'Horizontal skyscraper' – the engineering marvel nears completion

A mammoth conglomeration of eight towers connected by a 250-meter-long skybridge in China dubbed ‘The Crystal’, which is being referred to as a ‘horizontal skyscraper’, is almost complete.

The Crystal skybridge, part of the Raffles City Chongqing project, is one of the world’s highest and will host an impressive array of features, including sky gardens with 120 trees, a viewing gallery, an infinity pool, and a number of restaurants.

The 12,000-tonne continuous steel structure will be enclosed by a ring with about 3,000 glass panels, and at night the skybridge spectacle will illuminate the area like a giant, rainbow-coloured light sabre.

Situated in a new district in Chongqing City, the 1.12-million-square-metre building complex, which includes the eight towers and skybridge, will also have flats, a luxury hotel, a 230,000m² shopping centre (the largest shopping centre In Africa, Menlyn Park Shopping Centre, measures 170,000m²), and office space. It cost $3.8-billion (about R54-billion) to build.

The buildings were designed by world-famous Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie of Safdie Architects (who also designed the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore) and were inspired by traditional Chinese sailing vessels.