The Never Ending Race to Build High

this video was made possible by brilliant with the opening of the burj khalifa in 2010 the world had a new tallest building and many thought this would mark the beginning of a new era of super tall skyscrapers and that the record wouldn't last long dozens of projects to build even higher towers have been announced in the years after but more than 10 years later the record somehow still stands but why is it taking so much longer than i expected just how big of a challenge it is to dethrone the burj khalifa becomes apparent when looking at the historic title holders for tallest building on earth and how they compare to this building in 1908 the singer building extension in new york city replaced the philadelphia city hall which had previously held the record for 14 years it heralded the beginning of a more than 60 year long period of new height records being set in new york city the empire state building held this title for a full 40 years until it was replaced by the world trade center also in new york the city's running streak only ended in 1973 with the sears tower in chicago which was able to hold the title for nearly 25 years until the records moved to asia with the petronas towers in malaysia the taipei 101 in taiwan and finally burj khalifa in dubai if you look at the percentage increases in height from one building to another it shows a quite steady increase over the years with no major outliers the empire state building was the biggest increase as it was 19 taller than its predecessor but the burj khalifa in dubai completely dwarfs the previous records and is a full 62 percent higher than its predecessor but there is a striking difference in how these different height increases are achieved because many of the later skyscrapers have thin spines at the very top and the floors that are actually usable are often located much lower this caused particular controversy when the petronas towers replaced the sears tower in chicago as the tallest building in 1998. the malaysian skyscrapers were almost 10 meters taller than the roof of the sears tower but only when measured from the top of the spines the significantly longer antennas of the sears tower are not taken into account because as opposed to the spines antennas are not considered a structural element of the building to make matters worse for those outraged by the definition the highest occupied floor of the sears tower is located higher than the highest floor of the petronas towers still by most publications and general perception the petronas towers had taken over the title the definition used here of what counts as building height is that of the council on tall buildings and urban habitat it is a chicago-based non-profit organization that has set itself a task of coming up with standardized definitions for measuring building heights and maintaining databases in which skyscrapers worldwide are categorized accordingly despite the controversy with the sears tower this organization's rankings are the standard commonly used internationally both by architectural firms and international media organizations ultimately however it is a question of definition and in many edge cases it is simply not clear which building is higher without first clarifying exactly what we mean with that [Music] consider the question of which building is currently the tallest in new york city a title of symbolic importance generally regarded and commonly advertised with the title is one world trade center which stands at 1776 feet tall a number that refers to the year the declaration of independence was signed with the spire of the building making up quite a large part of that height however in the years since its completion a number of buildings have opened which using other definitions could contest that title for example opened in 2021 the central park tower is taller than one world trade center when measured by roof height or when measured by highest occupied floor in order to address these difficulties changes have been made at the council in addition to the standard method highest to architectural top two other ranking lists were introduced height to tip whereby antennas such as those on the sears tower are also taken into account as well as high's occupied floor which is more about the height of the actually usable part of a building any height above this is often described as vanity height and for some buildings this can make up a large percentage of the overall height but this debate about the tallest buildings on earth becomes even more difficult when you question what we actually define as a building while it is perhaps more clear to delineate that high radio mass which do not offer usable space and have to be held up by guy wires do not fit the definition of a building it becomes more difficult with television towers or observatory structures what about the cn tower in toronto or the tokyo skytree which is currently the third tallest structure in the world since much of the height here is not formed by usable floors these and similar structures are generally not included in lists of tallest buildings hardly a year goes by without headlines from buildings that are set to soon break the burj khalifa's record for example the proposed sky mile tower in tokyo with a total height of 1 700 meters twice as high as burj khalifa the design features innovative ideas such as vertical slots to allow wind to pass through and the tower is part of a much larger vision of land reclaimed facilities in tokyo bay which under the title next tokyo is intended to provide modern urban answers to tokyo's population challenges but it is exactly that a vision for the future of this mega metropolis not a project that is in the concrete planning phase with finalized permissions or financing other projects were more advanced in planning but could not be implemented in the end such as the two more than one kilometer high buildings azerbaijan tower and the burj mubarak al-kabir planned in kuwait another reason to be critical of any reports about the next tallest building on earth is that the mere announcement of such a building can be enough to draw attention to a desired project there are countless ambitious development projects around the world looking to attract investors and