In my research of large pendulums for the 10,000 Year Clock, I came across the beautifully designed tuned mass damper in Taipei 101, which is currently the tallest skyscraper in Taiwan.
Really tall buildings are themselves massive pendulums, built to sway in the wind and earthquakes. However, very tall buildings in earthquake zones need something to dampen this motion.
These tuned mass dampers do just that. This includes many new buildings here in San Francisco that use baffled water tanks for this purpose.
This one at the Taipei 101 is the first one I have seen designed with a high degree of aesthetics in mind. It was clearly designed to impress people on the building tour. Below is a small animated image of how it counteracts building sway — it pretty much does what you do with your own weight when the stool you are standing on to change that light bulb and it starts to sway.
02022 update
A Long Now Ideas reader shared this astounding video of the Taipei 101 tuned mass damper in action during a recent magnitude 6.8 earthquake. One guy had the presence of mind to run in and record the pendulum in action.
02024 update
The 2,073 foot Shanghai Tower, currently the third-tallest building in the world and the tallest in China, features this stunning tuned mass damper which weighs in at 1000 tons.
