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The enormous steel ball you see in the photos (and the incredible video below) is the world’s largest ‘tuned mass damper’ and sits near the top of the world’s largest completed skyscraper on earth, taipei 101 in taiwan. the idea behind a tuned mass damper is quite simple: as a building sways (resulting from high winds, earthquakes etc), its tuned mass damper, essentially a finely tuned and ridiculously heavy pendulum, will move in opposition to the structure’s oscillations and minimise any movement. if that makes no sense, watch the crude gif below. due to both the immense size of taipei...

The world's tallest building, still under construction in the booming Gulf emirate of Dubai, has become the world's tallest free-standing structure, its developers said on Thursday. The Burj Dubai tower is now 555 metres (1,831.5 feet) tall and has surpassed the 553-metre- (1,824.9-feet) CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, which held the record for the world's tallest free-standing structure since 1976, developers Emaar Properties said in a statement. The skyscraper, being built by South Korea's Samsung and set for completion at the end of next year, is one of several mega projects taking shape in Dubai, which is part of the...

TAIPEI, Taiwan - The weight of the world's tallest skyscraper — specially built to withstand Taiwan's frequent earthquakes — could be causing a rise in the number of tremors beneath it, a professor from the island wrote in a scientific journal

Taipei 101 is a building with a lot to boast about. Standing 508 metres (1,667ft) high, it is the world's tallest. And at 700,000 tonnes, it must be among the heaviest. But the sheer size of the Taiwan skyscraper has raised unexpected concerns that may have far-reaching implications for the construction of other buildings and man-made megastructures. Taipei 101 is thought to have triggered two recent earthquakes because of the stress that it exerts on the ground beneath it. According to the geologist Cheng Horng Lin, from the National Taiwan Normal University, the stress from the skyscraper may have reopened...

Taipei 101 (link for photos - http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=100765 ) Location Street 8, Sung-Chih Road District Xinyi [Hsinyi]* City Taipei Country Taiwan Technical Data Height (tip) * Height (struct.) 509 m 1,671 ft Height (roof) * Height (main roof) * Height (top floor) * Height (obs. floor) * Height (obs. deck) * Floors (OG) 101 Floors (UG) * Floor overview * Construction start * Construction end 2004 GFA * UFA * Height Floor-to-ceiling * Elevators * Escalators * Parking places * Building in General Type of construction high-rise building Structural materials * Facade systems * Facade materials * Facade colors * Main...

For now, the world's tallest building-to-be is just a flower-shaped concrete tattoo on the desert sands, but its pilings are already in place, plunging 160 feet into the earth. When it's finished, visitors will swoon over this city from 123 stories high, if not more. In fact the Burj Dubai will be much higher, the developers say - dozens of stories taller than skyscrapers in Taiwan, Chicago or anywhere else. But they are keeping the exact height a secret to flummox competitors in the world's furious race for the title of tallest skyscraper. "We're going to records never approached...

It resembles a giant bamboo shoot, can carry people more than a kilometre skyward in less than 40 seconds, and yesterday it was officially declared the world's tallest building. The 508 metre tall building in Taipei's Hsinyi district is 56 metres taller than the previous record holder, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. The opening of Taipei 101 - a reference to the number of floors - was attended by local dignitaries keen to bask in the glory of one of Asia's most ambitious engineering projects ever. As an opera company entertained the crowd, the world's fastest passenger lifts whisked...

TAIPEI : Taiwan has opened the world's tallest building, Taipei 101, after six years of construction and hailed the 508-meter (1,676 feet) skyscraper for already resisting several powerful earthquakes. "Taipei 101 has been through the challenges of the September 21 and March 31 quakes," said President Chen Shui-bian at the opening ceremony. "The glory and success of Taipei didn't belong to one single mayor but all of the citizens," he added. Chen oversaw the start of Taiwan's largest engineering project when he was mayor of Taipei in 1998. Taiwan's worst tremor, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, struck in September...