- TAIPEI -- They don't come
any bigger or stronger than Taipei 101 - the world's tallest building,
which is reportedly being built to such strict structural standards that
it may even be able to withstand a 9/11-like strike by a jumbo jet.
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- Engineers in Taipei are putting the finishing touches
to the 508 metre (1,667ft) tower, being constructed as a symbol of the
resurgent identity of Taiwan.
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- When it opens at the end of this year or early next,
its 101 floors and tall telecommunications antenna will take it past the
452 metre twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur as the world tallest building.
It will also have the world's fastest lifts, taking passengers from the
ground to the top floor in 39 seconds - at a stomach churning 40mph.
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- It is an impressive demonstration of the financial, political
and engineering prowess of this island of 22 million people, who struggle
to achieve international recognition of statehood and are regarded by China
as members of a renegade province.
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- The locally born architect CY Lee has designed the structure
along a number of Asia themes, all intended to bring good fortune. The
main section takes a bamboo shape, being divided into eight blocks of eight
floors. Eight is considered a lucky number and the fast-growing, sturdy
bamboo is seen as a model for the financial businesses that will be the
building's main tenants.
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- The most prominent exterior design feature is a giant
copy of an ancient coin. The decoration is appropriate given the staggering
£1bn cost of the project, financed by local firms and the Taipei
municipal authority.
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- A spokesman for Taipei 101 said the vast outlay was necessary
because the tower had to be built to far more exacting standards than those
anywhere else in the world. Taiwan is frequently struck by typhoon winds
and shaken by earthquakes. Four years ago a quake killed 2,455 people and
destroyed 51,000 homes.
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- The tower has 36 supporting columns, the thickest of
which are steel-boxes filled with more than 10,000 tonnes of high-compression
concrete.
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- Even after the attack on the World Trade Centre in New
York in 2001, project managers felt confident that there were no lessons
to be learned.
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- "This building is well over-specified. It is built
to the highest ever standard," said Matthew Shaw of the building's
lead agent, Jon Lang LaSalle. "A plane would probably bounce off the
main columns. At the very least it would be able to stay standing a lot
longer."
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- President Chen Shui-bien - who is campaigning for re-election
this Saturday - says the giant edifice will promote a "Taiwan first"
image around the globe.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/taiwan/Story/0,2763,1170890,00.html
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