Useless grandiose structures of the world. The most ambitious unrealized architectural projects

10 wonders of modern buildings

On this page - the 10 most grandiose buildings of the 20-21st century.
The choice of objects is quite subjective, it reflects not only the objects of the last decade, but rather the sensation that this object caused in its time.

The skyscraper was erected in 1931 in New York City. The height of the building is 381 meters from the base. Until 1972, when the first tower of the World Trade Center was built, this building remained the tallest in the world. After the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, the building again became the tallest in New York.

Built by Brazil and Paraguay, the dam (Itaipu) is the world's largest operating hydroelectric power plant. The construction ended in 1991. The construction of the dam lasted 16 years, the total length of the dam is 7,744 m.

CN Tower(CN Tower)

From 1976 to 2007 this TV tower was the tallest building in the world. The tower is located in Toronto, Canada and is a symbol and landmark of the city. The height of the tower from the base is 553 meters. At the level of 342 meters is Observation deck. It is also noteworthy that the structure was erected in record time: from February 12, 1973, to April 2, 1975.

The canal was built for 34 years, the length of the canal is 81.6 km. The channel is the most expensive building in American history. It should be noted that more than 80,000 people died during the construction of the canal, mainly from diseases.

The tunnel under the English Channel connects France and England. The total length of the tunnel is 51 km, of which 31 km is located directly under the English Channel. The tunnel went into operation in 1994.

North Sea Protection Works

Since the Netherlands is located below sea level, a series of dams and locks were built to prevent flooding during storms.
The most most of structures under the name: Netherlands North Sea Protection Works, was mobile and long, amounted to 1800 meters. The construction of the dam began in 1923 and was completed in 1984.

Golden Gate Bridge

Bridge from the city of San Francisco and Marin County, built in 1937, many years. Until 1964, the building was the largest suspension bridge in the world. The length of the bridge is 1.9 km.
The bridge is suspended on special ropes that hang from a steel cable stretched between two towers. The total length of all ropes is 128,747 kilometers.
The thickness of the steel ropes between the towers is 92.7 cm, which is a record today.

Tower - Burj Khalifa building

Located in Dubai, built (opened) in January 2010. It is currently the tallest building in the world. The height of the structure is 828 meters, the number of floors is 163. In fairness, it must be said that the topmost floor is located at a height of 624 meters - the remaining 204 meters are the spire.

In China, Hangzhou built the longest bridge in the world. Bridge construction began in 2003 and completed in 2008. The opening of the bridge for traffic took place in 2009. The length of the bridge is 36 km.

HPP "Three Gorges"

Construction began in 1992. In 2010, the first stage of the Three Gorges HPP was launched, located on the Yangtze River, China. The power plant includes a concrete dam with a volume of 27 million m 3 , a hydroelectric power station building - 26 units. The discharge volume at the dam is approximately 116,000 m3/s. Before construction began, 1,000,000 people were resettled. The HPP's design capacity of 18,200 MW is the most powerful hydroelectric power plant in the world.

Dozens of skyscrapers and hundreds of high-rise buildings are built every year around the world. We present to your attention the 13 highest world masterpieces of architecture.

Hong Kong International Commerce Center

In 2010, a 118-story, 484-meter skyscraper was built in Hong Kong. It is the tallest building in the city, the seventh tallest in Asia and the ninth tallest in the world.

shanghai world financial center

A skyscraper in Shanghai with a height of 492 m was built by the Japanese company Mori Building Corporation. The project's lead designer is David Malott of New York. The unofficial name of the building is "opener".

Taipei 101

Skyscraper Taipei 101 is located in the capital of Taiwan - Taipei. The 101-storey building has a height of 509.2 m. Shopping centers are located on the lower floors of the building, and offices are located on the upper floors. It is the sixth tallest building in the world and the fifth tallest building in Asia.

This skyscraper has the fastest elevators in the world, which rise at a speed of 60.6 km/h. From the fifth floor to observation platform on the 89th you can get there in just 39 seconds.

