Singapore's Tallest Tower In The Making

SOM's proposed Tanjong Pagar Centre will be the tallest tower in Singapore when it is completed in 2016. Rising to a height of 290m, the building is envisioned to be a business and lifestyle hub which contains office, residential, retail and hospitality components. The redesigned Tanjong Pagar City Park will house a unique public space in line with the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) mission of creating vibrant and lively public places. It is about gathering spaces in a sustainable urban environments.

The most unique component of the building is the proposed 'city room' which features public art and outdoor performance areas.

The design feature of this building is relatively conservative when compared to other notable SOM's works throughout the world including the world's tallest building Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Nevertheless, when completed, Tanjong Pagar Centre will definitely enhance the skyline of Singapore.

The Sublime Twin Towers

History was made when the Petronas Twin Towers were completed in 1998. For the first time in architectural history that the tallest building in the world was located outside America in a small tropical country. It marked the rise of Asia during the transition into the 21st century, the Asian Century. Designed by American architect Cesar Pelli, the buildings have become the major attraction to the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

From then on, super tall skyscrapers mushroomed all across Asia and the Middle East. It will be sometime before the Western world, US in particular is able to reclaim back their long held record of having the tallest structure in the world.

Trump In Manila

The Elegant ICCT Tower

Top Ten Skyscrapers Of The World

7 out of 10 current world tallest buildings are located in Asia:

No. 2 - Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan.
No. 3 - Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai, China.
No. 4 - The International Commerce Center, Hong Kong, China.
No. 5 - Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
No. 6 - Nanjing Greenland Financial Center, Nanjing, China.
No. 8 - Guangzhou International Financial Center, Guangzhou, China.
No. 9 - Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai, China.

New Concept In High Rise Living

New York based architecture firm of Asymptote Architecture has challenged our imagination by their latest work of Velo Towers in Yongsan International Business District (YIBD), Seoul, South Korea. 

Volumes of residential modules are staked, rotated and interconnected to break down the scale and massing of the buildings. The oval shaped volumes are turned and positioned to capture views of the adjacent Yongsan Park overlooking the distant Han River. Roof gardens and communal amenities and located around light-filled atrium spaces evenly distributed across every six to eight storey residential communities. There is also a sky bridge 30 storey above the podium level that function as the main gathering and socializing space in the sky.

Asymptote Architecture also incorporates latest technology in automotive, aerospace and marine industries in the fabrication of building forms for their Velo Towers. 

Seoul's Upcoming Futuristic Skyscraper

Designed by international architecture firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox, Block H at Seoul's Yongsan International Business District (YIBD) resembles a futuristic building that you would see in science fiction movies like Star Wars and Blade Runner. At a height of 385 meters containing a 5 star hotel and high end residences; the tower is slated for completion in 2016. The master plan of Yongsan International Business District is by the renowned architect Daniel Libeskind.

Another SOM's Tower In China

Precious Objects On A Tray

UNStudio, the Dutch architecture firm behind the winning proposal for Yongjia World Trade Center in Wenzhou China; describes their creation as 'Precious Objects On A Tray'. This is because the five towers are all connected at their base by a landscaped podium. The unique feature of this proposal is in their programming which deviate from the conventional perception of trade centers. This scheme proposes a mix of recreation, cultural, commercial and residential components.

The residential towers are conceived to be 'neighborhood in the sky' with social gathering spaces in the form of sky garden and lounges interspersed in between. This project will add onto the already charming riverside city of Wenzhou.

 

Twisted Tower

Aedas has won the competition to design one of the towers for the Xuhui Binjian Media City in Shanghai. The block that they will be involved in is 188S-G-1 Tower & Podium site. 

This seemingly dynamic, flamboyant and vibrant form derived from a very simple rectangular floor plan at its base which allow for pedestrian circulation around it. In responding to the local building code setback from the nearby subway line, Aedas gradually warps the western wall of the tower away from the setback while the northern wall is twisted to the east to make available a fascinating view of the remaining area of the site. Most of the rest of the entire site will be occupied by DreamWorks Animation. 

The three color pixels of a media display inspired the design of the tower's glazing pattern. The faceted window patterns will reflect daylight and turn the entire tower into a vertical diamond mimicking the shimmering nature of a media screen. Several types of curtain wall details were developed to keep construction cost and fabrication time as low as possible.

 

Modern Towers In Heritage Town

George Town will soon have one more exciting projects that will add to its already vibrant city center. Complete with a hotel, commercial suites and service apartments, this project will increase the critical mass of the area which will then directly contribute further commercial activities to Penang as a whole. The site is located strategically between KOMTAR, Pulau Tikus and Gurney Drive, making it attractive to purchasers who wants to live close to all major amenities of the city. The proposed hotel will help in catering to more competitive and top quality accommodation to the increasing number of tourists who flock to the island ever since it was enlisted by UNESCO as a world heritage city.

Vision Of Future Cities

As high rise living has become part of the everyday lives of most Asian cities, creative and yet practical ideas need to be found to solve the over crowded population. The image above is a vision of future cities in South Korea.

New Typology Of Skyscraper

Skyscrapers are always conceived to be vertical structure as landmark of cities all over the world. The only way to be the best is to continuously building taller structure. There is no end to this race and no one will be the best because there will always be a taller structure to break the current record. It is in fact a very immature game trying to beat your competitors by simply constructing the tallest building in the world.

Moshe Safdie has challenged the notion of skyscrapers with his design for Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. It is not the tallest building in the world but a very interesting structure indeed. It consists of three towers tapering upward and linked by a huge spaceship like public park horizontally that punctuate the structure at the top. The dominant feature of this building is its horizontal component instead of the vertical one. In terms of forms, it can be considered as the prototype for future skyscrapers across the world. While in the context of functionality, it manages to connect 3 tall buildings to create a usable public domain in the sky.

Public Plaza Shenzhen Gangxia

Another Hanging Gardens of Singapore

City Of Towers

Wuxiang New District

10 Supertall Buildings For Nanning

The new masterplan of Nanning city center consists of at least 10 skyscrapers that are above 300m high. With China's continual growth despite a slight slow down, Nanning is joining the building frenzy party with its other bigger brothers such as Shanghai and Guangzhou to achieve a higher competitive edge in attracting investment.

 

New York Style Skyscraper In Shenzhen

The Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building in Manhattan are the classic symbols of New York at a time when the city was experiencing extraordinary growth. As the 21st Century has been widely labelled as the Asian Century, China will soon has its own Empire State Building of some sort in the form of Ping An Finance Center in Shenzhen.

Contruction of Tallest Skyscraper In Shanghai

The proposed Shanghai Tower is currently progressing into the advance stage and will meet its completion target date of 2014. It will be the tallest structure in China and will definitely enhance the already vibrant city skyline of Shanghai.