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Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture designed The
Kingdom Tower, to be the world’s tallest building about 1000+m, in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea.
Supertall building experts Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill are to complete
the design for a stunning new tower to anchor the proposed $20bn Kingdom
City masterplanning project in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The firm carefully
quashed internet rumours that they were working on a ‘mile-high’ tower,
yet did not deny involvement in the Kingdom Tower scheme. This morning
His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud,
nephew of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and chairman of Kingdom Holding
Company officially announced AS+GG as design architects of the project
to awaiting media.
Reassuringly elegant for a tower of such epic proportions – the
completed Kingdom Tower will soar at over 1000m (at least 173m taller
than the Burj Khalifa which currently holds the title of the world’s
tallest building) with a total construction area of 530,000 sq m – the
structure is being touted as a new marker of Jeddah’s importance as a
gateway to the city of Mecca and has been directly inspired by the
folded fronds of a young desert plant. Adrian Smith details: “With its
slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of
leaves shooting up from the ground – a burst of new life that heralds
more growth all around it.”
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Smith’s partner Gordon Gill continues: “The way the fronds sprout upward
from the ground as a single form, then start separating from each other
at the top, is an analogy of the new growth fused with technology.” The
graceful needle is also designed to symbolise the city of Jeddah as an
economic power and cultural leader, with a focus on the ‘strength and
creative vision of its people’.
Aside from the initial ‘wow-factor’ of the building’s statistics, AS+GG
have been applauded for their sensitive design aesthetic. Talal Al
Maiman, Executive Director, Development and Domestic Investments, a
Board member of Kingdom Holding Company and a board member of JEC
commented: “Prince Alwaleed, Mr. Bakhsh, Mr. Sharbatly and I were
impressed by the boldness and simplicity of the AS+GG design. Kingdom
Tower’s height is remarkable, obviously, but the building’s iconic
status will not depend solely on that aspect. Its form is brilliantly
sculpted, making it quite simply one of the most beautiful buildings in
the world of any height.”
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Encased in the new spire’s glimmering façade will be a Four Seasons
hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, Class A office Space, luxury
condominiums and the world’s highest observatory. 59 elevators using the
world’s most high-tech systems will be installed to provide ease of
access, with 54 single-deck and 5 double-deck systems. The residential
aspect has influenced the three-petal footprint of the design with
tapering wings introducing an aerodynamic shape to reduce structural
loading due to wind vortex shedding. All three sides of the Kingdom
Tower sport a series of notches which form specifically engineered areas
of shadow designed to fall on the outdoor terraces facing the city and
Red Sea.
AS+GG is leading an interdisciplinary design team that also includes
building services engineering consultants Environmental Systems Design,
Inc. (ESD) and structural engineering consultants Thornton Tomasetti.
The developer of Kingdom City, Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), selected
the AS+GG scheme after a lengthy competition process in which SOM,
Pickard Chilton, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pelli Clarke Pelli and Foster +
Partners also participated.
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