The building is made of glass, steel and aluminum and is supported by 380 concrete pillars! According to engineers, the tower will be able to withstand an earthquake of any magnitude.

willis tower

The Chicago skyscraper Willis Tower with a height of 443.2 m has 110 floors. It was built in 1973.

At that time, it was the tallest building in the world, surpassing the towers of the World Trade Center in New York. This record was held by the building for 25 years.

It is now the second tallest building in the United States.

Ostankino Tower

The height of the Ostankino TV tower in Moscow is 540.1 m. The building is on the 8th place in the world in terms of the height of a free-standing structure after the Burj Khalifa (Dubai), Tokyo Sky Tree, Shanghai Tower (Shanghai).

The Ostankino TV Tower is the tallest building in Europe and is a full member of the World Federation of High-Rise Towers.

World Trade Center 1

World Trade Center 1 was built on the site of the destroyed twin towers of the World Trade Center. It is the central building in the new World Trade Center complex. It is the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Shanghai Tower.

The 541 m high building is located on a plot of 65,000 square meters.

CN Tower

City symbol height Toronto CNN Tower - 553.33 meters.

Initially, the abbreviation CN stood for Canadian National (the tower belonged to the state company Canadian National Railways). Residents of Toronto decided to keep the former name of the building, and now the abbreviation CN stands for Canada's National.

Guangzhou TV Tower

This is the second tallest TV tower in the world. It was built from 2005 to 2010 for the 2010 Asian Games. The height of the TV tower is 600 meters. Up to a height of 450 meters, the tower resembles a combination of a hyperboloid load-bearing mesh shell and a central core.

The mesh shell of the tower is made of steel pipes of large diameter. The spire of the tower is 160 meters high.

TV and radio tower KVLY-TV

The height of the television and radio mast, which is located in North Dakota (USA) is 628.8 meters.

The building is the third tallest structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Tokyo Skytree in Tokyo.

shanghai tower

The Shanghai Tower is a skyscraper in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China. The height of the structure is 632 meters, total area- 380 thousand m². The Shanghai World Financial Center is located next to the skyscraper.

The tower was completed in 2015. The building is the tallest building in Shanghai, the first tallest in China, and the third tallest free-standing structure in the world.

tokyo skytree

Tokyo Skytree is the tallest television tower in the world. It is located in the Sumida district of Tokyo.

The height of the TV tower together with the antenna is 634 meters, it is twice as high as the Tokyo TV tower. The height of the tower was chosen so that the numbers: 6, 3, 4 were consonant with the name "Musashi" - historical area where modern Tokyo is located.

Warsaw radio tower

The 646.38-meter radio tower was considered the tallest building in the world until the collapse in 1991, until the Burj Khalifa skyscraper intercepted the palm.

The tower was intended for long-wave broadcasting to the territory of Poland and Europe. The project was developed by the famous Polish engineer Jan Polyak.

Burj Khalifa

The largest building in the world is located in Dubai. The height of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper is 828 meters! It was built in the shape of a stalagmite.

This tower is a kind of "city within a city" - with its own lawns, boulevards and parks. Inside the complex there are apartments, offices, shopping centers and a hotel. The building has three separate entrances.

The hotel was designed by the famous Giorgio Armani.

In connection with the rapid growth of the world's population, the need for a more developed and large-scale infrastructure naturally increases. Leading engineers of the world annually implement projects that amaze with their grandiosity and scope.
This review presents 5 large-scale buildings that can be called an engineering miracle.
1. The longest bridge in the world

Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge is the longest bridge in the world.

Danyang-Kunshansky viaduct - mots, the length of which is 164.8 km.
The construction of the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge, which connected Beijing and Shanghai, can be called a real engineering feat. The bridge is 164.8 kilometers long, making it the longest such project in the world. The construction of the bridge lasted 4 years (the opening took place in 2011). For maximum optimization of the work process, 10,000 builders were produced simultaneously from opposite points. The project cost was $10 billion.
2. Archipelago of artificial islands

Palm Islands - man-made islands made in the shape of a palm tree.


