The Shanghai World Financial Center was planned to be the tallest building in the world when it was frist designed in 1997. This 97 storey building has surpassed the spires of Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur. When construction started, the 508m tall Taipei 101 was already underway to becoming the world tallest building. Plans was change since then because the tower couldn’t be build any higher as the foundation was meant to support a 460m tall building.

To protect the building from natural disaster like earthquakes and windstorms, the building holds 2 tuned mass dampers below its observation floors to reduce the building’s sway. It were installed on the 90th floor. The mass dampers use sensors to detect any swaing of the building and connects with a computer controlled. It is the first mass damper installed in Mainland China. It also design to withstand disaster such as plane crash including 12 fireproof refugee areas and 2 external elevators.

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