Abstract
This chapter offers a fresh account on current tall building developments around the globe. By analyzing extensive data, the chapter contrasts building activities before and after the turn of the new century. It gives a brief review of the development of high-rise buildings in world’s continents, including Asia, Middle East, Europe, North America, South America, Central America, Africa, and Oceania. Importantly, it lays out the driving forces of constructing tall buildings, such as the rapid increase of urban population, demographic change, global competition and globalization, urban regeneration, and agglomeration. Overall, the chapter alerts about the massive vertical developments that are taking place in numerous cities around the globe.
Parts of this chapter were published in Al-Kodmany (2018a) Skyscrapers in the Twenty-First Century City: A Global Snapshot. Buildings, 8(12), 175; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings8120175.
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Notes
- 1.
Data comes from two major sources: the CTBUH Skyscraper Center (https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/) and Emporis (https://www.emporis.com/).
- 2.
Appendix A offers definitions of skyscrapers, tall buildings, high-rise, towers, and the like, and Appendix C provides a detailed quantitative measure of the global development of tall buildings in the twenty-first century.
- 3.
The building construction is currently on hold.
- 4.
It is important to note that these statements are pure generalization. Energy consumption of high-rise versus low-rise environments is an exceedingly complex, debatable, and controversial topic (see Al-Kodmany 2018b). Therefore, the answers vary tremendously. It is best to pursue case-by-case analysis and consider in each study the myriad variables that contribute to energy consumption and GHG emission at both micro- and macro-scales. Acquiring the needed data of buildings’ construction, operation, utilities, maintenance, traveled distances, and costs of building infrastructure, among others, is particularly challenging.
- 5.
As buildings get taller, their structural systems may occupy a considerable amount of usable space, particularly in the lower floors, making them economically less effective.
- 6.
It is worth noting that economic cycles which impact tall building construction are unpredictable due to changing GDPs and property values. Overall, the costs of building skyscrapers are high and it takes years, about 15Â years on average, for the building owner to start reaping profit.
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Al-Kodmany, K. (2020). Tall Building Construction Boom: A Global Snapshot. In: Tall Buildings and the City. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6029-3_2
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