Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#43
28th Jun 2018 at 12:49 PM
Last edited by Don Babilon : 28th Jun 2018 at
12:59 PM.
Posts: 6,839
Thanks: 1338 in 7 Posts
10 Achievements
Building a skyscraper in a European city is usually a big deal. Most of these cities are old, if not ancient. So, one point is usually to preserve the old skyline and maintain the general coherence of the city centres (hence the height limits). Secondly, because these cities are so old, the likelihood of hitting ancient remains once you start digging is high and will halt any construction (which also means that the ground is often not stable enough for such a huge building - catacombs, cellars, old sewers, these places are full of these). Thirdly, once you have a wall of skyscrapers, the inner city air will become worse, because you basically cut off winds from one side, and here people do live in the city centres, and very much so. Fourth, environmental protection laws are pretty strict, so if you can't prove that your skyscraper meets them (energy efficiency, pollution) your project will die already in the planning state.
It's pretty telling, I think, that you will find most modern buildings and highrises either in emerging countries or cities that were almost completely destroyed during WWII, cities that don't have much that would have to be removed to make space (we still do love our traditions, you know). Or in authoritarian states that don't care about history as soon as an investor offers to pay.
Calling that underdeveloped is actually a bit insulting, especially since some of the world's best building engineers for skyscrapers are located in Europe, they just don't have a lot to do in their home countries and build in Chicago, Shanghai or Beijing instead. And I think that compared to other "developed" countries our infrastructure is terrific, once you shift your attention away from the lack of skyscrapers.