Skyscrapers [antikvár]

¦Il 11 Introduction T ¦^here are virtually no modem ciliés wittiout a skyscraper, and tlie oldest ones date baolc lo the late 19lh century That makes my task of choosing the besl and most significant skyscrapers quite a challenge. Those being built or planned now have a greater variety of form than ever before, which makes the task harder still. The skyscraper is one of humanity's most thrilling creations. Despite their bewildering number, the selection in this book delineates their story so far. All the usual suspects are here-global icons, towers that marked great shifts in building fashion or engineering advances, and key works by architects who, in specializing in high-rise, often left far greater marks on cilles than their contemporaries who are studied intensely by academics. Inevitably, however, a book cannot include everything. Whether early American skyscrapers intrigue you, or cities now building Iheir first landmark towers excite you, this book offers an excellent starting point for further study. We have omitted the heroic but failed experiments in high-rise social housing built in countries from the UK to the USSR after World War II. Regrettably sleek landmark office towers are vastly outnumbered by drab, anonymous skyscraper housing in many cities. Other than high-density housing, there are many reasons why skyscrapers are built. American architect Cass Gilbert once described them as machines for making land pay. Since the time of Stalin, they have also been built as an indication of national prestige. Thrusting towers can reflect the egos of individual developers and architects, and the fact that most of them are male is no coincidence. Occasionally, skyscrapers have been regeneration tools for places that have known better times. All of these motives play out in the story of skyscrapers, and are lo be found in this book. The work is divided into four sections chronologically. The first three sections—including the one covering Post-Modernism— reveal that skyscrapers are part of our heritage, and often worth defending. The destruction of skyscrapers by developers wanting to build bigger, more profitable modern buildings dates back to at least the 1920s in New York and Chicago, and many masterpieces have been lost. Nowadays, late 20th-century skyscrapers are redevelopment targets, and it is still not generally recognized that some of them may be worth preserving. Many great buildings go through a cycle in their public perception-Initially they thrill, then they look tired and dated, and eventually they are re-appralsed. In other words, we need a few decades before we can really know If a skyscraper is great, whatever the buzz of the time. This is part of the reason why the last section of the book, covering this century's first years, contains more skyscrapers than any of the others. It's not just that skyscrapers are literally popping up all over the place, and getting ever higher. The large number featured here is also a way of hedging our bets on what will be viewed as today's great skyscrapers in 50 years time. Taldng a long view on skyscrapers brings up a final point that this book emphasizes. Just as important as the evolution of skyscrapers' style, or their symbolism, or their geographical expansion, is the relationship they have to the environment. Even 100 years ago, when there was no idea of global warming, skyscrapers were affecting the environment. The effect was largely positive—In concentrating people and commerce together, urban sprawl was being countered. Nowadays. It is known that there is a relationship between urban densities and average energy consumption, and concentrated cities like Hong Kong are far more energy-efficient than sprawling conurbations at a similar economic level, such as Dallas for example. About half of carbon emissions are related to the built environment, so the most important need right now in skyscraper design is to cut their carbon footprint. In the future we may consider that the greatest skyscrapers of our age are not the buildings that twist and shout to make an Impression, but those that are serious about sustalnablllty Luckily, that element of the skyscraper story is producing designs as exciting now as at any time in their history.