World’s New Fifth Tallest Building Lotte World Tower Opens in South Korea
Lotte World Tower in the South Korean Capital, Seoul, has officially opened. The tower is designed by American architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox, and it ranks as the world’s fifth tallest building at a height of 555m. The ranking is established by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).
© CTBUH
The 123-storey tower is, also, South Korea’s tallest building. Its sleek form, tapering to the end, is inspired by tradition Korean ceramics and calligraphy. It has various zones and programs which include a seven-star luxury hotel, retail space, office space, and ‘officetel’, which offers studio apartments to employees who work in the building with standard furnishings and other hotel-like services.
Besides being the world’s fifth tallest building, the tower also has the world’s highest glass-bottomed observation deck, at 500 meters. It houses the world’s highest swimming pool, on the 85th floor, as well as the world’s fastest elevator, capable of rising the entire height of the building in 1 minute.
Although the tower officially opened this past weekend, the 10-storey Lotte World Mall, at its base, has been active since 2014. The mall provides retail and entertainment services to over 28 million visitors per year, and it is connected to the tower through the public spaces and the interior and exterior pathways.
© CTBUH
Currently, the world’s tallest building remains to be Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Lotte World Tower is immediately preceded by the, also, recently finished Ping An Finance Center in China and is followed by One World Trade Center in New York. Additionally, by taking place on the top ten list of tallest skyscrapers in the world, Lotte World Tower has pushed the former number 10, the twin Petronas Towers of Malaysia, away from the list for the first in 19 years.
