At first glimpse the Central markets development looks like a structure off a scene in the Matrix. But it’s surprisingly going to be built in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, an ex-soviet, landlocked oil rich country. Another ingenious design from architects Foster + Partners, Central markets would be a mini-city development with a staggered matrix of buildings designed to look like a three dimensional bar chart comprising of a retail/leisure podium and hotel cluster at its base and then a series of office and residential towers to its north.
Standing at a huge 382m (1273 feet) over 88-storeys, intricately designed Central markets would classify as a supertall, by. At the base of the development there are plans to build a “traditional” Kazakh market in the retail/leisure podium and a specially solar insulated winter garden the size of a football pitch with an adjusted temperature of 10C (50F) in the chilling Kazakh winters of -30C.
Continue reading ‘Central Markets Astana Kazakhstan (Abu Dhabi Plaza) - a Matrix Mini-city’
We do love our super-talls and this development for us is a real special - Los Faros de Panama, which means ‘Panama’s Lighthouses’ is to be a triple-tower, mixed-use super-tall Panamian development located in the Punta Pacífica area of Panama City.
Continue reading ‘Los Faros de Panama (Panama’s Lighthouses)’
This is just a quick update on the massive Burj Dubai development, showing a happy band of construction workers as they reached the world record height of 601 meters - No champagne, we see - can’t imagine why.
As the tower has continued to grow, it is becoming the dominant landmark on the Dubai skyline, this is a selection of photos taken at the end of February - beginning of March. They are taken from a variety of positions around the city and already the major feature is the Burj Dubai skyscraper.
Continue reading ‘Burj Dubai Photo Update’
Hardly do we get this confused about a project. The project in question is The Landmark in Abu Dhabi (UAE), which apparently, belongs to Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (under Abu Dhabi’s Department of the President Affairs).
The Pelli Clarke Pelli designed 80+ storey building would be Abu Dhabi’s tallest spanning over 1,100 feet (335.28m).
Apart from the main contractors changing from Bauer Intl to Al Habtoor engineering, we have not been able to get our hands on rendered images of its side or back but can confirm (from the pictures below) that contruction has begun & gone above ground level already.
If you would like to track this project, we suggest you check out Al Habtoor Engineering’s official website.
The Team
Here is the team:
Construction photos:
London’s Super Tall - The Shard London Bridge Tower
Finally….yes finally the Shard London Bridge is slowly but surely becoming a reality. For those of you that have been living in the ice ages, the Shard London Bridge is set to become the UK’s & Western Europe’s tallest building standing at an intimidating 310 metres (1,016 feet) and spanning over 72 floors. It is to replace the 28 year old Southwark Tower, a 24 storey office building located on 32 London Bridge Street.
The Shard according to the developers, Sellar Property Group is a mixed use ‘vertical city’ that would include a public piazza, Europe’s first Shangri-La Hotel, 5-star restaurants, a public viewing gallery, offices, shops & the highest residential apartments in the UK.
Comparison of The Shard to other Landmarks in London
Continue reading ‘The Shard London Bridge finally on a full thrust’
Construction of Naberezhnaya Tower (Moscow International Business Centre) in Presnenskaya embankment area of the Kremlin (Central Moscow), Russia has been completed.
Naberezhnaya Tower incorporates three “A” class office buildings of different heights of 17, 27 and 61 floors. The completion of the 17 and 27-Storey buildings in October 2004 & October 2005 respectively, marked Phase I construction and Phase II’s construction of the third 61-storey skyscraper (Europe’s tallest building) which begun in January 2005 was completed in December 2007.
Continue reading ‘The Naberezhnaya Tower, Moscow - Europe’s Tallest Building’
The Chicago Spire is a supertall skyscraper under construction in Chicago, Illinois. The skyscraper will become North America’s tallest free-standing structure and the world’s tallest all-residential building, eventually standing taller than Chicago’s Sears Tower and New York’s upcoming Freedom Tower, as well as Toronto’s CN Tower. The building was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and is being developed by Garrett Kelleher of Shelbourne Development Group, Inc. The Chicago Spire is scheduled to be completed in 2011 with 150 floors.
Continue reading ‘Chicago Spire Caisson Construction’
At first glimpse the Central markets development looks like a structure off a scene in the Matrix. But it’s surprisingly going to be built in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, an ex-soviet, landlocked oil rich country. Another ingenious design from architects Foster + Partners, Central markets would be a mini-city development with a staggered matrix of buildings designed to look like a three dimensional bar chart comprising of a retail/leisure podium and hotel cluster at its base and then a series of office and residential towers to its north.
