The Top 10 Tallest Buildings in the World
The top 10 tallest buildings in the world that are indeed a great work of architecture
Skyscrapers touching the sky is the symbol of urban style and might. Drastic improvement in engineering capabilities over the years combined with technology is making countries build higher and higher buildings pushing the boundaries.
As a kid, I was very fascinated by looking at these buildings and I’m sure you were too as these structures are one of the great inventions of mankind. Even though the concept of Skyscrapers started more than a century ago in the United States, the global skyscraper construction boom has been slowly shifting towards the Middle East and China in the last couple of decades and China is leaving no stone unturned to make its presence felt. Five out of ten world’s tallest buildings are in China.
List of the top 10 tallest buildings in the world as of 2022, ranked in descending order from the tallest to the shortest:
- Burj Khalifa (Height: 828 Metres) is the world’s tallest building and also the tallest building in Dubai for more than a decade now. Burj Khalifa is 828 Metres in height and has 163 floors that can accommodate 30,000 people.
- Merdeka 118 (Height: 678.9 Metres) takes the second spot on the list of the world’s tallest buildings. The skyscraper reached its full heights as the pointed spire of it has been completed. With this, Merdeka 118 dethroned China’s Shanghai Tower to become the world’s second-tallest building.
- Shanghai Tower (Height: 632 Metres) is the world’s third tallest building. It was inaugurated in the year 2014 that took more than 8 years to complete. The construction cost of this twisted building is a whopping 4.2 billion dollars.
- Abraj Al-Bait (Height: 601 Metres) Mecca based – Abraj Al-Bait is a complex of seven skyscrapers owned by the government of Saudi Arabia. These towers were constructed to develop tourism and cater to the pilgrims visiting the city as part of the King Abdulaziz Endowment Project.
- Ping An Finance Tower (Height: 599 Metres) is the world’s fifth tallest and the second tallest building in China. It is located in the city of Shenzhen and is 599 Metres tall. It is built exclusively for Ping An Insurance company. Even though the building was inaugurated in 2015 but extended construction went on for a couple of years more till 2017.
- Lotte World Tower (Height: 555 Metres) is South Korea’s tallest building that took 13 years to complete. It was inaugurated 4 years back in 2017 that is located alongside the banks of the Han River.
- One World Trade Center (Height: 541 Metres) is the seventh tallest building in the world and the tallest building in the US located in the city of New york. The skyscraper has the same name as the original World Trade Center’s north tower that was wrecked in the deadly terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
- Guangzhou Chow Tai Fook Finance Centre (Height: 530 Metres) also known as Guangzhou CTF Tower is located in the suburban area of Guangzhou, China. There are 111 floors in this building with 5 underground floors. It was inaugurated in 2016. CTF tower has 95 elevators that move at a rate of 44 miles per hour.
- Tianjin Chow Tai Fook Finance Centre (Height: 530 Metres) is China’s fourth-tallest building and the world’s ninth tallest building. It is almost the same height as Guangzhou CTF Tower however it was constructed after the Guangzhou Tower which is why it is ranked lower. The construction of this building was completed in 2018.
- China Zun (Height: 527.7 Metres) also known as CITIC Plaza is the world’s tenth tallest building It is named after an ancient vessel. This 108 floors building was constructed in two phases first in 2017 and then again in 2018. China Zun, the tallest building of Beijing was inaugurated in March 2019.
Burj Khalifa: The tallest building in the world
In the past twenty years, architecture and structural engineering has progressed so steeply that soaring skyscrapers have now become a staple feature in many of the world’s largest and wealthiest cities.But there is an even loftier status that goes with boasting the tallest building in the world.
In March 1996 the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, overtook the Sears Tower's record as the world's Tallest office building. Stainless steel pinnacles 73.5 metres (241 ft) long placed atop the 88-storey towers brought their height to 451.9 metres (1,482 ft 8 in). Then, in 2003, Taiwan’s Taipei 101 (also known as the Taipei Financial Centre) took the title at a huge 508 metres (1,666 ft). Just one year later, construction on the Burj Khalifa began.
It was to form part of a new 2 km2 (490-acre) flagship development called Downtown Dubai at the 'First Interchange', near Dubai's main business district in the UAE. The towering property was developed by Emaar Properties and the architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, headed up by renowned American architect, Adrian Smith. Reaching a breath-taking 828 m (2,716 ft 6 in) into the sky, this new skyscraper would soon be described as a ‘vertical city’ and become an icon of the modern world.
List of tallest buildings
The tallest buildings in 2022
This list of tallest buildings includes skyscrapers with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least 350 metres (1,150 ft). Non-building structures, such as towers, are not included in this list (for these, see List of tallest buildings and structures).
