The Newest Wonders of the world!
10 - The Shanghai Tower While the Shanghai Tower isn’t technically
the tallest building in the world, it is the building in the world with the tallest usable
floor.
The tower is the world's second-tallest building by height to the architectural top.
That’s to say, people can actually take an elevator go to those high floors and experience
it for themselves.
More on the elevator in a minute.
The Shanghai Tower is a 632-metre (2,073 ft), 127-storey mega tall skyscraper in Shanghai,
of course.
The building sports the world's highest observation deck within a building or structure.
The deck opened to the public just recently in July of 2016.
One of the coolest things about this building is that it contains the world's fastest elevators.
These elevators can zip up those 127 stories at speeds of up to 20.5 meters per second!
This skyscraper officially has the Guinness World Record for the fastest elevator, tallest
elevator in a building and the fastest double-deck elevator.
9 - Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain is
one of the most admired works of contemporary architecture.
The museum was the building most frequently named as one of the most important works completed
since 1980 in the 2010 World Architecture Survey.
The Guggenheim museum was opened as part of a revitalization effort for the city of Bilbao.
Almost immediately after its opening, the Guggenheim became an extremely popular tourist
attraction, drawing visitors from around the globe.
In its first three years, almost 4 million tourists visited the museum, helping to generate
about €500 million in economic activity.
The regional council estimated that the money visitors spent on hotels, restaurants, shops
and transport allowed it to collect €100 million in taxes, which more than paid for
the building cost of the colossal museum.
The building has been so influential, that it’s even spawned a new phrase for architecture
and cultural critics: The Bilbao effect.
Since the museum doors opened in 1997, it’s been hailed as one of the most important buildings
of the 20th century.
Now with over two decades of success, the museum has displayed over a hundred exhibitions
and has welcomed more than 10 million visitors.
8 - Floating Houses of Amsterdam Building on land is one story.
Building on water is something different altogether.
The Netherlands has a history of living close to water and of coping with water’s endless
difficulties.
Only recently have floating homes been eligible as a significant solution to Holland’s modern
housing needs.
Canals with houseboats are of course a familiar sight in Dutch cities and one may find the
occasional floating hotel or restaurant.
But these are always individual units and bear more resemblance to boats than to houses.
In recent years, however, there has been an increase in the number of water-based housing
developments that share more characteristics with land-based housing.
These floating dwellings form part of an urban design.
The new water-based developments can incorporate several forms of living with the water.
Besides floating homes, they may include amphibious homes and homes that stand free of the water
on mounds, dykes or other waterside situations.
The IJburg district of Amsterdam is to have complete floating neighborhoods, with jetties
instead of paved footpaths and city plazas.
7 - The Shard
Also referred to as the shard of glass, The Shard is an 87-storey skyscraper, which sits
in the heart of London.
Construction began in 2009 and was completed three years later in 2012, making it the tallest
building in Western Europe.
Designed by architect Renzo Piano, The Shard is the second tallest freestanding structure
in the UK.
It's exterior has 11,000 glass panels – that's equivalent in area to eight soccer fields!
The building was developed to have multiple uses.
As described on the official website, the Shard is intended as a 'vertical city where
people can live, work and relax'.
This motto was clearly taken on board by a fox, nicknamed Romeo, that was found on the
72nd floor towards the end of construction of the building.
How did a fox climb 72 floors?!
6 – The Petronas Towers
The Petronas Towers are an iconic landmark in Malaysia's capital city of Kuala Lumpur.
Standing at 170 meters above ground, the Petronas Towers are twin skyscrapers that held the
title of tallest buildings in the world between 1998-2004.
They’ve since been surpassed, but they remain the tallest twin towers in the world.
The 88-floor towers are constructed largely of reinforced concrete, with a steel and glass
facade designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art, a reflection of Malaysia's Muslim
religion.
Another Islamic influence on the design is that the cross section of the towers is based
on a Rub el Hizb, which is a well-known Muslim symbol of two overlapping squares, although
it’s with circular sectors added to meet office space requirements.
The towers feature a double decker skybridge connecting the two towers on the 41st and
42nd floors, which is the highest 2-story bridge in the world.
It’s not attached to the main structure, but is instead designed to slide in and out
of the towers to prevent it from breaking, as the towers sway several feet towards and
away from each other during high winds.
It also provides some structural support to the towers during periods of high wind.
5 - Cologne Cathedral The Cologne Cathedral is Germany's single
most-visited landmark.
It’s a High Gothic five-aisled basilica, which just means it’s a large Roman Catholic
or Eastern Orthodox church building.
The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe and has the second-tallest
spires.
The towers for its two huge spires give the cathedral the largest façade of any church
in the world.
The construction on the Cologne Cathedral began in 1248 and stopped in 1473, leaving
the building unfinished.
Work didn’t resume until the 1800s, and it was finally finished in 1880.
