KONE unveiled its new UltraRope™ amid much fanfare in the shadow of London’s tallest building during the 2013 Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) conference in June. More than nine years in the making, UltraRope™ increases the height elevators can go – up to 1 and possibly even higher 1 km.

  Rouge (or red rouge) is a fine, red iron oxide which forms on the rope, giving it a “rusty” appearance and suggesting that advanced deterioration is taking place.

It is said that the under-construction Shanghai Tower is progressing by roughly a floor every five days. On April 10, the concrete pouring of the core structure in the tower was completed on the 108th floor at the height of 501.3 m, overtaking its two neighboring supertall skyscapers, Shanghai World Financial Center (492 m tall) and Jin Mao Tower (420 m tall).