Bulk palm islands In Dubai.
Palm Islands in Dubai are recognized as a real engineering and architectural marvel. Behind last years 3 islands were created - (Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira). For their construction, 85,000,000 cubic meters of sand were poured onto the seabed. This archipelago is visible from the moon even to the naked eye.
3. The largest hydroelectric power station in the world

Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric power station in the world.


"Three Gorges" - the largest hydroelectric power station in the world, built in China.
HPP "Three Gorges" (Three Gorges Dam) is the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. The dam is 2309 meters long and 185 meters high. During its construction, 27.2 million cubic meters of concrete were used, which would be enough to fill 10,200 Olympic pools. The energy produced by this hydroelectric power plant covers the needs of 11% of the entire country. The Chinese authorities had to pay $50 billion for the construction of Three Gorges Dam.
4. Most long airport in the world

Kansai Airport is the longest airport in the world.


Kansai Airport is built right in the bay.
Off the coast of the Japanese city of Osaka, right in the bay, a huge international Airport Kansai Airport. To implement this project, it was necessary to build a man-made island, reinforced with numerous metal structures. The airport was built in the bay, taking into account the sudden threat of flooding, the occurrence of typhoons and the high seismicity of the area. Kansai Airport cost $29 billion.
5. Venice flood barrier

Venice Tide Barrier Project is a project that protects Venice from floods.


Flood water barrier.
It's no secret that Venice is slowly but surely sinking into the water. And periodic floods only "help" her in this. To protect the architectural and cultural pearl of Italy from destruction, a barrier (Venice Tide Barrier) was built. Engineers have developed a unique method of using mobile gates to keep flood waters out of the bay.

Architecture is a delicate matter. In order to build a banal block 12-storey house, you need to run through many instances, get a bunch of certificates and permits. And how many problems then arise with the implementation of the desired project! The search for specialists, builders, a possible location, coordination of all this with the local authorities ... Of course, the face of any city is precisely architectural structures different scale and scope. However, not all ideas and developments are carried out in real life. Below you can see various architectural projects which (fortunately or unfortunately) were not implemented.

History does not know such concepts: "what would happen if ...", however, the project of the Palace of Soviets was conceived as the construction of the big building on the ground. Its height was to reach 415 meters - higher than the most tall buildings of his time: eiffel tower and the Empire State Building. The pedestal building was to be crowned with a sculpture of Lenin 100 meters high. The construction of the Palace of Soviets has become an independent economic and research branch. Special laboratories for optics and acoustics functioned in this system, for the development of special materials: “D.S. steel”, “D.S. brick”, mechanical and expanded clay concrete plants operated, a separate railway line was connected to the construction site. By special resolutions of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Council of Labor and Defense, the construction of the Palace of Soviets was declared a shock construction site in 1934, by the end of 1939 the foundations of the high-rise part were ready. In 1941, due to the war, construction was suspended and never resumed. Work on the project of the Palace of Soviets continued until the end of the 1940s.
It's scary to even imagine how much space such a development would take! We could safely say goodbye to our current idea of ​​the architecture of Red Square. However, such an idea arose. And it arose in 1922, when the First Congress of Soviets met. Despite the fact that the building was never completed, the work on its project served as a powerful impetus for the development of domestic architecture, was born a new style, called "Stalin classicism". It was the Palace of Soviets that was prophesied as the title of the best building of all times and peoples, it was supposed to decorate Moscow by combining all high-rise buildings into a single complex.
However, habits are changing. What was once considered monstrous is now considered quite ubiquitous, and vice versa. After all, the French also resisted the erection of a real "monster" - the Eiffel Tower in their small romantic capital. Now they consider the tower a real national treasure. Probably got used to it.

Who knows, we may have lost a great monument.