announcements about world records being broken can be a strategy to generate financing for projects that in the end might not be as ambitious as advertised ever since a couple of years egypt has been constructing a completely new capital in the desert a topic about which i made my own video and here too the construction of a new tallest building was commissioned the oblisco capital should be exactly one kilometer high and its shape should reference the pharaonic obelisk but before any financing concrete designs and the start of construction there should be a certain skepticism about this project [Music] however there are two projects currently under construction around the world that have more serious chances of becoming reality the jeddah tower in saudi arabia and the creek tower in dubai where the world's tallest building currently stands the jeddah tower in saudi arabia is to become the centerpiece of a huge new district jeddah economic city not far from the region's international airport the skyscraper was designed by adrian smith the same architect who designed the burj khalifa and he used a very similar approach on the jeddah tower similar to burj khalifa the saudi arabian skyscraper has a triangular footprint this brings additional stability and it allows more rooms to face outside with windows than would be possible with a similarly wide conventionally shaped building another similarity between the two buildings is the sloped shape both buildings get significantly thinner towards the top simultaneously with the start of the first groundwork in saudi arabia in dubai the designing of creek tower began although the exact height of this tower has not yet been announced it is expected to be taller than what saudi arabia is building therefore some view this project as a reaction to jeddah tower however the dubai creek tower will not qualify as a building as it does not have enough usable floors therefore the completed tower could steal the title of the tallest construction in the world but not that of tallest building creek tower's fascinating plan was designed by spanish swiss architect santiago calatrava who at the beginning of his career became known for his unique bridge constructions and he later continued to use ropes as a prominent static element of many of his famous buildings the reinforced concrete tower will be held upright by a net of steel cables anchored to the ground a design that is also intended to resemble the shape of a minaret in the upper part there are several floors with observation decks enabling an all-round view of dubai as early as 2018 the foundation work was completed and everything seemed to indicate that the tower would soon become part of dubai skyline as the race was in full swing between the projects in dubai and saudi arabia in 2014 the jeddah tower began to grow floor by floor until suddenly it stopped work was passed in january 2018 at a time when a massive purge was taking place in saudi arabia with dozens of prominent saudi princes ministers and businessmen arrested and accused of corruption key figures in the jeddah tower project were also arrested including one of if not the richest and most influential businessman in saudi arabia with the project mixed up in saudi arabian politics it is totally unclear at this time if the construction will continue also in dubai where the creek tower is planned the work never got beyond the foundation and was ultimately halted the opening of the tower was originally planned for the expo 2020 in dubai which was postponed by a year due to the covet pandemic it is now completely unclear whether the tower will ever be built and so the two projects that could endanger the status of the burj khalifa are not progressing in either case due to circumstances that are not entirely transparent super tall skyscrapers are enormous architectural and engineering achievements but the race to build the tallest building in the world is not just about overcoming the technical challenges but also about making such a project politically and financially viable decades often pass between the initial concept and the planning and construction phase of such projects that's a long time to attract and keep investors around until all contracts are advertised and awarded in addition a mega tall building like the burj khalifa is economically interesting mostly due to its greater effect on the entire region bringing a city on a map and attracting tourism but these are all things from which the developer and owner of the building doesn't directly benefit [Music] one of the aspects i found most interesting while researching this video is what techniques architects use to make even higher skyscrapers possible the structure must be designed in such a way that it is stable and safe despite its enormous weight and other forces such as winds that act on it and if you want to learn all about how this is done brilliant can teach you that with their excellent courses on statics brilliant is an online learning platform that has fun interactive lessons that help you actually understand scientific concepts and it is not just mechanics they have all kinds of courses on science and maths such as one about the probabilities while playing casino games one about astrophysics and even courses about artificial neural networks all in all brilliant is a fun way to intuitively learn new things and you can get started for free by going to brilliant.org neo or click on the link in the description and best of all the first 200 people to visit that link will get 20 off the annual premium subscription thank you so much for watching

Channel: neo

Views: 738,442

Keywords: tallest building, tall, skyscraper, scyscarpper, high, burj khalifa, jeddah, dubai, tower, construction, engineering, saudi arabia, economic city, world record, taipei 101, one world trade center, empire state building, why, explainer, understanding, scale, to scale, documentary, animated, sears tower, tallest building in the world, dubai creek tower, worlds tallest building, top luxury, x-seed 4000, willis tower, jeddah tower construction, jeddah tower time lapse

Id: zjLOXG0NMEE

Length: 15min 19sec (919 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 06 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Mpol03]

Great video thanks for that