Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Tall Buildings
“Tall building”, “high-rise building” and “skyscraper” are difficult to define and
distinguish solely from a dimensional perspective because height is a relative matter
that changes according to time and place. While these terms all refer to the notion
of very tall buildings, the term “skyscraper” is the most forceful. The term “high-rise
building” has been recognised as a building type since the late nineteenth century,
while the history of the term “tall building” is very much older than that of the term
“high-rise building”. As for the use of the term “skyscraper” for some tall/high-rise
buildings reflecting social amazement and exaggeration, it first began in connection
with the 12-storey Home Insurance Building,
built in Chicago towards the end of the
nineteenth century (Harbert, 2002; Peet, 2011).
There is no general consensus on the height or number of storeys above which
buildings should be classified as tall buildings or skyscrapers. The architectural/
structural height of a building is measured from the open-air pedestrian entrance to
(Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat), buildings of 14 storeys or 50 metres'
height and above could be considered as “tall buildings”; buildings of 300 metres'
and 600 metres' height and above are classified as “supertall buildings” and “megatall
buildings” respectively. The CTBUH measures the “height to architectural top” from
the level of the lowest “significant open-air pedestrian entrance” to the architectural
top of the building, including spires, but not including antennae, signage, flag poles
or other functional-technical equipment. In this topic, this height measurement is used
for the “architectural height” of the buildings.
