Standing outside the Taibei World Trade Centre, which is just next door to the new ever-so-tall building, I couldn’t help noticing the fault running all along the length of the sidewalk. I was living near there in Xinyi District when the 921 earthquake struck, and there was a whole lot of shaking going on. I don’t feel very confident about the geology in that locality. I know what an earthquake feels like on the 12th floor of a building, never mind the 101st. Even without Osama bin Laden and China Airlines, there is no way I would ever accept a job working in that building!
Aaaaaaaaah, don’t be such a chickensh*t! That building is earthquake proof anyway. Aren’t you at all excited that you guys will have the world’s tallest building in your city?
Yeah, it’s earthquakeproof like China Airlines planes are crashproof.
Yeah but there’s no such thing as an earthquake proof building either. Sure you can design to withstand a magnitude 6 lateral shaker but what happens if there’s a vertical component. Whatever, but it seems the ‘height’ of human arrogance to put up the latest ‘World’s tallest’ in one of the most seismically active regions in the world. Bit like driving ‘unsinkable’ ocean liners full speed through ice fields really.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m pretty proud and excited to have the tallest building in the world in taipei.
Alright Aceman!!! I like your positive attitude!! That’s what I wanted to hear. Can’t say much about some of the other schmos here.
Tokyo, Los Angeles, San Francisco. All seismically active cities, all with skyscrapers. Nuff said.
I’m not sure how many of you are aware of this or how true this is, but actually according to many studies the taller a building is the more likely it can withstand an earthquake. Of course this would depend on what kind of earthquake occurs too. I remember not so long ago on Discovery Channel they were saying that 10-12 story buildings are quite dangerous.
The taller a building gets the less it sways, but because it is taller equaling out the movement of the building with the movement of the ground occurs naturally. The building sways in an opposite direction to the shaking on the ground. Such as that of a car sliding on ice, you turn the wheel in the opposite direction of the skid.
So if this is true then Taiwan should actually build more taller buildings.
Jeff
jeff@oriented.org
And they are!!
Kaohsiung has more skyscrapers than Taipei; more are in construction now and more are being developed especially with direct trade links with China imminent. This city may become a mini-Hong Kong in the future.
Even Taichung has more tall office towers than Taipei.
I have a friend working there and he says the 101 will withstand earthquakes up to a strength (is that the correct term?) of 10.
The construction is a steel frame covered with concrete and additional fire resistant padding.
Supposingly the whole construction is up to the latest standards and should, in theory, also withstand an airliner crashing into it (as the steel is covered it won’t melt, thus the floors shouldn’t collapse as happened to the WTC).
That would actually make it the safest skysraper in the world.
As for being taller = better: Fact is tall buildings (incl. masts and towers) need to sway as else it would be too much stress, causing structural damage and thus collapse.
Not sure if you can therefore conclude that taller actually means better.
I don’t know where you’re living but I’m living here in Taiwan where things are NEVER as they seem or advertised.
I just hope they hurry up and finish building it cuz i heard they just began construction on this building call Union something in HK that is supposed to be taller when finished. Other than that one, I don’t think there is currently any project in the world that has begun construction that will be taller than the Taipei financial center.
No it won’t. Union Square will be tallest in Hong Kong at 480 meters, but Taipei 101 will be taller at 508 meters.
Shanghai Financial Center, if ever built, might be taller than Taipei 101. The original design had it shorter than Taipei, but it might possibly get raised since the Chinese probably doesn’t want Taiwan to have the world’s tallest title.
I’m not even sure why HK is continuing to build office towers when its economy is in a slowdown and many companies are relocating to Shanghai. And where the hell did they even find land to build a Disney Land? You’d think the spare land would be used to build more affordable and spacious housing for those people who have to live in expensive cramped high rises.
Never say never.
[quote=“Rascal”]I have a friend working there and he says the 101 will withstand earthquakes up to a strength (is that the correct term?) of 10.
The construction is a steel frame bla bla blah.[/quote]
A 10 on the Richter scale is equivalent to the energy contained within about one trillion tons of TNT or the destructive yield of a 1,000 megaton nuclear weapon. I think you’re gonna have to see me after class… 
Mr. Pedantic here says that quakes are measured in magnitute (Richter) and intensity, but Monkey’s right – a Richter 10 would probably result in the whole of Taiwan sinking to the bottom of the sea.
Example: 5.2 is double the magnitude of 5.1, etc. (that’s right, isn’t it?). Do the math and a 10 would be … well, we probably wouldn’t suffer for very long. I don’t think many MOUNTAINS would be able to withstand it, far less a skyscraper.
Maybe it’s 10 on the Taiwanese scale?
I dunno, just quoting what my friend told me though he is probably no earthquake expert either.
withstand a 10? no way no how…go the the USGS web site and read up of earthquake magintudes and damage
and the big fear i have is not the structure itself…but the fact that it’s built in a sandy basin that will take on LIQUID properties given a earthquake of sizable magnitude…
but im SURE they took that into consideration…
This from someone who thinks it’s great that Taipei is entering the infantile “no, mine is bigger” contest?
I’m not sure what your point is. My point is that unlike Taipei, HK has a zillion commercial skyscrapers already. I don’t know what their office vacancy numbers are, but I know that their unemployment rate hit 7.1% and a few multinational corps moved to China. Yet they’re building more skyscrapers, despite the belief of many that Shanghai will eventually takeover HK’s role as financial center for the Asia-Pacific region.