[Image: Freerange Stock]
Although not yet 100% official, “credible” rumours are gaining momentum that a ridiculously tall skyscraper planned for Saudi Arabia is going ahead.
At 2km high, the over-the-top building will dwarf all other man-made structures found on Earth, including the 828-metre Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Dubai outlet MEED reports the skyscraper will be part of a larger ongoing project near Riyadh named the North Pole and is being designed by prestigious British studio Foster + Partners.
At over twice the height of Burj Khalifa, which is the world’s current tallest building, it will be far taller than even the planned JEC Tower, which is also in Saudi Arabia, and around 3.5 times the height of the USA’s tallest building, the One World Trade Center.
While Saudi Arabia seems obsessed with building the biggest everything, the construction of a 2km tower will have some serious engineering challenges, with the wind at such heights enough to crush a normal building, while even the ground itself may not be able to support its weight. And then the engineers will have to contend with possible earthquakes, known to happen in the region, as well.
The budget for a tower this mad is expected to reach $5 billion, but besides the lofty idea gaining traction, there have been no details about when construction could start, or even a rendered image of what a building like this could look like.
According to MEED, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is financing much of the current building boom in the country, only recently invited firms to bid to handle the project management, so it’s very early days.
[Source: MEED]
