The World’s New Tallest Skyscraper

Skyscrapers have been being built for about 50 years now. Since the United States started building them, other countries also wanted to create them in their lands. The truth is that skyscrapers are on of engineering’s best innovations. Before skyscrapers were built, buildings’ sizes were limited to the size of the terrain in which they were built. However, today it is possible to create hundreds of stories over a single area of land. This is exactly the same as multiplying the efficiency of a building. Of course, building a skyscraper is a lot more expensive than building a normal structure. However, it is still a lot cheaper than buying a whole bunch of terrains and filling them all with 2 stories buildings.

Skyscrapers are higher every decade. Until now, the highest skyscraper is the well-know Burj Al-Khalifa in Dubai. This building was designed by Adrian Smith and it is more than 2,500 feet tall. That is about 820 meters. Imagine a building that is almost one kilometer high! It is taller than we can imagine. People that have visited skyscrapers mention their uniqueness as it is something totally new for everyone. This year, it has been announced that the world will see a new skyscraper. Not just any skyscraper, but the tallest one that has ever been built. It will be located in Saudi Arabia under the name of Kingdom Tower. This name was chosen because the building will host many different concepts inside its walls. This won’t be a tall hotel, or a tall condo complex. This will actually be some kind of vertical kingdom. It will tower hotels, five stars apartments, condos, an observatory, offices, stores and much more. The idea of this huge complex is to offer its visitors and residents all that they need inside its 4 walls. This way they would be changing the current concept of skyscraper that the world.

This huge tower will be significantly taller than the current tallest building in Dubai. Its designer, who is also Adrian Smith, states that it will be 568 feet (173 meters) taller than the Burj Al-Khalifa. This means that the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia will be actually 1 km high! For those that know about the past, and have had some kind of experience knowing about technology in the decade of the 50’s it is easy to know that in that time, buildings like this one were not even dreamed. No one thought that it was possible to tower one kilometer of material over such a limited terrain. Maybe they didn’t think it was impossible to do, but it was definitely way too expensive to even think about it.

Today, technology allows us to create awesome concepts that were thought impossible some time ago. Of course, they are not cheap at all. The current skyscraper will cost 1.2 billion dollars to be built. This is only the price for the building itself. The total price for the Kingdom Tower, including its final details is 20 billion dollars.

Behind this mind blowing project we have its designers; Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill. They both are from Chicago and have professionalized their careers in the creation of structures. Now, this project is no longer just a plan. The building process is scheduled to start soon, and there seem to be no problems in the way. In fact, the best thing about this skyscraper is its location. The Middle East has remained very strong and wealthy during this critical economic period. This is a great advantage as it practically ensures the project’s success as a commercial element in the area. We should be seeing a great engineering miracle again very soon!

Net Zero Buildings

The fact that the world is facing regarding global warming is something we should really be aware of, and act about. This is why architects and engineers have really got their heads into creating green system that keep the environment from being damages when building houses. There are two main aspects that can damage the environment in a house. First of all, the construction process and the materials it might need. Normally, these materials damage the environment in the moment they are built. The other way a house can cause damages to nature is by the gas emissions, the electrical energy usage and the water waste there might be in it. These are the most important areas to cover. A house that keeps these three things controlled is considered to be a green house.

These systems are not only available to be used and applied in houses, but also in any kind of building. The newest system is called Net-Zero energy generation. This system basically manages the spaces, materials and electrical installation to make the building self-supplied when it comes to energy. This means that it will have no external energy source like any other house or building there is. People normally think that this is made by only using a solar panel. However, solar panels have a great disadvantage. They only work if they are supplied by the sun. During the winter, when people see no sun for entire weeks, it is important to have side systems.

Net zero buildings have special floors for example. These floors generate energy out of the friction caused by shoes of people walking over it. This is ideal for buildings that have a lot of people movement. Of course, net zero buildings use solar panels as well, and they also have hidden mills that generate energy from wind. This leaves us with the fact that these buildings are almost a 100% auto sustainable when it comes to energy. The nice thing about NetZero is that companies are interested in adding these systems to their buildings because they would save money on energy as they wouldn’t have to pay for it anymore. This invites people to adopt the new technology. There are some green systems out there that really don’t offer any kind of benefit for the buyer. A very low percentage of people are interested in investing money for the world sadly. So if a system is not attractive to companies, there is no way it will help the environment ever.

Today, architects and engineers are joining this idea with the “green” buildings. These buildings are created with materials that cause minimal damage to the world in their creation and existence. Some of them are more expensive than traditional ones, and some are cheaper. However, specialists are working very hard in making them 100% efficient so that people will be more interested in getting them. In the moment they actually achieve this, there will be Net Zero buildings that will also be green. This way, houses and other buildings will no longer damage the earth as they do today. It will take a long time until a good number of constructions start using this systems. However, it is totally necessary take care of the environment, or what’s left of it, now that we still can do it.

There is definitely no doubt that there will be hundreds of more ideas on this niche. More architects are adding to teams that research about these things every day. A green-building era is approaching to us and it is something to really adopt and take advantage of.