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Paul Chong / Thursday, 13 November 2014

The Shanghai Tower is a super tall skyscraper under construction in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai. Construction work on the tower began in November 2008. Upon its completion in 2014, the building will stand approximately 632 metres (2,073 ft) high and will have 121 stories, with a total floor area of 380,000 m2 (4,090,000 sq ft).

The Shanghai Tower will be the tallest building in China and the second-tallest in the world, surpassed by the Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates.

A mind boggling concept becoming a reality . . . was thought to be unbuildable . . . a superstructure uniquely its own . . . never been built or attempted by others before.

Shanghai is the largest metropolis in the world, burdened with a teeming population of 23 millions & still growing. The concept of Shanghai Tower to accommodate millions vertically without the horizontal spread of the metropolis. It is designed:

• to have people living, working & playing without the

  hassle of travelling by car.

• to have gardens, parks & greenery with clean air

• a city within a city to cope with accommodating

  its teeming population with shops, offices, hotels

  & restaurants all within easy reach at each level.

For more than a hundred years, Shanghai has been China’s super powerhouse. It is expanding unchecked and showing no sign of slowing down. The city is reaching a crisis point & some solutions have to be found & found quick before modern decay sets in.

Present city is a tough place to live, squalid, unhygienic & environmentally unfriendly . . . pointing in the direction of a radical change before life in Shanghai becomes unbearable.

Shanghai Bund is the famous old part of the city, a financial centre where people live, work , shop & relax. Shanghai Tower essentially is designed to be much like the Bund area but on a vertical scale. An excellent idea where land & space are of premium price.

When there is so limited space horizontally, the only sensible way is to build upwards . . . reach for the sky. Shanghai Tower is a solid core reaching up a third of a mile . . . a vision of standing tall & supreme above the squalid foul air below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCbLNu6hzxI&feature=player_detailpage