Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia
Friday, 13 January 2017 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Gulf States / GolfstaatenCategory/Kategorie: General, Architecture, Design & Products Reading Time: 7 minutes Jeddah Tower, previously known as Kingdom Tower and Mile-High Tower, is a skyscraper under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at a preliminary cost of SR4.6 billion (US$1.23 billion). If completed as planned, the Jeddah Tower will reach unprecedented heights becoming the tallest building in the world, as well as the first structure to reach the one-kilometer-high mark. Initially planned to be 1.6 km (1 mile) high, the geology of the area proved unsuitable for a tower of that height. The design, created by American architect Adrian Smith, who also designed Burj Khalifa in Dubai, incorporates many unique structural and aesthetic features. The large, outdoor sky terrace will overlook the Red Sea from over 610 metres (2,000 ft) height and have an area of over 697 square metres (7,500 sq ft). The creator and leader of the project is Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the wealthiest man in the Middle East, grandson of Ibn Saud, and nephew of the Kings of Saudi Arabia after him. Al-Waleed is the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) which is a partner in Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), which was formed in 2009 for the development of Jeddah Tower and City.
It will be the centrepiece and first phase of a SR75 billion (US$20 billion) proposed development known as Jeddah Economic City that will be located along the Red Sea on the north side of Jeddah. The development of Jeddah Tower seeks to bring great changes in terms of development and tourism to the city of Jeddah, which is considered the most liberal city in Saudi Arabia. Reception of the proposal has been highly polarized; it has received high praise from some as a culturally significant icon that will symbolize the nation’s wealth and power, while others question its socioeconomic motives, and forecast that it will have negative financial consequences. It is estimated that Jeddah Tower will have slightly over 167 floors.
The triangular footprint and sloped exterior of Jeddah Tower is designed to reduce wind loads; its high surface area also makes it ideal for residential use. The overall design of the tower, which will be located near both the Red Sea and the mouth of the Obhur Creek (Sharm Ob’hur) where it widens as it meets the Red Sea, as well as having frontage on a man-made waterway and harbor that will be built around it, is intended to look like a desert plant shooting upwards as a symbol of Saudi Arabia’s growth and future, as well as to add prominence to Jeddah’s status as the gateway into the holy city of Mecca. The designer’s vision was “one that represents the new spirit in Saudi Arabia” (Smith). The 23 hectare (57 acre) area around Jeddah Tower will contain public space and a shopping mall, as well as other residential and commercial developments, and be known as the Jeddah Tower Water Front District, of which, the tower’s site alone will take up 500,000 m2 (5,381,955 sq ft). As with many other very tall skyscrapers, including the Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, which is generally considered to have sparked the recent significant commercial developments around it in the district of Olaya, much of the intention of Jeddah Tower is to be symbolic as well as to raise the surrounding land value rather than its own profitability. To that effect, the tower’s architect, Adrian Smith, said that the tower “evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground–a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it”. Smith states that the tower will create a landmark in which it and the surrounding Jeddah Economic City are interdependent. Talal Al Maiman, a board member of Jeddah Economic Company, said, “Jeddah Tower will be a landmark structure that will greatly increase the value of the hundreds of other properties around it in Jeddah Economic City and indeed throughout North Jeddah.” The concept of profitability derived from building high density developments and malls around such a landmark was taken from the Burj Khalifa, where it has proven successful, as its surrounding malls, hotels and condominiums in the area known as Downtown Dubai have generated the most considerable revenue out of that project as a whole, while the Burj Khalifa itself made little or no profit.
Read more on Kingdom Holding Company and Wikipedia Jeddah Tower (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.
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