Iconic buildings around the world.

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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

10. 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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