28 October 2019

The Future of Sustainable Cities and How Tall Building Urbanism has Evolved

James Parakh, City of Toronto Planning Division

In the past 50 years, tall buildings and their relationship to streets and open spaces has evolved through various scales and typologies. As place-makers, how...

21 June 2019

Energy Modeling of a Supertall Building Using Simulated 600 m Weather File Data

Ali Irani & Luke Leung & Marzia Sedino, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill

Assessing the energy performance of supertall buildings often does not consider variations in energy consumption due to the change of environmental conditions such as temperature,...

14 March 2019

Skybridges: A History and a View to the Near Future

Antony Wood & Daniel Safarik CTBUH

As many architects and visionaries have shown over a period spanning more than a century, the re-creation of the urban realm in the sky through...

12 December 2018

Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2018

CTBUH Research

The astronomical growth in tall building construction observed over the past decade continued in 2018, though the total number of completed buildings of 200 meters’...

20 October 2018

The Tall, Polycentric City: Dubai and the Future of Vertical Urbanism

Daniel Safarik, Shawn Ursini & Antony Wood, CTBUH

The development pattern of Dubai, host city of the 2018 CTBUH Middle East Conference core program, typifies the polycentric city phenomenon more than most cities....

20 October 2018

Polycentric Cities: The Future of Vertical Urbanism

CTBUH 2018 Conference Speakers

As we approach the new normality of cities housing 10 million or more inhabitants, those best positioned for the future are evolving along polycentric, multi-nodal...

20 October 2018

The Middle East: 30+ Years of Building Tall

CTBUH Research

The Middle East region is hosting its first CTBUH International Conference since 2008. In that year, there were 119 completed buildings of 150 meters or...

01 September 2018

Developments of Structural Systems Toward Mile-High Towers

Kyoung Sun Moon, Yale University School of Architecture

Tall buildings which began from about 40 m tall office towers in the late 19th century have evolved into mixed-use megatall towers over 800 m....

30 April 2018

How to Protect High-Rise Egress Routes?

Grzegorz Sypek, SMAY Group

Recent, tragic high-rise fires have underscored a fundamental issue: the lack of protected escape routes in tall buildings. As we build a greater volume of...

05 February 2018

2017: Skyscraper History’s Tallest, Highest- Volume, and Most Geographically Diverse Year

This 2017 Tall Building Year in Review / Tall Buildings in Numbers data analysis report shows that more buildings of 200 meters’ height or greater...

30 October 2017

Empirically Evaluating the Livability Of Local Neighborhoods and Global Cities

Christian Derix, Lucy Helme, Fabio Galicia & Alexander Kachkaev, Woods Bagot

CIVITAS is a search engine for urban conditions, developed to allow stakeholders to identify qualities of livability and urban experiences that suit their tacit desires...

08 August 2017

Ten Significant Tall Buildings, and the Significant Women Behind Them

Leading Women in Tall Buildings

Recently, there has been a growing and overdue recognition in the architecture discipline that women are under-represented, not just in terms of leadership positions held,...

17 October 2016

The Space Between: Urban Spaces Surrounding Tall Buildings

James Parakh, City of Toronto Planning Division

This paper is intended to introduce the upcoming CTBUH technical guide titled “The Space Between,” which investigates the importance of publicly accessible spaces surrounding tall...

17 October 2016

Paints in Extreme Exposures: Long-Term Durability and Cost Savings Throughout Building Life Cycle

Huan Wu & Ashraf Wassef, The Jotun Group

A protective coating is applied as a long term anti-corrosion method in steel protection; it can save the operation costs of buildings across entire life...

28 April 2016

Debating Tall: Do Cladding Fire Codes & Tests Need Changing?

Phil Barry, CWB Fire Safety Consultants Ltd; Simon Lay, Olsson Fire & Risk UK

A series of high-profile fires in tall buildings in the Middle East has raised concerns about standards for fire protection in exterior cladding on these...

19 January 2016

Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2015

Jason Gabel, Marty Carver & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH

CTBUH has determined that 106 buildings of 200 meters’ height or greater were completed around the world in 2015 – setting a new record for...

01 December 2015

Geotechnical Parameter Assessment for Tall Building Foundation Design

Harry Poulos, Coffey Geotechnics; Frances Badelow, Mott MacDonald

This paper discusses the design parameters that are required for the design of high-rise building foundations, and suggests that the method of assessment for these...

26 October 2015

The Tall Building Impact: From Local to Global

Adrian Smith & Peter Weismantle, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

AS+GG’s Director of Supertall Technology interviews AS+GG Partner Adrian Smith about the impact that supertall buildings have on a city’s identity, economy, ecological impact, and...

