Building tall in the real world has its limitations. From environmental factors such as wind and earthquakes to the strength of building materials, and the logistics to get them to these heights, from advanced engineering knowhow to the cost and time that would make it economically unfeasible, there are several drawbacks to constructing super tall skyscrapers.

However, in the realms of fantasy, these are not limiting factors. For instance, in Alasdair Gray's short story, ‘The Start of the Axletree’, an emperor dreams up a construction project to reinvigorate his empire, intimidate his enemies, and kick-start the economy – a building that reaches up to heaven. While Gray's fantasy tale didn’t end well, it captures much of what makes massive great buildings such an irresistible trope in fiction.

Now, a new study by Buildworld reveals the tallest fictional buildings represented in movies, books, TV and video games – buildings from the world and beyond. The researchers began with a list compiled by MetaBallStudios in 2019 and supplemented it with additional findings from sources such as the GTA/Half-Life/Halo Fandoms and the Towering Fiction blog.

The Buildworld team included buildings such as the Maze Bank Tower in GTA that are based on real-life buildings but aren't identical. The height for 500 Republica in Star Wars was estimated based on the knowledge that there are approximately 1,010 storeys according to Wookipedia, and the typical average height of a storey in architecture is 4.3 metres.

Key findings of the study:

The tallest fictional building is the International Space Elevator in Ace Combat at 100,000,000 metres high
500 Republica in Star Wars: Episode 1 is the tallest movie building (4,040 metres)
The tallest fantasy building is Barad-dûr in The Lord of the Rings (1,500 metres)
The Jefferson Street Credit Union Building is the tallest in Grand Theft Auto (438 metres)

The designers at Buildworld produced a series of visuals of these imaginary buildings to showcase the results of this study.

The tallest fictional buildings - overall

The tallest fictional buildings from films

The tallest fictional buildings from fantasy books

The tallest fictional buildings from video games

The tallest fictional buildings from Grand Theft Auto

Image credit: Buildworld

Read more about the study at https://www.buildworld.co.uk/blog/archives/tallest-fictional-buildings-from-star-wars-to-lord-of-the-rings

Branko Miletic

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