the building was

awarded the LEED platinum certification, the highest award according to the Leadership in

Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, and became the tallest and

largest green building in the world.[9][10] It has the fastest elevator going from the 5th floor to

the 87th in 49 to 53 seconds.

Construction on the 101-story tower started in 1999 and finished in

2004. The tower has served as an icon of modern Taiwan ever since its

opening. The building was architecturally created as a symbol of the

evolution of technology and Asian tradition. Its postmodernist approach to

style incorporates traditional design elements and gives them modern

treatments. The tower is designed to withstand typhoons and earthquakes.

A multi-level shopping mall adjoining the tower houses hundreds of stores,

restaurants and clubs. Fireworks launched from Taipei 101 feature

prominently in international New Year's Eve broadcasts and the structure

appears frequently in travel literature and international media.

Taipei 101 is primarily owned by pan-government shareholders. The name that was

originally planned for the building, Taipei World Financial Center, until 2003, was derived from

the name of the owner. The original name in Chinese was Taipei International Financial

Center.

SHANGHAI TOWER

TAIPEI 101

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