However, all that is changing, as demonstrated by Arabian Construction Company’s World One, Mumbai project. The world’s eighth most populated city produces 7,000 metric tonnes of refuse every day, built on a foundation of rampant development to fuel its growth, has now left its 12.7 million residents overburdened and polluted. Neither Mumbai, nor indeed any other Indian city, have made it onto the Mercer Quality of Life Index for 2016. Though this rapid development bodes well for a city’s wealth prospects, it doesn’t necessarily improve the quality of life for its existing inhabitants. According to data compiled for Asian Age in 2016, 32 skyscrapers were completed in the city between 20, of which 21 skyscrapers had 35 - 50 floors. But for these formerly second-world countries working to move their economies forward, skyscrapers have become the preferred construction choice for attracting wealth into their cities.Ĭities like Mumbai, which has seen exponential growth in the last decade. In 2016, the World Health Organisation named Mumbai as the fifth most polluted megacity in the world, with practices like trash burning and fossil fuel usage exacerbating the problem. Nowhere is the need to avoid such environmental impact more important than in the rising skylines of India and her financial capital, Mumbai. Whether the cost of running the building is too high or because of its outdated design, empty space is yet another energy waste perpetrator. Indeed, many of the 20th century’s redundant office buildings have already been converted to residential uses, such as London’s Southbank Tower. That is due in part to the digital revolution and the move towards remote and co-working. While 40 percent of the world’s tallest buildings have been built in the more green-aware societal attitudes of the years’ post-2000, many of those skyscrapers now contain empty office space. In fact, the heat loss or gain can be up to ten times greater through a half inch plate of glass compared to that of a typical masonry construction filled with insulation (Popfun, 2009). The same is true of recycling, with waste segregation systems a very new consideration in skyscraper construction.Īnd without knowing the internal workings of any particular building, even to the untrained eye a simple look at the predominantly glass facades of most modern skyscrapers will tell us that they will waste the energy being pumped into them, because they either trap or lose all of their heat. With many skyscrapers dating back to a time before the technology existed to fully harness the planet’s natural energy resources, most have the space for solar panels or wind turbines for example, but were constructed without them. And once inside, their wide dark spaces are in constant need of artificial lighting. ![]() They require continuous heating in winter and cooling via air conditioning systems in hotter months. Often there is little to no form of natural ventilation within the engineering, making these behemoths constantly climate-control hungry. ![]() That’s because most 20th century skyscrapers were not designed with thermal performance in mind. They are often, at best, missing out on conservation and natural energy elements and at worst, they are vast energy consumers and waste producing vessels in their own right. The traditional style of skyscrapers comes with its own environmental baggage. From land, air and sea pollution to natural resource depletion and waste disposal challenges, pressure is mounting from governments and the wider public alike to introduce cleaner construction practices. The state of current global climate issues is forcing every industry to look to conservation and eco-friendly materials, production processes and waste management. ![]() Meet the new generation of skyscraper, moving in altogether different and very green, direction… From China’s Shangai Tower (2,013 feet) to the UAE’s famous Burj Khalifa (2,717 feet).īut does the future of the skyscraper require us to take a closer look in order to preserve and continue one of mankind’s greatest triumphs over physics? In the years since the first skyscraper adorned our skylines in 1885 (Chicago’s ten-story Home Insurance Building) we’ve watched as engineering and design have taken this craft to ever increasing heights.
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