When the sky is the limit

Asia File

Greet Two International Finance Centre (Two IFC), the newest addition to Hong Kong's ever-changing skyline and the latest sensation in its ever-evolving architectural drama.

The hole was dug in 2000. Three years later, the building is ready for occupation, part of a 4,30,000 square feet complex that also includes the 38-storey One International Finance Centre (up and running since 1999), a Four Seasons hotel and a Four Seasons block of suites (both opening in 2004) and a mall with almost five million square feet of space set around huge landscaped gardens and wide walkways.

With approximately two million square feet of total floor area on offer, Two IFC is one of the few buildings in the world that are equipped with double-deck elevators. There are 62 of them. The giant obelisk culminates in a crown of sculptural fins that extends its reach into the sky.

At night, a shimmering beacon of blue light goes up as a dramatic expression as Hong Kong's soaring ambition. Architect Cesar Pelli has employed an outrigger lateral stability design with a rigid central core that gives the building its strength and creates vast column-free spaces on each floor.

But Hong Kong is not known to rest on its laurels. As Two IFC basks in its glory, another building is getting ready, in the West Kowloon reclamation area across Victoria Harbour, to claim the honour as Hong Kong's tallest.

When Union Square Phase 7 is completed in 2007, it will be an enormous stack of 108 floors above ground, offering almost double the floor space of Two IFC. At that height, it will also rank as the tallest building in the world.

This composite steel-and-concrete structure is the last phase of the Mass Transit Railway's massive Kowloon Station development. A seven-star hotel with 250 rooms will be located near the top portion of the tower, making it the highest hotel in the world, surpassing the one in Shanghai's Jin Mao Tower.

To me, a city is memorable not only because of its art and culture but also for its public beauty. A city with beautiful buildings is a work of art in itself, and Hong Kong is one such city where the architecture is like a glorious banquet and savouring it can give as much pleasure as wandering through a museum of sculpture. Some of the world's most renowned architects have contributed to making Hong Kong what it is: the most dramatic city in Asia.

Of course, Hong Kong isn't Asia's only city with soaring ambitions. In about a year's time, Taipei will be ready to overthrow Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers and challenge the world with a 101-floor glass-and-steel pagoda adjacent to the Taipei World Trade Centre.

Where the floors end, a staircase will lead to the top of the spire, 508 metres into the sky. Of the 61 elevators to serve the building, two will be the fastest in the world, travelling at 1,000 metres per minute.

Shanghai, where the 88-floor Jin Mao Tower is the third tallest building in the world, is awaiting the emergence of another show-stopper. Japan's Mori Building Company Ltd is investing $ 823 million in the project, called Shanghai World Finance Centre, which will stack up as a 101-storey prism square at the bottom and gradually tapering into a single line at the top.

To relieve wind pressure, a 164-foot cylinder will be carved out of the top of the building, equal in diameter to the sphere of the TV tower that currently dominates the city's skyline. Work began last February and is scheduled for completion in 2007.

But Hong Kong remains Asia's undisputed skyscraper king. There are 6,822 high-rises of all kinds in the self-administered Chinese territory and at least 303 more are under construction. Even Singapore comes a distant second, with 3,054 completed high-rises in its tally.

Tokyo trails at the third place with 606 completed high-rises and it's unlikely that any building in the Japanese capital will ever surpass the 333-metre Tokyo Tower built in 1958. Fifty-four floors is the best that Tokyo has so far achieved (Roppongi Hills, completed this April and developed by the same group that's building the Shanghai WFC).

We may, however, see some new contenders for the "Asia's tallest" crown. In Seoul's Kangnam area, residential towers 60 storeys or higher have begun to sprout like blades of grass. Six years ago, Bangkok completed an 85-storey high-rise, the Baiyoke Tower II.

Known also as the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, it is currently the third tallest all-hotel building in the world.