Business | Features
Tall buildings eye greater heights
The appetite for man to reach the heavens is accelerating. Every continent now boasts buildings of over 50 storeys and the total of such buildings worldwide is now measured in the thousands.
- By Stewart Tyler, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:28 August 24, 2008
- Image Credit: Illustration: Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News
The appetite for man to reach the heavens is accelerating. Every continent now boasts buildings of over 50 storeys and the total of such buildings worldwide is now measured in the thousands.
The reason for this may lie in the rapid growth of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies and the seemingly never ending rise in the price of oil.
These factors have led to a major shift in the location of the new towers as developed Western cities give way to the Middle East and Asia as the centres of urban development.
As the percentage of the world's population living in cities passes 50 per cent and continues to grow from 3.5 billion to an estimated 5 billion by 2030, the creation of new cities or of major satellites to existing cities becomes inevitable.
In other words, the number of 'mega-cities' doubles every 10 years.
National confidence
In a rapidly growing world, tall buildings give instant impact and demonstrate national confidence. When well planned and grouped, they create a compelling and attractive focus to these modern urban communities. They also provide the opportunity for substantial numbers of people to live and work in the same area, and reduce energy spent on travel.
The record of being 'world's tallest building' is a cachet for many people and being the tallest in a city can create investment excitement around a development and lead to the creation of other new communities. Tall building developments also create more open urban spaces which contribute to both the aesthetics and recreational usage of an area.
However, despite all the apparent attractions, the real fear was that in a post 9/11 world people would simply not want to be in tall buildings, but this has generally not turned out to be the case.
One reason for this may be the determination of people to get on with their lives, to broadly refuse to change what they do, while at the same time, accepting that some aspects of life have changed.
Since 9/11 much has been learned and building codes have been redrafted with best practice updated to reflect new understanding. This, together with growing acceptance of higher security being a part of everyday public life means tall buildings will continue to be a growing feature of city skylines around the world.
Specialists have been designing 'safer' buildings for some time but expertise is still limited in the field. Using well-proven techniques, the threats to tall structures can be mitigated by planning and allowing deterrence as well as defensive measures.
Often it is forgotten by developers that a building will last for many tens of years and political and security situations may well change in the lifetime of a building.
Ultimately, as with most issues today, it comes down to cost against risk and many developers and owners now desire safety measures in the same way as one does in a car. After all such measures protect investment as well as people.
Security measures
People do not want to undergo disruptive searches and other security measures but these are becoming an, albeit begrudgingly, accepted part of life in the 21st Century. The public deserve to not have to live in a 'bunker' mentality with barbed wire and barriers everywhere. However, many modern security measures are carefully blended to incorporate landscaping or 'street-scape' features.
All such measures just need early thought and to be part of the planning for the complex systems involved in designing iconic buildings today.
With work on The Burj Dubai now nearing completion, current evidence suggests it will not hold the title of the world's tallest for long.
The ability to design even taller buildings currently exists using relatively conventional technology and materials. Issues relating to matters such as cost, social acceptability, maintenance and climatic effects will come into play and may ultimately inhibit growth but we can be certain that buildings at or near the height of the Burj Dubai will be a common feature of cities in the very near future.
The writer is Hyder Consulting's Global Director - Property Sector.
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