The skyscraper, once regarded as the archetypal American building, now belongs to Asia and the Arabian Gulf. Tall buildings still appear in western cities – London has only become a high-rise city in the last thirty years – but not on a scale that compares with Shenzen, Dubai or Kuala Lumpur.
At the heart of the 21st century skyscraper boom is, unsurprisingly, China. Though it has now placed limits on super-tall construction, China is already home to half of the world’s twenty highest buildings, and almost half of the fifty highest. If we rank cities by the number of structures above 150 metres, only seven of the top fifty are outside Asia and the Middle East.
Read Full Article »