Nowhere in Europe are taller buildings going up than in Russia. St. Petersburg is currently witnessing the construction of the continent’s future tallest skyscraper, Lakhta Center. At a height of 463 metres (1,519 feet), the tapering, pointed supertall will surpass the current record-holder, Moscow’s Mercury City, by no fewer than 124 metres (407 feet).
Emporis (www.emporis.com), the international provider of building data, has compiled a list of the 10 tallest skyscrapers currently under construction in Europe. In addition to Lakhta Center, the list contains a further six projects from Russia, all of whose construction sites are located in Moscow.
Some way behind the Lakhta Center, with a future height of 361 metres (1,184 feet), lies Vostok, the second-placed skyscraper in the ranking; it is closely followed by the OKO Apartment Tower, which will reach 352 metres (1,155 feet) into the skies. Both of these major projects are being built in Moscow, as are a further four entries in the list. Two of them are not far off completion: Eurasia Tower, which is set to come in at just over 300 metres (984 feet) and will offer exclusive apartments on its highest floors; and Evolution Tower, 255 metres (837 feet) tall and particularly conspicuous for its shape, which twists upward in a spiral.
Due to these numerous major projects, Moscow is set to continue as Europe’s skyscraper capital into the future. Already today, five of the continent’s 10 tallest completed skyscrapers are located in the city, including the current European front-runner Mercury City, with its record height of 339 metres (1,112 feet). In as little as two years, following the projected completion of Vostok, Moscow will dominate the top 10 of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe, with no fewer than seven buildings.
Alongside Moscow, the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul is increasingly establishing itself as a center of skyscraper construction. The only city in the top 10 not in Russia, Istanbul has no fewer than three buildings in the list. In addition to the two 284-metre-tall (932-foot-tall) Skyland Towers, the city also has The Metropol Tower, at 250 metres (820 feet) the 10th-placed building, in the starting blocks. The three towers are due to grace the skyline of the city on the Bosphorus from 2016 onward.
However, even if the Lakhta Center is set to approach the 500-metre (1,640-foot) mark, European skyscraper construction still has some distance to go to catch up with its Asian paradigms in terms of height. By way of comparison, the world’s tallest building, the 828-meter (2,717-foot) Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is as tall as Lakhta Center and Vostok combined. And the tallest building currently under construction anywhere in the world – Kingdom Tower in Jeddah – will, with its projected height of a kilometre, be more than twice as tall as the future European record-holder.
About Emporis
Emporis is a leading database of information about building and construction projects, based in Germany. For over a decade Emporis has helped companies, organizations and individuals stay informed about the building industry. The Emporis Skyscraper Award is the world’s most renowned prize for high-rise architecture.
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