There are so many unique buildings all around th 2

There are so many unique buildings all around the world. Every country have their

must-see sights. In Italian town of pisa, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most

unique architectural structures from medieval Europe. In our local country, we have the

Petronas Twin Towers located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the tallest twin buildings

in the world. Both of the towers are the significant buildings in Europe and Malaysia

respectively. The comparison between the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Petronas Twin

Towers are about the foundation and material used,architecture styles and building design.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built on was silty subsoil, an extremely bad foundation

that eventually lead to the tower sinking into the ground because the soft ground cannot

support the weight of the tower. In the other hand, the Petronas Twin Towers was built on

a flat grassland but the bedrock below is very irregular which causes the project site to be

a bad foundation to support massive weight of the twin towers. Therefore, the engineers

tried to seal base of the tower by drilling a network of angled holes into the foundation

and then filled then with cement grouting mixture but they only made the problem worse.

The structure reached an incline of 5.5 degrees but now it leans at about 3.99 degrees

after various restoration work performed between 1990 and 2001.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built using limestone and lime mortal. The outside of

the tower is covered with a coat of marble. The usage of the limestone is widely known to

withstand enormous amount of pressure which is the reason the tower is able to lean

without breaking or suffering severe structural damage. In contrast, the Petronas Twin

Towers was built using huge amount of high grade flexible steel, concrete, glass and

stones. Concrete was poured continuously into the foundation raft for a staggering 54

hours to support the twin towers with the weight of 300,000 metric tonnes each

skyscraper.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a in Romanesque style. It is

built in the 11th century but was interrupted several times by wars and debts. The

Leaning Tower of Pisa is the third oldest structure in Pisa’s Cathedral Square and is

different from the most medieval architecture.Utilizing many columns and arches to

show a deep understanding of weight and load characteristics, showing the Italian

architectures’ philosophy.However, the advanced technology applied in the Petronas

Twin Towers is completely different from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Petronas

Twin Towers is a post- modern architecture. The pair of skyscraper applies advance

technology to show urbanization of the city. The both identical skyscraper is equipped

with eight-lobed circular structures that contains 88 stories of occupiable spaces and a

pyramid-shaped pinnacle surmounted by a slender steel spire. Each tower is supported

by 16 huge columns around its perimeter, which, along the rest if the frame are made

of high-strength, steel reinforced concrete rather than of structural steel; the exterior

sheathing consists of stainless steel and glass. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is originally designed to be a bell tower and it actually

remain upright for over 5 years, but after it began to lean right after the completion of

the third floor. The bell tower isn’t designed to lean but one side of the soft soil could

acontain 7 bells located at the 8th floor which are musically tuned. The Leaning Tower

of Pisa was built to be a bell tower whereas the Petronas Twin Towers is designed the

centrepiece of a larger complex call the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur Conventional Centre)

including the towers, two other office towers, underground parking and service

facilities. The pair of skyscraper are link by a sky bridge at the fourty first and fourty

second floor. A multi-storey shopping lots and entertainment galleria connects the

office towers at their bases, integrating the entire complex. Petroleum Discovery

Centre, an art gallery, a 865 seats concert hall and a multimedia conference centre.(Krystek, L ,n . d.)

I am still attracted to the Petronas Twin Towers because the pair of skyscraper

looks so modernize and more entertainment activities. In conclusion, both

architectural structures have their own foundation and material used, architecture

styles and designs that makes both buildings unique in their very own special ways.

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