From the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat:
The Tallest 20 in 2020: Entering the Era of the Megatall
The projected world’s tallest 20 skyscrapers in the year 2020
...MUCH MOREChicago, December 8, 2011Within this decade we will likely witness not only the world’s first kilometer-tall building, but also the completion of a significant number of buildings over 600 meters (around 2,000 feet) – that’s twice the height of the Eiffel Tower. Two years ago, prior to the completion of the Burj Khalifa, this building type did not exist. And yet, by 2020, we can expect at least eight such buildings to exist internationally. The term “supertall” (which refers to a building over 300 meters) is thus no longer adequate to describe these buildings: we are entering the era of the “megatall.” This term is now officially being used by the Council to describe buildings over 600 meters in height, or double the height of a supertall (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Diagram of the predicted World's 20 Tallest in the year 2020 as of Dec 2011 © CTBUH View Larger
View the building selection criteria
As we started the 21st century, just 11 short years ago, the Petronas Towers held the title of “The World’s Tallest” at 452 meters (1,483 feet) in height. Taipei 101 took the title in 2004, at 508 meters (1,667 feet).Then, at the end of the decade, the Burj Khalifa set new standards at 828 meters (2,717 feet) – over half a mile high. Now, with work set to start on-site in January 2012 for Jeddah’s 1,000+ meter Kingdom Tower (see Figure 2), we can expect that in a mere two decades (2000–2020) the height of the “World’s Tallest Building” will have more than doubled.
Figure 3: The status of the “Tallest 20 in 2020” projects
© CTBUH View Larger
Figure 4: The location of the “Tallest 20 in 2020” projects © CTBUH View Larger
Figure 2: The world’s tallest is set to change yet again in
2018 with the completion of the Kingdom Tower
© Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Figure 5: The use of the “Tallest 20 in 2020” projects
© CTBUH View Larger
What is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the study is that the previous world’s tallest mentioned above now barely make the list at all. In just two decades Petronas will have gone from 1st to 27th tallest in the world, and Taipei 101 just scrapes into the study in 18th place. When we take into account that new projects not included in this study will surely be announced and built throughout the next decade, one can predict that, with the exception of the Burj Khalifa and Makkah Royal Clock Tower, all of the tallest 20 buildings in the year 2020 are not yet built (though a number are already under construction, see Figure 3).
The tremendous change that the tall building industry has seen in two decades is clearly shown by a juxtaposition of three skylines: the tallest 20 buildings in the year 2000, 2010, and 2020 (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: A study of the tallest 20 buildings per decade. © CTBUH It is also useful to understand the tallest 20 in 2020 in the context of global tall building trends. The average height of these twenty buildings is predicted to be 598 meters (1,962 feet). Yet, as we stand at the end of 2011, there are actually only 61 buildings currently in existence over 300 meters (the threshold for “supertall”). Until recently, in fact, the completion of a supertall was rather a rare occurrence, with only 15 supertalls completing in the 65 years between the world’s first such building (New York’s Chrysler Building, 1930) and 1995. It was only in the mid 1990s that it became common for more than one supertall to be added to the lists annually, with 1995 being the last year when no supertalls were completed. Now, less than two decades later, the number of supertalls completed annually has entered double digits, and is set to continue to rise. Meanwhile, the number of megatalls set to complete in the upcoming decade is similar to the number of supertalls completed in the 90s (see Figure 7). In terms of height, therefore, 600 m seems to be the new 300 m....
HT: Curbed Chicago Dec. 20, 2011
