How to waste a lot of concrete

The Dubai Property Ring have recently announced plans to build the world's first fully rotating residential tower, and as if that wasn't a grand-enough plan, the rotation will be entirely managed via solar energy [1]! So, apart from this quite ridiculous idea, what are the other skyscrapers of note?

As it is the current record holder (for roof height), the first mention should go to fantastic Taipei 101 [2]. Built in 2004, it stands 449.2 m high, has 101 rooms above the ground, and has the fastest elevator in the world (60.4 km/h). There are some people however, that only recognise the measure of a building to it's architectural top. So if it has a big antenna, that counts too. In that case, the Sears Tower [3], finished in 1973 and standing at a total height of 527.3 m is the winner. Anyone can see however that it is no where near as cool as Taipei 101.

By the end of 2008 though, Dubai will probably hold both of these records. The Burj Dubai [4] will have the highest roof (634.3 m) and the highest architectural top (808 m), though this may not last long, as the Mubarak al-Kabir Tower in Kuwait (which is still in the planning stage) is intending to reach 1001 m in height [5]!

However, none of these buildings come close to the STAGGERING INSANITY of the Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea [6]. It stands as a 330 m high shell of concrete, and with 3000 rooms would be the largest hotel in the world if it were ever completed, which is apparently not going to happen, due to them using poor quality concrete (eek!). It remains with no windows, no doors and is completely empty. Despite the fact that is was completely unnecessary (how many people actually visit Pyongyang?), the struggling country spent a whopping 2% of it's own GDP during its construction phase. Strangely, the following quote from George Orwell's 1984 describes the building almost exactly [7].

"...The Ministry of Truth—Minitrue, in Newspeak—was startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring up, terrace after terrace, three hundred meters into the air...The Ministry of Truth contained, it was said, three thousand rooms above ground level, and corresponding ramifications below..."

[1] http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06/11/30/10086170.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Tower
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Dubai
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mubarak_al-Kabir_Tower
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryugyong_Hotel
[7] http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/pyongyang/105buildingindex.htm