This August, Kingdom Holding, the investment firm headed by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, signed a 1.23 billion USD deal with the Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) to build the world’s tallest tower.
The proposed building, which will surge more than 1,000 metres and take just over five years to complete, is the centrepiece of the planned 5.3 million square metre Kingdom City development being built north of Jeddah, overlooking the Red Sea and Obhur Creek. “Building this tower in Jeddah sends a financial and economic message that should not be ignored,” Prince Alwaleed affirmed. “It has a political depth to it, to tell the world that we Saudis invest in our country despite what is happening around us.”
The Kingdom Tower, which is to include a Four Seasons hotel, serviced apartments, luxury condominiums and offices, as well as the highest observatory in the world, will be designed by Chicago-based architecture firm AS+GG (Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill), who have already penned some of our planet’s tallest buildings including the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, U.S.A, and the Pearl River Tower, currently under construction in Guangzhou, China.
This latest design is both highly technological and distinctly organic. “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,” says architect Adrian Smith, describing how its form is inspired by the folded fronds of desert plant growths. But exactly where those ‘leaves’ will reach, few know for certain. “It’s not a thousand metres. It’s more, could be more by many metres but the figure is a secret and only a select number of people know,” explained HRH Prince Alwaleed.
Initially slated as the ‘Mile-High’ tower, that was soon changed for fear the soil could not actually support the foundations of a 1.6 kilometre high building. Nevertheless, once completed the tower will replace Dubai’s 160-story, 828-metre Burj Khalifa as the tallest in the world, and by some margin. More importantly it will be built for less money - as much as 270 million USD less. That’s good news for its developers, who comprise: Kingdom Holding (33.35 per cent), Abrar International Holding (33.35 per cent), Saudi Binladin Group (16.63 per cent), and businessman Abdurrahman Sharbatly (16.67 per cent). Prince Alwaleed reaffirmed this point by stating, “This project will provide sustainable profits to Kingdom Holding shareholders.”
Of course, an immediate return on investment isn’t solely what this building is about. Rather the Kingdom Tower is an attempt to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and expand non oil-based industries. A fitting mission, let’s just hope it won’t be another white elephant.
Caption: Each of Kingdom Tower’s three sides features a series of notches that create pockets of shadow to help minimise energy consumption and shield areas of the building from the sun, providing outdoor terraces with stunning views of Jeddah and the Red Sea.
Caption 2: The Kingdom Tower is so big that it would take an elevator 12 minutes to reach the top. As such it will feature one of the world’s most sophisticated elevator systems, encompassing 59 elevators in all.