Historically, the world's tallest man-made structure was the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, which held the position for over 3800 years until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in 1311. The Strasbourg Cathedral in France, completed in 1439, was the world's tallest building until 1874. The first skyscraper was pioneered in Chicago with the 138 ft (42.1 m) Home Insurance Building in 1885. The United States would hold the position of the world's tallest building throughout the 20th century until 1998, when the Petronas Towers were completed. Since then, two other buildings have gained the title: Taipei 101 in 2004 and Burj Khalifa in 2010. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Middle East, China, and Southeast Asia have experienced booms in skyscraper construction
As of 2022, this list includes all 80 buildings (completed and architecturally topped out) which reach a height of 350 metres (1,150 ft) or more, as assessed by their highest architectural feature. Of these, almost half are in China. Six of the last seven buildings to have held the record as 'tallest building' are still found in the list, with the exception being the North Tower of the original World Trade Center at 417 metres (1,368 ft) after its destruction in the September 11 attacks of 2001. If the Twin Towers were never destroyed, and One World Trade Center was never built, the WTC towers would rank 34 and 35 on the list today.
Merdeka 118 tower: World's second tallest building set to open in Kuala Lumpur in mid-2023
The Merdeka 118 tower will stand at 678.9m. PHOTO: THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
The Merdeka 118 Tower, touted as the world's second tallest building, is due for completion by mid-2023, according to the developer. Developer PNB Merdeka Ventures chief executive officer Tengku Ab Aziz Tengku Mahmud said the rate of construction was currently on track, reaching 92 per cent. "The offices can move in first while the hotel will be (ready) by the third quarter of next year," he told reporters after a tour of the Merdeka 118 development.
The Merdeka 118 tower will stand at 678.9m. The figure 118 represents the number of floors in the building. Only the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, at 830m, stands taller. According to reports, the project's development costs is about RM5 billion (S$1.55 billion). Located in Kuala Lumpur, the tower is located next to Merdeka Stadium where Malaysia's independence from the British was announced on Aug 31, 1957, by the country's first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. That date is now celebrated as the country's independence day.
Spanning over 3.1 million sq ft of floor area, the Merdeka 118 tower includes 1.7 million sq ft of net lettable area of premium Grade-A rentable office space. The top 17 floors will house the first and only Park Hyatt Hotel in Malaysia. A giant mall will be located on the tower's lower floors. A large underground station connecting several of KL's LRT and MRT lines is being built in the tower's basement levels.
S'pore to build tallest skyscraper with 63 storeys at 305m by 2028
A 63-storey mixed-use development will be completed at Shenton Way in the Central Business District in about six years' time, making it the tallest skyscraper in Singapore. Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) documents stated the maximum approved height as 305m, which is more than 20m taller than the 284m-tall Guoco Tower, currently the tallest building in Singapore.
CNA reported that a URA spokesperson said on Aug. 5 that the approved building height of 305m at 8 Shenton Way is the highest granted by the authority for developments in Singapore. “The allowable building heights are subject to technical requirements as well as evaluation based on respective site context,” the spokesperson said. Forbes reported the building is set to be completed by 2028, according to CNA.
The new development will be built at 8 Shenton Way in Tanjong Pagar. The site is currently occupied by a 50-storey building, formerly known as AXA Tower. The site first hosted the Treasury Building in 1986, which was the former headquarters of state investment firm Temasek Holdings. Chinese Internet giant Alibaba and a consortium led by Singapore-based real estate company Perennial Holdings have obtained approval for plans to build the building. Currently, Guoco Tower is the only building in Singapore to exceed 280m in height. The current world's tallest building is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 828m.
10 Tallest Buildings in the world completing in 2018
The competition between the world countries to hold on their grounds the world’s tallest buildings has been on the rise in the recent years. New technologies and developed materials have deemed the extraordinary heights possible.
With the world’s tallest building now, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, rising 828 meters above ground, almost double the height of the Petronas towers, in Kuala Lumpur, which used to be the world’s tallest, no more than 20 years ago, you can quite tell the difference.
So, now let’s take a look at the top 10 towers from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s list of the 100 Tallest Under-Construction Buildings in the World, available on its Global Tall Building Database. Here starts the countdown:
The competition between the world countries to hold on their grounds the world’s tallest buildings has been on the rise in the recent years. New technologies and developed materials have deemed the extraordinary heights possible.
With the world’s tallest building now, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, rising 828 meters above ground, almost double the height of the Petronas towers, in Kuala Lumpur, which used to be the world’s tallest, no more than 20 years ago, you can quite tell the difference.
So, now let’s take a look at the top 10 towers from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s list of the 100 Tallest Under-Construction Buildings in the World, available on its Global Tall Building Database. Here starts the countdown:
National Skyscraper Day – September 3, 2022
Skyscrapers have become pretty commonplace in modern times, and National Skyscraper Day is our golden opportunity to appreciate these architectural marvels and feats of engineering. Skyscrapers grace our big cities with their bold presence and define our skylines with mighty buildings that literally seem to scrape the sky. But skyscrapers have only been around for about 130 years.
The world’s first skyscraper was completed in 1885 in Chicago and it stood only 138 feet tall, a mere 10 stories that would not even count as a skyscraper today. But the name stuck, and initially any building that towered high over the surrounding structures was dubbed a skyscraper. Over time, our ability to engineer and construct skyscrapers improved drastically, and now a building must have at least 40 floors to be classified as a skyscraper at all.
In crowded urban areas where land space is at a premium, skyscrapers allow us to build upwards rather than outwards, converting a single allotment of land area into 40 or more floors of potential living space. For National Skyscraper Day on September 3, we invite you to join us in taking a long look up.