In 1934, the whole world followed the dramatic fate of the crew of the Chelyuskin icebreaker, which drifted on an ice floe after the ship was lost in the Chukchi Sea. In the summer of the same year, Moscow met the brave Chelyuskinites and the pilots who saved them, who were the first to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The new traditions of socialist life demanded the perpetuation of the glorious feat Soviet people in monumental form. Aeroflot building, which was planned to be erected on the square near Belorussky railway station, was conceived by the architect D. Chechulin as a monument to the heroic Soviet aviation. Hence the acute silhouette solution, the “aerodynamic” form of the high-rise building and the sculptural figures of the heroes-pilots: A. Lyapidevsky, S. Levanevsky, V. Molokov, N. Kamanin, I. Slepnev, I. Vodopyanov, I. Doronin, crowning seven openwork arches , turned perpendicular to the main facade and making up a kind of portal. The sculptor I. Shadr took part in the work on the project, sculpting the figures of the pilots. The project in its original form and purpose was not implemented. Almost half a century later, the general ideas of the project were embodied in the complex of the House of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment (now the Government House).

Having learned about such a project, one can understand how many residents of Moscow do not know about their city.

According to various sources, the height of the pyramid should be approximately from 700 to 2004 meters (by the way, another name for the project is TRY 2004). Although, according to the Discovery Channel, the first number is still real. But this is not so important. One way or another, Mega-City Pyramid will be several times higher Great Pyramid in Giza.

On spacious square kilometers pyramids can accommodate residential areas, offices, cultural centers and all other infrastructure typical of an ordinary city. Only in terms of the density of the "packing of the people" will this pyramid surpass an ordinary city - due to a significant upward expansion.

Why the Japanese are trying to surpass the Egyptian builders is not clear. However, the project still remains unfulfilled.

"The Hexagonal City of Paolo Soleri" - one of the first projects of the city-building, dates back to the 60s of the XX century.

Bionic Tower II - this is the name of a no less grandiose project, developed this time by the Chinese.
At the base of the tower is a "green circle" - a garden or park with a diameter of about 90 meters. ECE Tower sticks out of it - a 24-storey building with a height of about 100 meters with 25 thousand square meters usable area for housing (168 apartments with three bedrooms each) and offices.

The skyscraper is assembled from eight sections 12 meters high. Each section has three floors. From top to bottom, in a spiral, a vertical garden descends, through which a ladder runs for emergency evacuation (high-speed elevators are also provided, do not be alarmed).

most large area has an 11th floor, and the zero one under its dome should shelter shops, gyms, cinemas and so on. Somewhere below, parking for 208 cars is also provided.

The architect believes that one complex should be separated from the other at a distance of about 180 meters, which did not prevent him from connecting the "circles" of eight towers on the principle of the Olympic rings on one of the sketches.

Judging by the plan developed by the designers of the building, the colossal scale of construction exceeds all conceivable and unimaginable expectations. Despite the death of the American "Twins", architects are striving for ever greater grandiosity and pomposity of their designs. At this rate, you can come to a fantastic future from the movie "The Fifth Element", where the number of floors of high-rise buildings has long been uncountable.

Project: X-ceed 4000.

X-seed 4000- tallest building ever conceived.

Its height should be 4,000 meters above sea level. Thanks to a 600-meter foundation, the structure will be able to be placed directly above the sea. X-Seed 4000 is to accommodate between 700,000 and 1,000,000 residents.

The project is being developed for the capital of Japan by the construction company Tasai Corporation as a building of the future, where ultra-modern life and interaction with nature will be combined. Unlike conventional skyscrapers, the X-Seed 4000 will protect its occupants from pressure surges and shifts. weather conditions throughout the height of the building. Its design provides for the use of solar energy to power the entire building climate control system.

Elevators are designed for 200 passengers and deliver to the top floor in 30 minutes. In addition to thousands of apartments and offices, X-Seed 4000 will also entertainment centers and parks and forests.

It is estimated that the cost of building X-Seed 4000 will be 300-900 billion.

The construction of the project is designed for 8 years. I wonder if the calculations are correct?

The Spiral project, developed in 1998, has never been seen by the residents of the city of Tokyo. The two-hundred-story architectural development, 1000 meters high, remained in the developers' drawings.

The construction would consist of 14 floors-microdistricts, each of which contains multi-storey residential, office and retail buildings, sports and entertainment complexes, recreational areas with ponds and green spaces, as well as local transport hubs and many other infrastructure of an ordinary modern city.

For reference:
More than 35 thousand people could live in the skyscraper-city "Sky City 1000", more than 100 thousand people could work;

The diameter of the base of the tower is 400 meters.

