Middle East pioneers confirmed for Asia congress
Firms that shaped the Middle East, take knowledge to China
The Middle East’s top design and engineering professionals are confirmed to speak at the CTBUH’s Shanghai Congress.
Drawing reference on their Middle East experience, Richard Tomasetti, founding principal of Thornton Tomasetti Structural Engineers and Burj Khalifa designer Adrian Smith will join Arup, AECOM, Buro Happold, Gensler, KONE Elevators and others to speak about the future of vertical cities and supertall construction in Asia, during “Asia Ascending: Age of the Sustainable Skyscraper City”.
Several of China’s leading developers, architects and engineers are also confirmed as speakers for the event, which is the council’s 9th World Congress.
“This will undoubtedly be the most significant conference we have held in recent history,” said Timothy Johnson, chairman of the CTBUH.
“Asia is at the forefront of all the questions facing tall building construction. How do you make skyscrapers a sustainable building type? What is the full impact on a city of developing vertically?” He continues.
Chicago-based architecture practice Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architects, designers of current world’s tallest record for Burj Khalifa and designers of Saudi Arabia’s soon to be world record holder, Kingdom Tower, won a competition to design China’s third tallest building, the 606 metre Wuhan Greenland Center. It will be the fourth tallest building in the world upon completion in 2017.
Worldwide, there are currently 50 buildings around the world which surpass the 300 metre mark; eight of these were completed in 2012 and four are higher than 400 metres.
Additionally, 66 buildings of 200 metres or higher were also completed in 2010, breaking the previous record set in 2007, when 48 such structures were completed.
According to the CTBUH, this represents a 40% change in the world’s tallest ten buildings in a single year; a feat which hasn’t happened since 1930, when America was leading a skyscraper revolution.
