Megatall
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) defines a ‘megatall’ building as one that is more than 600 m (1,968 ft) in height. This classification exceeds ‘supertall’ buildings which are those exceeding 300 m (984 ft) in height.
The widely recognised CTBUH criteria for determining the height of a building is the ‘…lowest, significant, open-air, pedestrian entrance to the architectural top of the building, including spires, but not including antennae, signage, flagpoles or other functional-technical equipment.’
As of February 2016, only three megatall buildings had been completed:
- The Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
- Shanghai Tower in Shanghai.
- Makkah Royal Clock Tower in Mecca.
As the CTBUH has said, this is the ‘era of the megatall’. They estimate that the number of buildings classified as megatall will have risen to seven by 2020 with the following projects having been completed:
- Ping An Finance Centre, Shenzhen.
- Greenland Center, Wuhan.
- Signature Tower, Jakarta.
- Kingdom Tower, Jeddah.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
- 7 Engineering Wonders of the World.
- Buildings of a very great height ITGH.
- CN Tower.
- Core.
- Fire risk in high-rise and super high-rise buildings DG 533.
- Groundscraper.
- High-rise building.
- Megacity.
- Megastructure.
- Multi-storey structure.
- Skyscraper.
- Storey.
- Supertall.
- Super-slender.
- Tall building.
- Tallest buildings in the world.
- The history of fabric structures.
- The Mile.
- Tower.
- Twisting buildings.
- Types of building.
[edit] External references
- CTBUH - The Tallest 20 in 2020
- Dezeen - Megatall skyscraper era
Featured articles and news
The future workforce: culture change and skill
Under the spotlight at UK Construction Week London.
A landmark moment for postmodern heritage.
A safe energy transition – ECA launches a new Charter
Practical policy actions to speed up low carbon adoption while maintaining installation safety and competency.
Frank Duffy: Researcher and Practitioner
Reflections on achievements and relevance to the wider research and practice communities.
The 2026 Compliance Landscape: Fire doors
Why 'Business as Usual' is a Liability.
Cutting construction carbon footprint by caring for soil
Is construction neglecting one of the planet’s most powerful carbon stores and one of our greatest natural climate allies.
ARCHITECTURE: How's it progressing?
Archiblogger posing questions of a historical and contextual nature.
The roofscape of Hampstead Garden Suburb
Residents, architects and roofers need to understand detailing.
Homes, landlords. tenants and the new housing standards
What will it all mean?
The Architectural Technology podcast: Where it's AT
Catch-up on the latest episodes.
Edmundson Apprentice of the Year award 2026
Entries now open for this Electrical Contractors' Association award.
Traditional blue-grey slate from one of the oldest and largest UK slate quarries down in Cornwall.
There are plenty of sources with the potential to be redeveloped.
Change of use legislation breaths new life into buildings
A run down on Class MA of the General Permitted Development Order.
Solar generation in the historic environment
Success requires understanding each site in detail.




















