TAIPEI 101

Taipei 101 is a 101-floor landmark skyscraper located in Taipei, Taiwan. Designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and constructed by KTRT Joint Venture, it is currently the tallest building in the world by three of the four standards designated by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. In a ceremony presided over by Mayor Ma Ying-jeou, the pinnacle was fitted on October 17, 2003, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Towers by 57 meters (188 feet). Reaching 1,671 ft (509 m) high, its original name was Taipei Financial Centre, based on its official Chinese name: the Taipei International Financial Center.
In many aspects, the new building is the most technologically advanced skyscraper constructed to date. The building features fiber-optic and satellite Internet connections allowing speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. Toshiba has supplied the world's two fastest double-decker elevators, which run at a top speed of 16.83 meters per second (63 km/h or 37.5 mph) and are able to take visitors from the main floor to the observatory on the 89th floor in under 39 seconds. Visitors can also walk up the staircase to an outdoor observatory located at the 91st floor. The tower includes a six-floor retail mall with shops, restaurants, and other attractions, such as nightclubs. The architecture of the retail mall includes both retro gothic-style pinnacles and modern industrial structures. The interior layout of Taipei 101 was entirely designed by a feng shui master.

To prevent the building from swaying during typhoons or earthquakes, an 800-ton, US$4 million, ball-shaped damper is used to dissipate lateral vibration to a spring system underneath. For the first time in architectural history, the damping system is not hidden, but part of the building's design. This world's largest damper ball has a diameter of 5.5 meters and is visible from the 88th and 89th floors. The damper can reduce up to 40% of the tower's movements. It is suspected that the Taipei 101 is so large that at 700,000 tonnes, its sheer weight may have reopened an ancient earthquake fault that may cause future earthquakes.

The exterior of the building is fraught with symbolism of financial success. The design of Taipei 101 borrows heavily from Chinese culture. Both the building?s interior and exterior incorporate the Chinese pagoda form and the shape of bamboo flowers. Eight clearly delineated exterior sections of the building represent the lucky number eight, which means blooming or success. The distinctive sections that create the impression of a bamboo stalk in the minds of many people are actually representative of gold ingots, used in ancient China as currency by royalty. There are 8 of them, each with 8 floors, with the number 8 sounding like "earn fortune" in Chinese culture and the language. There are also 4 circles on each side of the building near the base, to represent coins.