The Most Wondrous Asian Skyscrapers

Taipei Financial Center (C.Y. Lee and Partners, Taipei, 2004)

Expected to capture the title of world's tallest building when completed in 2004, the Taipei Financial Center will present a new model for the Asian skyscraper, one explicitly evocative of traditional Chinese architecture. Designed as a segmented shaft of eight outward sloping segments, the tower resembles a giant glass pagoda. The green tinted glass cladding is meant to mimic the color of jade. The segments, consisting of eight floors, lean out slightly, creating the distinctly stacked or tiered silhouette.

The tower is dressed in ornamental motifs drawn from traditional Chinese architectural sources. Large scale ornamental elements and auspicious emblems cap each segment. Medallions grace the center of the tower, while decorative features protrude from the corners. An elaborate, stylized spire, 1,667 feet (508 meters) high, will top the structure. Lee's architecture employs botanical as well as traditional architectural themes. Each eight story segment has been likened to a segment of a bamboo stalk, and the whole project evokes, in the words of the architect, a sense of "petal-like" blooming, giving the tower a sense of "upgrading and fullness." Which are important concepts in Chinese culture.

Despite its historical references, the tower introduces a number of pioneering technological innovations. A giant pendulum suspended from the ninety second floor acts as a passive mass damper, reducing the building sway at the top of the tower, and counteracting the lateral forces induced by high winds and earthquakes. Other technical innovations include high speed pressurized elevators that will travel at record breaking speeds. They will reach the observation deck in just thirty nine seconds.