Taipei 101

Last week we talked about the tallest building in the world today (c. 2010), but what was the tallest building in the world before that? The answer is the Taipei 101 (c. 2004), located in Taipei, Taiwan, and it serves as the Financial Center of Taiwan. The Taipei 101 though, does not only serve for financial offices, it also has observation decks, a mall, and restaurants. The Taipei 101 is a symbol of architecture for the people of the eastern Asian continent, the style of the building resembles ancient architecture of the area. The Taipei 101 only held the record of “World’s Tallest Building” for five years.

The Taipei 101 Mall, is located at the foot of the Taipei 101 (see picture below) which makes it look very small when it stands close to such a big structure, but the Mall has 6 floors to it. The first is mainly a food court. With the following ones having different things such as clothing, perfumes, and other things people shop for. Though I couldn’t find a good picture of the stores at the mall, I did visit its website and found out that there are McDonald’s, KFCs, Subways, and even 7-Eleven, and all this is just the shared values in the Food Court area. They also share some stores that sell certain brands that you might find here in the United States. For example they have Gucci, Armani, ck Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel stores. All these brands you may find if you go to a mall here in the United States, so I found out that the there are many things we share with the Japanese, but the one thing I couldn’t find was a Starbucks.

During the duration of this project, I keep finding great architectural structures that have been built within the last decade, and this is making me think, “Should I change majors?” This project has changed my mind about my future as an engineer, and I am starting to believe that architecture is also an option. Being able to work on such an icon of architecture must bring great feelings to the architects when the structure is complete. So next week, I will bring to you one of the most fascinating and largest manmade structures, I’m pretty sure the designer of that was very happy upon completion.

Floor Guide (n.d.) Taipei 101 Mall. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from World Wide Web. http://www.taipei-101.com.tw/MALL/en/guide/guide.aspx?floor=B1

Forbys Taipei (n.d.) Retrieved from World Wide Web, April 15, 2010. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Forbys_Taipei_101.jpg

Mall (n.d.) Retrieved April 16, 2010, from the World Wide Web. http://img.skitch.com/20091222-nm41dewms6exsx3n4iein2gt8u.jpg

Taipei 101. (2003, March). Popular Science. Retrieved March 18, 2010, from Associates Programs Source database.