ArchiTeam News

MILE HIGH INTO THE SKY: The Kingdom Tower

Description

Kingdom Tower previously known as Mile-High Tower, is a super tall skyscraper approved for construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at a preliminary cost of SR4.6 billion (US$1.23 billion). It will be the centrepiece and first phase of a US$20 billion (SR75 billion) proposed development known as Kingdom City that will be located along the Red Sea on the north side of Jeddah.

If completed as planned, the tower will reach unprecedented heights, becoming the tallest building in the world, as well as the first structure to reach the one-kilometre mark. The tower was initially planned to be 1.6-kilometre (1 mile) high; however, the geography of the area proved unsuitable for a tower of that height.

MILE HIGH INTO THE SKY: The Kingdom Tower_2

MILE HIGH INTO THE SKY: The Kingdom Tower_2

The design, created by architect Adrian Smith, incorporates many unique structural and aesthetic features. The creator and leader of the project is Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the wealthiest Arab in the Middle East, and nephew of King Abdullah. Talal is the chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), the largest company in Saudi Arabia, which owns the project, and a partner in Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), which was formed in 2009 for the development of Kingdom Tower and City. Reception of the proposal has been highly polarized, receiving 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 actually have negative financial consequences.

The plan gives the Middle East a clear lead over Asian countries and the U.S., who have viewed in the past to construct the world's tallest buildings. None of the other skyscrapers under construction, including New York's Freedom Tower on the World Trade Centre site, will exceed 2,296ft. The Kingdom Tower will also exceed Dubai’s 3,281-foot Nakheel Harbour and Tower, whose construction was put on hold. The height of skyscrapers is dictated by interest rates rather than structural feasibility.

MILE HIGH INTO THE SKY: The Kingdom Tower_3

MILE HIGH INTO THE SKY: The Kingdom Tower_3

The recent announcement of the tower has provoked widespread and highly divided reaction throughout the media. Those who support the project see it as an investment that, although visionary, will have positive social and economic effects on the area as well as the country in the long term, while others see it as nothing more than the result of self-centered and attention seeking competition between oil-rich gulf nations that will serve no purpose other than as a white elephant, costing more and generating less than expected, if it even gets built.

Experts say the technical challenges are enormous. Much of the lifting will be carried out by helicopters, which will also be used as commuter transport for builders. The tower will have to be capable of withstanding a wide range of temperatures, with its top baking in the desert sun by day but dropping to well below freezing at night.

To resist the strong winds prevalent in the area and stop it swaying, giving its occupants a form of high-rise seasickness, it will be fitted with a giant computer-operated damper.

The inspiration

The Mile High Illinois, Illinois Sky-City, or simply The Illinois was a proposed skyscraper that would have been 1 mile (1,600 m) high, envisioned by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956. The design, intended to be built in Chicago, would have included 528 stories, with a gross area of 18,460,000 square feet (1,715,000 m2). Had it been built, it would have been the tallest building in the world by far, being more than four times the height of the then tallest building in the world, the Empire State Building, and it would be nearly twice as tall as the world's current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

MILE HIGH INTO THE SKY: The Kingdom Tower_4

MILE HIGH INTO THE SKY: The Kingdom Tower_4

This is arguably the most famous of the semi-serious visionary buildings meant to be an alternative to the increasing urban sprawl occurring in most cities. None of these has ever been viewed as financially feasible.

The design of the Burj Khalifa tower is said to have been inspired by that of The Illinois and the Kingdom Tower is said to be inspired by its name... “Mile High Tower”.

MILE HIGH INTO THE SKY: The Kingdom Tower_5

MILE HIGH INTO THE SKY: The Kingdom Tower_5

The design

The triangular footprint and sloped exterior of Kingdom Tower is designed to reduce wind loads; its high surface area also makes it ideal for residential units. The overall design of the tower, which will be located near both the Red Sea and the mouth of the Obhur Creek where it widens as it meets the Red Sea, as well as having frontage on a man-made waterway and harbour 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”. The 23 hectare (57 acre) area around Kingdom Tower will contain public space and a shopping mall, as well as other residential and commercial developments, and be known as the Kingdom Tower Water Front District, of which, the tower's site alone will take up 500,000 m2

The building will have a total of 59 elevators, five of which will be double-deck elevators, as well as 12 escalators. It will also have the highest observation deck in the world, to which high speed elevators will travel at up to 10 meters (33 feet) per second (slightly over 35 km/h (22 mph)) in both directions. The elevators cannot go faster because the rapid change in air pressure over that much distance would be nauseating; at 914 m (3,000 ft), the air pressure is over 10 kPa (1.5 psi) lower than at ground level (about 10% less air pressure). They must also be efficient so the cables are not unbearably heavy. Even as such, the elevator distance limit is about 570 metres (1,870 ft) before the cables become inevitably too heavy and the motor size impractical; Kingdom Tower will have three sky lobbies where elevator transfers can be made, no elevator will go from the bottom to the highest occupied floor. No official floor count has been given, however Smith stated in a television interview that it will be about 50 floors over the Burj Khalifa, which has 163 occupied floors, leading to the inference that Kingdom Tower will have well over 200 floors.

The tower will also feature a large, roughly 30 m (98 ft) diameter outdoor balcony, known as the sky terrace, on one side of the building for private use by the penthouse floor at level 157; it is not the observation deck. It was originally intended to be a helipad, but it was revealed to be an unsuitable landing environment by helicopter pilots. The building's large notches will also serve as shaded terraces for other areas of the tower and the exterior of the building will use low-conducive glass to save on cooling costs by reducing thermal loads. In addition, the lower air density, exacerbated by the thin desert atmosphere, will cause the outdoor air temperature towards the top of the tower to be lower than the ground level air, which will provide natural cooling. There is also significantly more air flow (wind) at heights, which is very strong at one kilometre and had a large impact on the structural design of the tower. The Burj Khalifa actually takes in the cooler, cleaner air from the top floors and uses it to air condition the building. Kingdom Tower will be oriented such that no façade directly faces the sun; it will also use the condensate water from the air conditioning system for irrigation and other purposes throughout the building.

General information
Height: ≥1000 m (3,280.84 ft) (exact figures are not discussed but it would definitely be much higher than Nakheel Tower as its construction have been stopped)
Type: Mixed-use; office, hotel, residential, apartments, observation, retail etc
Floor count: >200 total
≥160 habitable
Floor area: 530,000 sq m (5,704,873 sq ft)
Elevator count: 59
Architectural style: Super tall skyscraper
Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Builder: Kingdom Holdings
Architect: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architects
Developer: Kingdom Holdings
Construction started: August–December 2011 (planned)
Concept: Approved
Completion: 2016–2017

Text by Sudeep Singh.

Sudeep Singh is an International Partner of ArchiTeam in India since November 2011.

ARCHITRAVEL ALL OVER THE WORLD