The Tallest 20 in 2020: Entering an Era of Mega Tall
Within this decade, we are likely to witness not only the world's first 1 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. Prior to the completion of the Burj Khalifa, such types of structures 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 an 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.
The projected 20 tallest buildings in 2020, all of which are over 500 meters and eight can be classified as "megatall" (600 meters) © Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
1"Future Tallest" Criteria: Buildings included in this study are either built, under construction or considered real proposals. Projects that have commenced construction, but with works currently halted, are also included if there is a strong possibility of the project progressing to final completion. A real proposal can be considered as such if it has: a specific site with ownership interests within the building development team; a full professional design team progressing the design beyond the conceptual stage; formal planning consent/legal permission for construction (or is in the process of obtaining such permission); and a full intention to progress the building to construction and completion. Furthermore, this research only considers projects that are within the public domain and have the consent for inclusion from the respective client-consultant teams. Because of this multi-faceted inclusion criteria, a number of prominent projects were not included in the study, including: India Tower, Mumbai; Triple One, Seoul; Hyundai Global Business Center, Seoul; and Zhongguo Zun, Beijing.
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NBM&CW November 2014
