Merdeka 118-old

MERDEKA 118, KUALA LUMPUR

The height of Merdeka 118, which will not be officially announced until the construction tops out in 2021, will be more than 2,100 ft/ 650 meters, which will secure its rank as second-tallest in the world after Burj Khalifa. The highest occupied floor, the 118^th story, though, will be just 500 meters and thus surpassed by at least four others.

The tower’s distinctive faceted spire is set asymmetrically at one point of the diamond-shaped plan and was inspired by the raised right hand of Malaysia’s first leader, a gesture representing the nation's independence, which was declared on this site on 1957. The spire also continues the emphatic vertical on this garden-front entrance formed by the illuminated shaft of an external express elevator that carries tourists to the observation deck at the tower’s top three levels.

The word “Merdeka” means independent or free in the Indonesian and Malay language. The tower and its complex will redevelop the area surrounding the cultural heritage site of Stadium Merdeka and park, which had declined in past decades. A second circular stadium with a shallow dome, Stadium Negara, inspired the geometries of the site plan, creating the third point of a triangle of monuments that the skyscraper completes