Architect Gordon Gill spoke at Bloomberg Businessweek's second annual design conference about how innovative design techniques can be used to make buildings and cities more energy-efficient.
Press Release:
AS+GG Designs Kingdom Tower, to Be the World’s Tallest Building.
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is pleased to announce that it is designing Kingdom Tower, to be the world’s tallest building, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea.
At over 1,000 meters and a total construction area of 530,000 square meters (5.7 million square feet), Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development on a 5.3 million-square-meter site in north Jeddah. The tower’s height will be at least 173 meters (568 feet) taller than the world’s current tallest building, Dubai’s 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Kingdom Tower will feature a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, Class A office space, luxury condominiums and the world’s highest observatory.
Design development of the tower is under way, with construction to begin imminently. Foundation drawings are complete and the piling for the tower is currently being tendered. Kingdom Tower will cost approximately $1.2 billion to construct, while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be $20 billion.
AS+GG is leading an interdisciplinary design team that also includes building services engineering consultants Environmental Systems Design, Inc. (ESD) and structural engineering consultants Thornton Tomasetti. The developer of Kingdom City, Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), selected the scheme after a lengthy competition process in which SOM, Pickard Chilton, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pelli Clarke Pelli and Foster + Partners also participated.
“Our vision for Kingdom Tower is one that represents the new spirit of Saudi Arabia,” said Smith, whose experience in supertall tower design at SOM also includes Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, Nanjing Greenland Financial Center in Nanjing, China, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago and Pearl River Tower, now in the late stages of construction in Guangzhou, China. “This tower symbolizes the Kingdom as an important global business and cultural leader, and demonstrates the strength and creative vision of its people. It represents new growth and high-performance technology fused into one powerful iconic form. ”
The project is the brainchild of His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, nephew of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and chairman of Kingdom Holding Company, which is a partner in Jeddah Economic Company along with prominent Jeddah businessmen Samaual Bakhsh and Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly and Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). SBG is also the contractor for Kingdom Tower.
“Prince Alwaleed, Mr. Bakhsh, Mr. Sharbatly and I were impressed by the boldness and simplicity of the AS+GG design,” said Talal Al Maiman, Executive Director, Development and Domestic Investments, a Board member of Kingdom Holding Company and a board member of JEC. Mr. Al Maiman was personally involved in selecting the AS+GG scheme. “Kingdom Tower’s height is remarkable, obviously, but the building’s iconic status will not depend solely on that aspect. Its form is brilliantly sculpted, making it quite simply one of the most beautiful buildings in the world of any height.”
In addition to its status as an architectural landmark and economic symbol, Kingdom Tower will enjoy great cultural significance. “We envision Kingdom Tower as an iconic new marker of Jeddah’s historic importance as the traditional gateway to the holy city of Mecca,” Mr. Al Maiman said. He noted that the southeast leg of Kingdom Tower’s tripedal base is on a direct line with the Ka’ba in Mecca, Islam’s holiest site.
AS+GG’s design for Kingdom Tower is both highly
technological and distinctly organic. “With its slender, subtly asymmetrical
massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground—a
burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it,” Mr. Smith said.
The sleek, streamlined form of the tower was
inspired by the folded fronds of young desert plant growth, Gordon Gill added.
“The way the fronds sprout upward from the ground as a single form, then start
separating from each other at the top, is an analogy of new growth fused with
technology,” he said. “We’re thrilled to be working with His Highness and
Jeddah Economic Company to help define this path for the Kingdom.”
While the design is contextual to Saudi Arabia,
it also represents an evolution and a refinement of an architectural continuum
of skyscraper design. The three-petal footprint is ideal for residential units,
and the tapering wings produce an aerodynamic shape that helps reduce
structural loading due to wind vortex shedding. The Kingdom Tower design
embraces its architectural pedigree, taking full advantage of the proven design
strategies and technological strategies of its lineage, refining and advancing
them to achieve new heights.
The result is an elegant, cost-efficient and
highly constructible design that is at once grounded in built tradition and
aggressively forward-looking, taking advantage of new and innovative thinking
about technology, building materials, life-cycle considerations and energy
conservation. For example, the project will feature a high-performance exterior
wall system that will minimize energy consumption by reducing thermal loads. In
addition, each of Kingdom Tower’s three sides features a series of notches that
create pockets of shadow that shield areas of the building from the sun and
provide outdoor terraces with stunning views of Jeddah and the Red Sea.
The
great height of Kingdom Tower necessitates one of the world’s most
sophisticated elevator systems. The Kingdom Tower complex will contain 59
elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along
with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of
10 meters per second in both directions.
Another unique feature of the design is a sky
terrace, roughly 30 meters (98 feet) in diameter, at level 157. It is an
outdoor amenity space intended for use by the penthouse floor.
AS+GG also designed the master plan for the
23-hectare Kingdom Tower Waterfront District, which surrounds the tower and
which will include residential and commercial buildings, a shopping mall,
high-quality outdoor spaces and other amenities. The Waterfront District
provides a cohesive and pedestrian-friendly setting for Kingdom Tower while
creating a pleasant neighborhood experience along the Kingdom City lakefront.
The district encompasses a high-end shopping
mall designed by AS+GG, plus additional development parcels that accommodate
commercial and high-density residential uses, offices, two luxury hotels and
high-quality open spaces, including the central Tower Plaza. A serene
waterfront promenade connects Kingdom Tower, the various development parcels,
the open space areas and the mall together. The result is an exciting mixed-use
area that offers a concentrated and comprehensive experience including vibrant
shopping, entertainment and open-space amenities. The Waterfront District also
provides an array of connections to other areas within Kingdom City’s overall
master plan, designed by HOK Architects.
About
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is
dedicated to the design of high-performance architecture in a wide range of
typology and scale, from low- and mid-rise residential, commercial and cultural
buildings to mixed-use supertall towers and new cities. The office uses a
holistic, integrated design approach that explores symbiotic relationships with
the natural environment. AS+GG is currently working on projects for clients in
the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China, India, South Korea, Malaysia,
Canada and the United States. The partnership was founded in 2006 by Adrian
Smith, Gordon Gill and Robert Forest. For more information,
please visit http://www.smithgill.com
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