Is fantasy becoming reality?

Project "Great Pyramid"

The pyramid is conceived as a huge tomb with several million seats. The project of the German non-profit organization Freunde der Großen Pyramide suggests that the process of burial will mean the process of building a pyramid, until the addition of more and more tomb blocks in a few decades completes the monumental image of a tetrahedral pyramid.

A literal parody of the legendary Egyptian monuments in the German version looks very ridiculous and unacceptable for modern society. The project was not implemented.

Thus, looking at all these developments, we can conclude that from year to year, humanity, creating one project after another, striking the mind with its tendencies to gigantism, strives to be closer to the sky, away from the earth, trying to locate huge territories inside striking in size buildings. The reasons for such desires of mankind can be different: either it is a cult of personality, or striving for excellence, or perhaps reaching new heights and the desire to "overtake" the past achievements of their colleagues. In a word: the best is the enemy of the good, and before embarking on grandiose projects, one must first of all think about the real possibilities and consequences of erecting such monuments.

From skyscrapers soaring into the sky to high-tech airports, people have managed to create truly impressive things. Throughout history and even today, people continue to display their power and wealth by promoting their societies and cultures by building astounding structures such as the Pyramid of Giza, Athenian Parthenon and the Eiffel Tower. These are the three most famous buildings in the world. Unfortunately, these aren't the biggest things humans have built (which is why you won't see them on this list). However, you will learn about the most imposing and impressively large man-made structures. So, before you are the 25 largest man-made structures in the world.

25. A bottle of wine

The tallest bottle of wine is 4.17 meters high and 1.21 meters in diameter. In this bottle fit 3094 liters of wine, which was poured into André Vogel (Andr? Vogel) (from Switzerland). The bottle was measured in Lyssach, Switzerland on October 20, 2014.

24. Motorcycle


The Regio Design XXL Chopper is officially the largest functioning motorcycle in the world! It was first introduced at the 2012 Motorbike Expo where it wowed the audience. This huge motorcycle, designed by Fabio Reggiani, is 10 meters long and 5 meters high. Based on this, it is safe to say that he won over all the other "big and scary" motorcycles.

23. Biscuit with sherry

According to the Guinness World Records, on September 26, 1990, students at Clarendon College prepared a sherry biscuit weighing 3.13 tons. Their creation remains to this day the largest sherry biscuit, as well as one of the largest desserts.

22. Train


The longest and heaviest freight train, made a trip on February 20, 1986, from Ekibastuz to the Ural Mountains, Soviet Union. The train consisted of 439 cars and several diesel locomotives, the total weight of which was 43,400 tons. The total length of the train was 6.5 kilometers.

21. Telescope


The Arecibo Observatory is a radio telescope located in the municipality of Arecibo, Puerto Rico and has an impressive feature. The radio telescope of the observatory, with a diameter of 305 meters, is the largest single telescope in the world. It is used in three major research areas: radio astronomy, atmospheric science, and radar astronomy.

20. Swimming pool


The world's largest swimming pool contains approximately 249,837 cubic meters of water and can accommodate thousands of people at the same time. The Crystal Lagoon at the San Alfonso del Mar resort in Chile is even big enough for a sailboat to swim in. It even has its own artificial beach.

19. Subway


The Seoul Subway serving the Seoul Subway is the longest subway system in the world. The total length of the route stretches for 940 kilometers. As of 2013. The first metro line opened in 1974, and currently the system consists of 17 lines.

18. Statue

Buddha Spring Temple(Spring Temple Buddha) is the largest in the world. Her overall height is 153 meters, including a 20 meter lotus throne and a building 25 meters high. Construction of the Spring Temple Buddha was planned shortly after the Bamiyan Buddhas were blown up by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The construction of the statue was fully completed in 2008. She represents the Vairocana Buddha.

17. Sports arena


Rungrado 1st of May Stadium is a multifunctional stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea. Its construction was completed on May 1, 1989. It is considered the largest stadium in the world and can accommodate 150,000 people on an area of ​​207,000 square meters.

