Skyscrapers

Ever wondered about what that huge building is which goes up as far as the eye can see? Well they are called skyscrapers, and this is the article telling you all about them! Along with this article I will be also writing about three particular skyscrapers over the coming weeks and they are: Petronos Twin Towers, Taipei 101 and the Burj Dubai.

The History

The Romans were the ones responsible for the Skyscraper as they started it all off by inventing concrete and making the first two storey high buildings. Buildings really only started getting bigger after the 19th century for being inhabited as it was difficult for inhabitants to walk up so many steps as there were no lifts and also the water was not able to get high enough. The first real habitable skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1884-1885. We would have had much earlier skyscrapers if it wasn't for the fact that it was so hard to get out in an emergency of a fire. So eventually in 1930 and 1931 we got the first real skyscrapers of the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. These skyscrapers first hit off in America but then they fell away again until now when Asia has followed up with the magnificent buildings and since the Asian dominance in the hights America has fought back now and they are going to be building lots more skyscrapers.

The Definition

Askyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building. This simple definition is applicable to many buildings across any city but they are not all classified as a skyscraper as it will most usually be called a high rise building, it really becomes a skyscraper if it is a visable building that dominates the skyline of the city, there is also a kind of example hieght of 88 metres and then at around 200 metres the building might even be able to be called a superskyscraper.

Materials of Modern Day Skyscrapers

The modern Skyscraper would be built using a mixture of these materiels: steel, glass, reinforced concrete and granite. For people to be able to easily get to each floor the skyscraper would also include water pumps and elevators. Now they only choose the steel, glass, concrete and granite as it is easily produced and it provides a strong sturdy building. You would find that in very windy areas you will have a concrete skyscraper instead as it doesn't sway as much as a metal one, and with the place swaying about the person will feel extremely sick meaning that the top would be uninhabitable.

The Current Biggest

This is a diagram of the tallest skyscrapers in the world ordered by official height. This ordering method looks only at a building's roof height or spire height, whichever is greater, and doesn't take antenna height into consideration. This makes buildings like the Petronas Towers appear taller than the Sears Tower.

Burj Dubai is not seen in this diagram because, although it has now surpassed the height of Taipei 101, it is still under construction and will not be considered to be the world's tallest building until it is completed.

So there you have it, the 10 highest skyscrapers in the world. Most of them are new and are in Asia, most of them are office only as this is the only way in which the companies that want them will ever get the billions which they invest in the building. I think that having skyscrapers are great as it can potentially fit lots of people/ work places into one plot of land meaning that cities don't just take up the whole world. This I think is only possible if they can think of ways to prevent the building from being terrorist attacks or making cities in danger of earthquakes (the place where Taipei 101 was built has experienced a new load of earthquakes) also it should only be possible to build the magnificent buildings if the fire crew are capable of being able to defend each part of the building.