Later work, additions, and renovations follow the original medieval plan faithfully.
During world war II the cathedral suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during World
War II.
Even though it was badly damaged, it nevertheless remained standing in an otherwise completely
flattened city, as the twin spires were an easily recognizable navigational landmark
for Allied aircraft bombing.
It is renowned as a Gothic masterpiece and houses many works of art as well as the tombs
of 12 archbishops.
Despite having been left incomplete during the medieval period, Cologne Cathedral eventually
became unified as "a masterpiece of exceptional intrinsic value" and "a powerful testimony
to the strength and persistence of Christian belief in medieval and modern Europe”.
4 - Lotus Temple This beautiful temple located in India is
a house of worship that welcomes worshippers of all faiths,, or any other distinction,
as emphasised in Bahá'í texts.
The Lotus Temple is a Bahá'í House of Worship in New Delhi consisting of structures which
resemble petals of the lotus flower, which is its obvious inspiration.
The design is composed of 27 free-standing marble-clad "petals" arranged in clusters
of three to form nine sides It has nine sides, nine doors, and can accommodate 2,500 people.
Its surface is made of white marble from Mount Pentelicus in Greece, the same marble used
to build the Parthenon.
As for clean energy, the out of the temple's total electricity use of 500 kilowatts, 120
of that is provided by solar power generated by the building.
This saves the temple some money of course, and it’s the first temple in Delhi to use
solar power.
The Lotus Temple has won numerous architectural awards and has been featured in hundreds of
newspaper and magazine articles.
A 2001 CNN report referred to it as the most visited building in the world, something that’s
probably correct since this building has already had more than 100 million unique visitors.
3 - Newest Hotel in Swiss Alps?
The concept for this possible new architecture, is the work of Dubai-based designer Andrii
Rozhko.
He was inspired by the dramatic European mountain landscape that he wants to install it into
— the Alps.
While no details of the hotel's interior have been released, its jagged exterior certainly
imitates the sharp angles of the alpine peaks in which is envisioned by Rozkho.
He explained how he like the connection between high peaks and mountain passes, so, of course,
he tried to design the same shape.
The design aims to create an “ever-changing atmosphere of shadows and light” that adapts
to the changing position of the sun.
This is a type of high-concept architecture where the idea is simple and striking, but
the details and practicalities are yet to follow.
The architect hopes to have the project completed in the next ten years or so.
Rozhko still needs an exact location and somebody to fund the whole thing.
Maybe he should try a James Bond Villain?
2 - Burj Khalifa What’s the tallest building in the world?
That would be the Burj Khalifa.
This mammoth skyscraper and magnificent centerpiece stands at 2722 ft tall, or almost 830 meters
high!
Construction began on the 160-floor building in 2004 with its doors opening six years later
in 2010.
The decision to build the building was 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.
Special mixes of concrete were made to withstand the extreme pressures of the massive building
weight.
Typical with reinforced concrete construction, each batch of concrete used was tested to
ensure it could withstand certain pressures.
The consistency of the concrete used in the project was essential.
It was difficult to create a concrete that could withstand both the thousands of tons
bearing down on the building and the Persian Gulf temperatures that can reach 122 °F or
50 °C. To combat this problem, the concrete wasn’t
poured during the day.
Instead, during the summer months, ice was added to the mixture and it was poured at
night when the air is cooler and the humidity is higher.
A cooler concrete mixture cures evenly throughout and is therefore less likely to set too quickly
and crack, a problem that no building wants to have.
Cleaning isn’t the most interesting of topics, but when it comes to the tallest building
in the world it gets pretty interesting.
The top of the spire of the tower, unlike the lower floors, is reserved for specialist
window cleaners, who brave the heights and high winds, dangling on ropes to clean and
inspect the top of the pinnacle.
Under normal conditions, when all building maintenance units are operational, it takes
36 workers three to four months to clean the entire exterior façade.
1 - Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal is recognized as 'the jewel
of Muslim art in India', the Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.
Often mistaken as a palace, this famous landmark was actually built as a tomb for the Emperor's
wife after she died giving birth to their 14th child.
The Taj Mahal is regarded as one of the finest examples of Mughal architecture – an amalgamation
of Persian, Turkish and Indian styles.
Construction on the mausoleum began in 1632 and was completed in 1648.
The surrounding buildings and gardens took another five years to finish.
The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia, and it’s believed
that over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials.
The most spectacular feature is the marble dome that surmounts the tomb.
The dome is nearly 115 ft high which is close in measurement to the length of the base,
and accentuated by the cylindrical "drum" it sits on which is approximately 23 ft high.
Because of its shape, the dome is often called an onion dome.
The top is decorated with a lotus design which also serves to accentuate its height.
The Taj Mahal is considered on many lists to be the greatest wonder of the modern world,
and it’s no surprise why it was #1 on this countdown!
Here’s what’s next!