16. Satellite


TerreStar-1, weighing 6910 kilograms, became the largest commercial satellite in the world in 2009. It launched into orbit from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana on July 1, 2009.

15. Revolver


The Remington Model 1859 replica made by Mr. Ryszard Tobys is officially the largest revolver in the world. Its record length was "only" 1.26 meters.

14. Book


The size of the largest book is 5 by 8.06 meters, and it weighs approximately one and a half tons. This book has 429 pages. It was presented on February 27, 2012 by Mshahed International Group, in Dubai, United United Arab Emirates. It is called "This is Muhammad" and contains stories highlighting the accomplishments of his life as well as his positive impact on Islam internationally and humanitarianly.

13. Pencil


The length of the longest and largest pencil is 323.51 meters. It was created by Ed Douglas Miller (from UK). It was measured in Worcester, Worcestershire, UK on September 17, 2013.

12. Parliament


The parliament building in Bucharest, Romania, was designed by architect Anca Petrescu and nearly completed during the Ceau?escu regime. It was to become the building of the political and administrative branches of power. Today it remains the largest civil building with an administrative function, as well as the most expensive and heaviest administrative building in the world.

11. Skyscraper


Burj Khalifa, known as the "Khalifa Tower" is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the tallest man-made structure and skyscraper in the world. Its height is 829.8 meters.

10. Wall


The Great Wall of China, perhaps the most famous of all man-made structures in the world, is the largest wall in the world. Its length is 21.196 kilometers.

9. Crossword


The world's largest crossword puzzle was built on the side of a residential building in Ukraine. Its height exceeds 30 meters. It occupies the entire outer part of the wall of a residential building in the city of Lviv.

8. Church


St. Peter's Basilica is a late Renaissance church located in the Vatican. It took 120 years to build (1506-1626). On this moment it is considered the largest church in the world.

7. Castle


The Guinness Book of World Records enrolled Prague Castle(Prague Castle), located in the Czech Republic, as the most extensive ancient castle in the world. It covers an area of ​​almost 70,000 square meters and is 570 meters long and 130 meters wide.

6. Aquarium


The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta is the largest aquarium in the world. It is home to over 100,000 sea creatures. This aquarium opened in November 2005. Its construction was sponsored by a $250 million donation from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus. The Georgia Aquarium is the only non-Asian facility that houses whale sharks. The sharks are kept in a giant container with a capacity of 24 million liters of water, which is part of the Ocean Voyager exhibit.

5. Plane


The Antonov An-225 Mriya is an ultra-heavy-lift transport jet aircraft that was designed by the Antonov Experimental Design Bureau in the Soviet Union in the 1980s. It is powered by six turbojet bypass engines and is the longest and heaviest aircraft in the world. Its maximum load capacity is 640 tons. It also has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in operation today. In the entire history, only one Antonov An-225 "Mriya" was built, which is still functioning.

4. Passenger ship


At the moment, the largest passenger ship is the Oasis of the Seas (Oasis of the Seas), which is owned by the company Royal Caribbean". He made his first voyage, going on a cruise in December 2009. Its length is 360 meters and it can accommodate 5400 passengers.

3. Airport


King Fahd International Airport located in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, is the largest in the world. Every year, 5,267,000 passengers and 82,256 tons of cargo pass through this airport, which are transported by 50,936 flights. The airport opened its doors in 1999. Its length runway is 4000 meters and a width of 60 meters. Its total area is 1256.14 square kilometers.

2. Bomb


The largest bomb in history that was detonated is the Tsar Bomba. Its capacity was 50 megatons or 500,000 kilotons, equivalent to 50 million tons of dynamite. It was detonated only to show other countries how advanced the Soviet Union was. October 30, 1961 went down in history as the most powerful artificial explosion in the history of mankind.

1. Subject


The largest man-made objects in the world are submarine communication cables. They stretched from San Francisco to Japan and from San Francisco to New Zealand. The total length of the cables exceeds 8,000 kilometers. These submarine cables are typically 6.6 centimeters in diameter. The weight of such a cable is 10 kilograms per meter. The total weight of one cable exceeds 80,000 tons.