Japanese studio Nikken Sekkei’s skyscraper in Dubai with a 230-metre-long skybridge has pipped BIG’s first supertall to be named Dezeen readers’ favourite new skyscraper.
To mark World Skyscraper Day today, we invited readers to vote for the best tall building completed in the past year from a shortlist of 10 that included projects by Snøhetta, Pelli Clarke & Partners and Kohn Pedersen Fox.
With more than 1,500 total votes cast, One Za’abeel in Dubai has emerged as the winner, receiving 26 per cent of the vote.
Designed by Nikken Sekkei, the dramatic project consists of two skyscrapers – the largest of which is 305 metres tall – holding up a 230-metre-long horizontal structure known as The Link.
Suspended 100 metres above a major highway and topped with a giant infinity pool, The Link features the world’s longest cantilever, jutting out 67.5 metres towards the Arabian Gulf.
Dezeen captured the cantilever in an exclusive video shot shortly after the building opened in February.
But Nikken Sekkei said that its priority for the project, which contains luxury apartments, hotels, offices, retail space and restaurants, was to make a “very simple” addition to Dubai’s skyline in contrast to the city’s many elaborate towers.
In second place behind One Za’abeel was New York City office tower The Spiral, which received 19 per cent of the vote.
Completed in October, The Spiral is the first supertall skyscraper designed by Danish studio BIG at 314 metres in height.
Situated at the northern end of the famous High Line elevated park, the building is characterised by a series of planted terraces that wind around its exterior and mean every floor has access to outdoor space.
Unveiling the project last autumn, studio founder Bjarke Ingels said it “combines the classic ziggurat silhouette of the premodern skyscraper with the slender proportions and efficient layouts of the modern high-rise”.
“The Spiral is slowly becoming an ascending ribbon of green wrapping around the entire silhouette of the tower – like a 1,000-foot-tall vine at the scale of the city’s skyline,” he added.
In at third with 12 per cent of the vote was Pelli Clarke & Partners’ Mori JP Tower in Tokyo, which became the tallest skyscraper in Japan upon its completion and was the tallest building on our shortlist at 330 metres.
Another BIG project in New York, One High Line, came fourth, while fifth was Jahn’s 1000M in Chicago, receiving eight per cent of the vote apiece.
Last year’s World Skyscraper Day poll on Dezeen was comfortably won by SHoP Architects’ Brooklyn Tower in New York City.
Other recent skyscraper coverage on Dezeen has included a roundup of nine recently completed skyscrapers in Latin America and an interview with the architect of Legends Tower, which is set to become the tallest building in USA.
