Taipei 101

Taipei 101 is a 101-floor landmark skyscraper located in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan. The building, designed by C.Y. Lee & partners and constructed primarily by KTRT Joint Venture and Samsung Engineering & Construction, is the world's tallest completed skyscraper according to the CTBUH - the arbiter of tall building height. Taipei 101 received the Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2004. It has been hailed as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World (Newsweek magazine, 2006) and Seven Wonders of Engineering (Discovery Channel, 2005).

The building contains 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground. Its postmodern style combines both Asian and international modern and traditional elements. Its safety features enable it to withstand typhoons and earthquakes. A multi-level shopping mall adjoining the tower houses hundreds of fashionable stores, restaurants and clubs. Fireworks launched from Taipei 101 feature prominently in international New Year's Eve broadcasts, and the landmark appears frequently in films, television shows, print publications, anime media, games, and other elements of popular culture.[citation needed]

The name of the tower reflects its location in Taipei's international business district (101 mailing code) as well as its floor count. (See also "Symbolism" below.) The number is pronounced in English simply as One Oh One and in Mandarin and other local languages by the equivalent.

Taipei 101 is owned by the Taipei Financial Center Corporation and managed by the International division of Urban Retail Properties Corporation based in Chicago. The name originally planned for the building, Taipei World Financial Center, was derived from the name of the owner. The original name in Chinese was literally, Taipei International Financial Cente.

Taipei 101 was overtaken in height on July 21, 2007 by the Burj Dubai in Dubai, UAE, upon the completion of that building's 141st floor. The title of "world's tallest building" still rests with Taipei 101, though, as international architectural standards define a "building" as a structure capable of being fully occupied. The Burj Dubai is on course to claim the title once its construction is finished, expected in September 2009.

Cutting-edge welding techniques are used to join each section to the next. The structural integrity of the building depends on these joins - each one has to be perfect weld after weld, floor after floor, day after day through 8cm thick steel frames.

The result truly is impressive: two columns - each built as one piece, each 448metres tall, 3 x 2.4 m. super strong high grade steel casing around reinforced compressed concrete.

A labyrinth of steel webbing also wraps around the exterior, and every eight floors outrigger trusses connect the mega-columns to the building's core.

Weight baring girders are joined to the mega-columns through special 'moment' connections. If an earthquake or even some kind of an impact (like an aeroplane - as happened in New York on 9/11) hits the building the girders are designed with sacrificial joins that will allow them to slip if they have to - but not fall.

Taipei 101 has 101 stories above ground and five underground.

Upon its completion Taipei 101 claimed the official records for:

- Ground to highest architectural structure (spire): 509.2 metres (1,670.60 ft). Previously held by the Petronas Towers 452 m (1,483 ft).

- Ground to roof: 449.2 m (1,473.75 ft). Formerly held by the Sears Tower 442 m (1,450 ft).

- Ground to highest occupied floor: 439.2 m (1,440.94 ft). Formerly held by the Sears Tower 412.4 m (1,353 ft).

- Fastest ascending elevator speed: 16.83 m/s (55.22 ft/s) (60.6 km/h, 37.7 mi/h).

- Largest countdown clock: On display every New Year's Eve.

The record for greatest height from ground to pinnacle remains with the Sears Tower in Chicago (USA): 527 m (1,729 ft). Taipei 101 was the first building in the world to break the half-kilometer mark in height.[6] It was the first "world's tallest building" to be constructed in the new millennium. Taipei 101 displaced the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as the tallest building in the world by 57.2 m (188 ft). It also displaced the 85-story, 347.5 m (1,140 ft) Tuntex Sky Tower in Kaohsiung as the tallest building in Taiwan and the 51-story, 244.2 m (801 ft) Shin Kong Life Tower as the tallest building in Taipei. Taipei 101 endures a typhoon Various sources, including the building's owners, give the height of Taipei 101 as 508.0 m (1,667 ft), roof height and top floor height as 448.0 m (1,470 ft) and 438.0 m (1,437 ft). This lower figure is derived by measuring from the top of a 1.2 m (4 ft) platform at the base.

CTBUH standards, though, include the height of the platform in calculating the overall height, as it represents part of the man-made structure and is above the level of the surrounding pavement.

Wind blowing against the vast exposed faces of huge buildings can generate tremendous force. So much so, that even light winds can cause sky scrapers to sway back and forth.

Every summer, typhoons fuelled by high sea temperatures off the coast of Taiwan lash Taipei with winds regularly in excess of 100km per hour. Winds like this would be strong enough not just to rock Taipei 101, but they could even cause structural damage to the building's internal structure.

Think how violently a large tree shakes in a storm, and then imagine how much more force must be pushing against a building that has thousands of times more surface area!

To stop the building swaying engineers developed a system of the "Tuned Mass Dampeners" (or TMD's in tech lingo), the biggest in the world. Three 800 tonne steel balls suspended from the 92nd floor. Each is controlled by an elaborate motion sensing computer hooked up to hydraulic rams. As the wind pushes one way, the rams push the TMD the other - like colossal counterweights, allowing the building to sway on the inside, rather than on the outside.

Each TMD ball was built on site from pieces of 12.5 cm thick plate steel welded together before being lowered carefully into place.

The central TMD has been made an integral part of the buildings architecture. Painted gold and suspended in clear view of the upper observation decks it's an "objet d'art" as well as a statement of technological victory and attention to safety.