At 508 metres, Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world from its completion in 2004 until the Burj Khalifa opened in 2010, and is still the most striking feature of the Taipei skyline. The design is an explicit riff on traditional Chinese architecture — eight stacked cube-like sections, referencing the lucky number eight, with ornamental ruyi motifs. At the top, a public observation deck on the 89th floor (plus an outdoor deck on 91 when weather permits) gives sweeping views over the city and, on clear days, all the way to Yangmingshan. The ride up on the ultra-fast elevator takes 37 seconds. Below, the base holds a luxury shopping mall, a food court, and the best ordinary mall in the Xinyi district.
Taipei 101
Former world's tallest, with a visible tuned mass damper
| Address | Xinyi District, Taipei |
|---|---|
| Website | www.taipei-101.com.tw |
A story
Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world from 2004 until it was overtaken by the Burj Khalifa in 2010. It sits just 200 metres from an active fault line, and houses an enormous 660-tonne steel tuned mass damper — the largest in any building — suspended between the 87th and 92nd floors to counteract typhoons and earthquakes. Visitors can walk around it on the observation deck and see it sway in real time.