Lotte World Tower

On 4 April 2017, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) officially acknowledged the newly-completed Lotte World Tower as the fifth tallest building in the world.

Located in Seoul, South Korea, the sleek, tapered supertall tower measures 554.5 m (1,819 ft), pushing Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Twin Towers (at 452 m) out of the Top 10 list for the first time since they were completed in 1998.

Built with the 10-storey Lotte World Mall at its base, which opened in 2014, the tower is a slender cone with gently-curved convex sides. The architects Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates used pale-coloured glass for the exterior, drawing inspiration from Korean ceramics, porcelain and calligraphy.

Originally granted permission to start construction in November 2010, work actually began in March 2011.

The 123-storey tower contains a variety of functions, including retail, offices, luxury hotel, concert hall with 2,000 seating capacity, aquarium, and cinema. It also boasts the world’s highest glass-bottomed observation deck, which visitors can walk across at 500 m (1,640 ft) above ground.

The roof structure is 120 m-high and is constructed using 12 m-high steel counterparts, each weighing 20 tons. It is resistant to earthquakes of up to 9 on the Richter scale, and wind speeds of up to 80 m/s.

Other notable features include the world’s highest swimming pool in a building, on the 85th floor, and the world’s fastest elevator, capable of taking people to the top in just 60 seconds.

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