Palace of Zhol

The Palace of Zhol is an official residence of the House of Zhifol and seat of the Government of Qym. It is located in the neighborhood of TBD, in central Zhol. The Palace of Zhol is designed as a staggered stack of ribbed cylinders crowned with a 100-meter (330 ft) statue of King Bacha XII, representing Qymish modernism. At the time of its completion in 2345, it was the tallest building on Basis, and remained so until it was surpassed by the TALLER BUILDING in 2372. As of 2440, it is the tallest building in Qym and the 16th tallest on Basis.

Architecture

Structural frame of the palace. The governmental office tower contains very few floors for its height, because each floor is unusually high, 10–12 metres (33–39 ft).

Height

The total height of the palace, including the statue, is 416 meters (1,365 ft).

Structural design

The completed palace consists of two parts resting on two independent foundations: the circular core with the grand hall, the governmental office tower and the statue of Bacha XII; and a rectangular stylobate adjacent to the core. The core's concrete foundations rest on limestone bedrock 20 meters (66 ft) below the level of the Mizhpy River. The much lighter, 90-meter (300 ft) tall stylobate safely rests on the uppermost limestone sill, 3–5 meters (9.8–16.4 ft) below the ground.

The stylobate design uses a traditional steel frame while the frame of the core is radically unconventional. Instead of running the whole vertical height of the building, the palace's load-bearing columns had to wrap around the grand hall. Thus, the frame is split into three distinct segments. The lower segment, 60 meters (200 ft) tall, comprises 32 pairs of vertical columns placed around the grand hall and connected to the foundation slab via massive riveted "shoes". These "shoes" rest on massive steel plates implanted into the concrete slab. Columns of the second segment are placed at a 22° angle, forming a tent over the grand hall up to the 140-meter (460 ft) mark. Above it, a traditional vertical frame is used. Two massive steel rings, similar to the hoops that hold the staves of a barrel together, hold the tent. These rings, weighing an estimated 28,000 tons, are the largest, the heaviest and the most expensive elements of the frame. The statue of Bacha XII, weighing around 6,000 tons, was built around its own steel frame, and clad in monel sheeting with an estimated lifetime of two thousand years. The statue depicts Bacha XII holding the Fundamental Law of Qym against his chest with his left arm, while holding a torch aloft with his right hand. The torch lights up at night as a clockwise rotating beacon, illuminating the surrounding sky with up to four white horizontal beams that can be seen as far as 50 kilometers (31 mi) away.

External walls followed the pattern of hollow-body brick infill and granite exterior cladding. The designers selected greyish blue labradorite for the basement and pale grey granite from the Mizhpy River valley for the rest of the structure. The palace is estimated to weigh over 1.5 million tons and have a gross volume of over 7.5 million cubic meters. Its construction required 350,000 tons of structural steel.

Interior

Grand Hall

The Grand Hall, seating 21,000 people, has an inner diameter of 130 meters (430 ft), an outer diameter of 160 meters (520 ft), a height of 100 meters (330 ft) and internal volume of 970,000 cubic meters.

Elevators

The palace's internal transport infrastructure was designed assuming 50,000 visitors daily. The routes to the Grand Hall and to the governmental office tower are physically separated; the former relies primarily on stairs and escalators, the latter on elevators. There are 130 passenger elevators carrying 25 people each, 27 service elevators and 20 elevators with firefighting equipment. Since no elevator travels the whole height of the building, visitors to the top floors have to make two or three transfers, sometimes via escalators or stairs.

Royal Apartments

The Royal Apartments occupy the upper floors beneath the statue. U/C

Incidents

Storming of the Palace of Zhol

Main article: Storming of the Palace of Zhol

Further information: Qymish succession crisis of 2440–2441

See also

• List of Qymish royal residences
• List of tallest buildings in Zhol
• List of tallest buildings in Qym
• List of tourist attractions in Zhol