Petronas Towers Essay

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INTRODUCTON The Petronas Twin Towers are one of the tallest buildings in the world. In fact, until 2004 they together were the tallest tower in the world; however they still hold the tag of the tallest twin towers in the world. The Petronas twin towers are a perfect blend of engineering skills, ideas, and technology. Located exactly at the center of the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the twin towers are 452 meters high. In 1991, local authorities of Kuala Lumpur decided to create a business district for the city, chosen to be the image of a modern city, and showing that way the great growing that was registering the Malaysian economy at that time. The symbol of that complex would be a twin towers, distinguishing and unique for the city. The land of the old country club of the city were selected for that purpose, and an international contest, only open to invitations, was called. 8 different studios participated, and the winner design was the one by Cesar Pelli. Pelli proposed two 88 storey twin towers, each one of 427m in height, and joint together with a bridge situated at the half of the total height, in 44 floor. The plant of the building decreases while it goes up, and it is based in a traditional form in the Islamic culture, a 12 vertex star. The building of the towers started in 1994. DESIGN and COSTRUCTION At first, the towers were not planned to be the highest ones all around the world, because at the beginning the maximum height for the pinnacle was 16m less than total height of Sears tower. Later, with the towers already under construction, the promoters asked Pelli to increase the height everywhere it was possible. The architecture team started to work for pulling the towers trying to surpass the Sears tower in total structural height. With that purpose it was necessary to recalculate many structural facts, as well introducing the new models

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