July 17, 2014
I visited Taipei 101 early this year. It has been remained to be the landmark in Taipei since 2004.
The most attractive feature I found was the "Tuned Mass Damper" - a 18-foot diameter, 728-ton steel sphere at 88th floors of the skyscraper. This is the only TMD open to public.
How at TMD works @ Youtube:
More about Tuned Mass Dampers:
如何幫大樓抗風防震？淺談台北101大樓阻尼器(1/2) (Chinese, NTU )
Back to my 101 journey, I observed that not much visitors interested how the TMD worked - no one read the poster for its background but keep photo taking. It is also funny to see how the tourists reacted during earthquake. Take a look on the following Taiwan news:
Beside TMD, of course, Startbucks at 35F is also another secret!
image source: http://cpmah2013.tust.edu.tw/c2013a043/page-5.htm
