The global elevator and escalator market is expected to be over $145 billion by 2027 as skylines increasingly become taller. The Merdeka 118 building in Malaysia will become the world’s second tallest skyscraper in 2024 at 2,233 feet. But how do the elevators efficiently transport more than 10,000 people up and down the building every day?

WSJ spoke with an elevator engineer expert who breaks down the strategies and challenges that come with designing an elevator system to service each of the Malaysian skyscraper’s 118 floors.

0:00 Elevators in skyscrapers
0:53 Optimizing for traffic flow
2:28 How to handle capacity
4:44 Speed of elevator
5:29 Innovations

This post has been edited by Raddus: Sep 4 2023, 11:33 AM