101 floors make it the 11th tallest skyscraper in the world (508 meters). Taipei 101 was designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and opened in 2004 to be the headquarters for executive offices of major companies. Its form interprets the emblem of traditional Chinese architecture, the pagoda, in a huge scale and contemporary language.
The strong earthquake that struck Taiwan in 2024 had left it intact, thanks in part to the huge and extremely heavy steel sphere placed inside the building to counteract vibrations caused by environmental forces or use and decrease its movements by up to 40 percent.
Today the skyscraper is back in the news for a feat about it, at least as colossal as its size: Alex Honnold will climb it with his bare hands. "No ropes, no equipment, just me and the building," says the athlete in the trailer released by Netflix, which will broadcast the climb live on Jan. 23 at 5 p.m. (Italian time).
Alex Honnold has become famous over the years for incredible achievements in the discipline of free-solo climbing, that is, climbing without harnesses or other tools and the support of anyone. In 2018 a documentary directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin won an Oscar recounting his adventure to the summit of El Capitan, a huge rock in Yosemite National Park.
Skyscraper Live, that's the name Netflix has given it, "will be the biggest urban-only free event ever," commented on live by sports journalists. Directing the filming will be Joe DeMaio.
Alex Honnold has become famous for incredible achievements in the discipline of free-solo climbing, that is, climbing without harnesses or other tools and the support of anyone.
Honnold carefully chose the building, having decided to devote an undertaking to an artificial construction and having visited dozens of them in recent years. Until now, this had not happened, both because of the difficulty of obtaining permits and because, of course, no architect, designing a skyscraper, has ever questioned the factor of "scalability." Yet, Taipei 101 possesses a number of features that make it an ideal "mountain" in this regard.
Every eight stories, a large perimeter balcony interrupts the dizzying verticality of the structure; thus, Honnold explained, even in the event of a fall, the risk of death is reduced (although, of course, it remains present and is the greatest fear). In addition, the metal elements of the façade are perfectly adapted to the shape of the hand: this feature would make the ascent less monotonous, which is crucial for variation of movement and thus for a "better" kind of fatigue. Besides, it is a spectacular skyscraper to look at, which for the athlete is not a minor factor and this shows a certain awareness of the medium of television.
Honnold, however, says he is not worried: fear is part of the game, but according to him there are far riskier things. On his side, the 30 years of experience and training "like that of boxers."