How do supertall skyscrapers stand up? Burj Khalifa to Jeddah Tower
Holding up a building is the easy part. The real enemy of a supertall tower is the wind — and engineers beat it with shape, stiffness and sometimes a 660-tonne steel ball.
The buttressed core
The Burj Khalifa stands on a Y-shaped plan: three wings brace a central concrete core like the legs of a tripod. As the tower rises, the wings step back in a spiral, so each level presents a different shape to the wind.
Confusing the wind
Wind flowing past a tall building sheds swirling vortices that can push it from side to side. Tapering, twisting and notching the shape — as in the Shanghai Tower’s 120-degree twist — stops those vortices from lining up, cutting wind loads by roughly a quarter.
Jeddah Tower: aiming for 1 km
Construction of Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower restarted in 2025 after years of pause. When finished it is planned to be the first building over one kilometre tall — about 170 m taller than the Burj Khalifa.
Burj Khalifa vs Eiffel Tower, to scale →