Project Details

The towering spire of Taipei 101 Tower made it the world's tallest building for several years. Standing at 1,667 feet, Taipei 101 was designed to resemble a bamboo stalk - reflecting the plant's strength and vitality. It reaches up 101 stories and is home to the Taiwan Stock exchange, private offices and a very large shopping mall. The curtainwall on the structure was designed to withstand the high wind conditions of a very tall building in a typhoon region. Viracon worked with the contractor for more than three years prior to being officially awarded the supply contract, and most of that time was spent providing engineered calculations that focused on the strength of the glass. Adding to the complexity were the very large glass units, averaging 40 square feet a piece. The combination of the unit size and the wind conditions necessitated thicker than typical glass substrates creating extremely heavy glass units. In addition, the spandrel areas of the building required a custom ceramic frit product to meet the distinctive design intent of the architect.