Formula 1 Elevators: The World’s Fastest

The spread and evolution of elevators have always gone hand in hand with the pursuit of speed, with a simple goal shared by all global manufacturers: to reach the desired floor as quickly (and safely) as possible. Certainly, the device in question has made giant strides compared to the very first experiences. For example, the first elevator in 1857 traveled at a maximum speed of about 12 meters per minute. Certainly, the Asian continent was initially the one that launched the global race to create systems that, especially in the last ten years, have recorded surprising speeds. There is no need to make a ranking, but certainly, some elevators are real Formula 1s. For example, the Chinese elevator at the “Jin Mao Tower” in Shanghai can reach a speed of 32 km/h, while the one at the “John Hancock Center” in Chicago travels at 549 meters per minute, which is almost 33 km/h. Not enough? Then let’s focus on the “World Trade Center Tower III” in Beijing, the “Shanghai World Financial Center”, the “Sunshine 60 Building” in Tokyo, and the “Lotte World Tower” in Seoul: in these buildings, elevators can travel at around 35 km/h; the same speed as the iconic elevator of the “Burj Khalifa” in Dubai, which takes only 1 minute and 22 seconds to cover the impressive 828 meters of the building. To break the “35 km/h barrier”, there’s also the elevator at the “Yokohama Landmark Tower” in Japan, which reaches a speed of 750 meters per minute, equivalent to the astonishing speed of 45 km/h. At the top of the fastest, we must certainly mention the elevator of “Taipei 101” in Taipei, which races at the incredible speed of almost 61 km/h. Honorable mention for the second tallest building in the world, the “Shanghai Tower”, which measures 632 meters and has 128 floors: one of its elevators recorded a speed of 69 km/h. Completing the picture is the elevator of the Chinese building “Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre”, measuring 530 meters. Its speed? A staggering 73 km/h…