The race to build the tallest timber building makes the news, but mid-rise construction is where using timber can make the biggest sustainability impact.
Paris is an example of a densely built low-rise city.
DaLiu/Shutterestock
New research has found that low-rise urban environments are more space and carbon efficient than high-rise buildings which have a drastically higher carbon impact.
99% of people below the floors where the planes struck the twin towers evacuated successfully, although their journey was fraught with danger. Their stories have influenced today’s skyscraper designs.
People love to connect with nature and that’s possible with vertical gardens on high-rise developments. But gardens need a gardener to keep things under control.
The Mjøstårnet, an 18-storey mixed-use building constructed with engineered wood, overlooks Norway’s largest lake, in Brumunddal.
(Woodify/YouTube)
The problems of demolishing high-rise buildings in busy cities point to the need to prepare for unbuilding at the time of building. We’d then be much better placed to recycle building materials.
Towering canyons of concrete and glass are an increasingly dominant feature of fast-growing cities like Melbourne.
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Planning controls in Melbourne were eased 20 years ago, with mixed results, and new limits are now in place. Will other cities that have eased height limits, like Adelaide, avoid the same mistakes?
The world’s current tallest skyscraper is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s 828 metres tall. But we could go taller.
Flickr/Cristian Viarisio
It would be difficult, but we could probably build a tower over 2,000 metres tall, which would be like ten normal skyscrapers on top of each other! This is probably not a very good idea though.
New York restricts the growth of glass skyscrapers.
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Standing 240m tall, the Statue of Unity celebrates India’s development. But jarringly, it towers over a divisive and environmentally damaging dam project.
Q1 on the Gold Coast is currently Australia’s tallest building.
Flickr/Ben Low
Tall buildings are an increasing feature of Australia’s city landscapes, although they’re still relatively small compared to overseas. But is there a limit on how high we can build?
Can technology free elevators from their up-down cages?
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New technology could make it practical to build skyscrapers far taller than even today’s highest – and change how people live, work and play in tall buildings.
The mall’s inventor, Victor Gruen, envisioned thriving hubs of civic activity, rather than bland, asphalt-enclosed shopping centers. Is his original vision now being realized – or further corrupted?
In many cities, the only direction to go is up.
'Skyscrapers' via www.shutterstock.com
George Washington had Mount Vernon. Thomas Jefferson had Monticello. Now Trump has his eponymous tower. Can it stimulate a more creative, sustainable approach to building skyscrapers?
Taking stock of modernist buildings and their potential for reuse is a necessary public project in Johannesburg. A new book that tells the stories of reuse in this African metropolis can help do that.
Executive Director, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat; Visiting Professor of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University Shanghai; Research Professor of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology