US architect Timothy Johnson has said a 1.6km-high skyscraper may become a reality by 2025, as developing countries engage in an ego-fuelled race to construct the world’s highest tower.
“If you have enough money, I’m sure the human mind can create a lot higher,” Johnson, who is also the chairman of the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, told Bloomberg.
Johnson, who designed the world’s 10th tallest residential building, the Sail at Marina Bay in Singapore, said that planning for a 1.6km building may be under way before 2020 and completed five years after that. He declined to provide further details.
A developer from the Middle East was planning for a building with a height of 2.4km around four years ago, Johnson said without disclosing the name of the developer, but the plan was put on hold because of the economic turmoil in the region.
“We actually discovered you can do it,” Johnson said. The challenges are finding materials to replace steel and cement, and identifying methods beyond traditional elevators to move people, he said.