Look up. Really look up because the skyline of Malaysia is changing thanks to one modern skyscraper: Merdeka 118 in Kuala Lumpur. It has the design of a conventional modern skyscraper, but there’s a twist: it’s now the second-tallest skyscraper in the world.
Merdeka 118 stands at 679 metres tall. It’s not only the highest building in Malaysia and South-East Asia, but also the second-tallest in the world, surpassing the 632-metre-tall Shanghai Tower. The only building taller is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is 828 metres high.
But what does that mean for us down-on-the-ground folk? By comparison, you could fit two of London’s Shards into the Merdeka. You could also fit two Eiffel Towers, or seven Statues of Liberty. When we say massive, we really mean it.
Designed by Australian architecture studio Fender Katsalidis, the tower gets its name from the Malay word for independence (merdeka) and its number of floors. It looks out over the Stadium Merdeka, the site where Malaysia declared formal independence from the UK in 1957.
The skyscraper will house a hotel, a mall, lots of office space and an observation deck near the top. According to Malaysian PM Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob, the building will also be very sustainable, having earned “a triple-platinum rating with international sustainability certifications”.
If the Merdeka 118 sounds like your cup of tea, we wouldn’t get booking those flights to KL just yet. While the building has been completed, it won’t be open to the public until sometime much later this year.
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