SOCAR Tower is the tallest under construction building in Baku

Baku

Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...

, Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

. It is located on Heydar Aliyev avenue. The building will be the headquarters of the SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic). Construction has started in 2010 and will be completed in 2013. It will also be the tallest building in whole Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

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Design

Designed by Heerim Architects form South Korea, the two towered project will rise from an elongated, canopy-like podium and snake their way skywards. Curving into each other, the seemingly shorter tower almost looks like its resting its head on the chest of the taller tower, the taller towers peak slightly bending over it in a confident, reassuring manner. The towers will have 40 floors, at a height of 200 meters. Covering an area of 12,000 square meters and providing 100.000 sqm of usage area, the headquarter will mainly house office space but will also have conference and sports facilities, a guest house and retail spaces, food outlets to keep the expected 2000 employees in the tower firing on all cylinders.

The building design will be based on a composite system of steel construction with reinforced concrete walls. The project of the building, resistant to nine-magnitude earthquake by the Richter scale, was tested in special international labs in Canada in a virtual environment, designed for the wind with the speed of 190 kilometers per hour.

The building, designed by South Korean Heerim Architects & Planners Co. Ltd, based on the concept of "wind and fire”, will be built by Turkish Tekfen Construction and Installation Co.Inc.

Tekfen Construction and Installation Co.Inc.

Tekfen is a Turkish conglomerate based in Istanbul. Tekfen has many subsidiaries engaged in a diverse range of construction activities including power generation, airports, petroleum, and roadways...

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