Taiwan: Taipei 101 Skyscraper

Taipei 101 was the world’s tallest building from 2004 to 2009 (it’s now actually fourth). The tower has 101 floors and is architecturally design to blend the modern elements with Chinese traditional pagoda. The building is 509.2 m (1,671 ft) high. Interestingly, it’s designed to withstand earthquakes and typhoons – it has a 660 ton yellow ball suspended between 92nd and 87th floors that serves as a “tuned mass damper” or in other words a pendulum. The ball swings to counteract the earthquake or typhoon wind action, making Taipei 101 one of the strongest buildings ever built. The damper sphere is the largest in the world. The damper sphere has its talisman – damper baby – which is very popular in Taiwan and has his own TV show.
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