26 October 2015

Urban Planning in Dubai; Cultural and Human Scale Context

Akram Ogaily, Hill International

The rapid urbanization of Dubai and regional Middle Eastern cities presents challenges with respect to the traditional local city fabric and the advent of modern...

26 October 2015

Reflecting on the Inauguration of the Burj Khalifa, Dubai 2010

Pierre Marcout, Prisme Entertainment Inc & Prisme International

Dubai is a city that emerged in only a decade. Though facing successive challenges it has built an attractive reputation around the world. Criticized and...

26 October 2015

The Network of Urban Spaces Surrounding Tall Buildings

James Parakh, City of Toronto Planning Department

This paper investigates the Network of Urban Spaces Surrounding Tall Buildings, the Tall Building as Place Makers how Tall Buildings meet the street. As contributing...

26 October 2015

Context, Climate, Culture – Investigating Place in Tall Building Design

Robert Goodwin, Perkins + Will

Should a tower in Moscow look like one in Dubai? Once one entered a city and marveled at the unique magic of its architecture –...

26 October 2015

The Challenges of Delivering Iconic Tall Buildings Across the World: A Global Technology Transfer

Ahmad Abdelrazaq, Samsung C&T Corporation

Samsung and the authors’ involvement in these major tall and complex building projects have facilitated the transfer of the technologies and best practices to projects...

26 October 2015

Risk-Based Approach of Achieving Code Compliance in Tall Buildings: Case Study

John Devlin, Aon Fire Protection Engineering Corporation

This paper is a case study of Nakheel Tower, Dubai, UAE – a proposed 1,000m and 200 plus story tall building – and the risk-based...

24 August 2015

World’s Highest Observation Decks

CTBUH Research

Perhaps no element of a tall building is more closely related to the pure pleasure of standing high in the sky and taking in the...

31 December 2014

Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2014

Daniel Safarik, Antony Wood, Marty Carver & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH

An All-Time Record 97 Buildings of 200 Meters or Higher Completed in 2014 and 2014 showed further shifts towards Asia, and also surprising developments in...

06 November 2014

The Competition for the Tallest Skyscraper - Implications for Global Ethics and Economics

Christopher Michaelson, University of St. Thomas

An iconic skyscraper has aesthetic significance that may have meaning for other aspects of human experience – serving, for example, as an expression of cultural...

06 November 2014

Dream Deferred: Unfinished Tall Buildings

CTBUH Research

Without big dreams, there would be no tall buildings. Conceiving, financing, designing, and constructing a skyscraper is no simple feat, even under the best of...

11 June 2014

Highest Helipads

CTBUH Research

In this installment of Tall Buildings in Numbers, CTBUH considers how helipads are used on skyscrapers, and which are the highest in the world. The...

31 December 2013

Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2013

Daniel Safarik, Antony Wood, Marty Carver & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH

By all appearances, the small increase in the total number of tall-building completions from 2012 into 2013 is indicative of a return to the prevalent...

31 December 2012

Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2012

Kevin Brass, Antony Wood & Marty Carver, CTBUH

For the first time in six years the number of tall buildings completed annually around the world declined as the effects of the global financial...

21 September 2012

How Tall Buildings Meet the Ground is as Important as How They Meet the Sky

James Goettsch, Goettsch Partners

If you are concerned about the urban habitat, you have to be concerned about whether or not buildings provide a positive experience at the ground...

21 September 2012

Holistic Approach of Beehive (Hexagrid), New Innovative Approach to Supertall Free Form Buildings

Peyman Askarinejad, Ted Jacob Engineering Group

The HexaGrid system is a new look from an alternative perspective on how structural engineers can achieve the requirements of designing high-rise structures while increasing...

27 January 2012

Debating Tall: A Supertall Future in the US?

Adrian Smith, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture; Paul Beitler, Beitler Real Estate Services LLC

In 1990, only 11 buildings in the world could be counted as a “supertall” (defined as a building over 300 meters tall), and all but...

18 January 2012

The Tallest 20 in 2020: Entering the Era of the Megatall

Nathaniel Hollister & Antony Wood, CTBUH

Within this decade we will likely witness not only the world’s first kilometer-tall building, but also the completion of a significant number of buildings over...

13 January 2012

Burj Khalifa Dubai, UAE

As the world’s tallestbuilding, the Burj Khalifasets the standard for whatarchitecture and designshould be. At 828 meters,the building houses the highest swimming pool, mosque and...

31 December 2011

Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2011

Nathaniel Hollister & Antony Wood, CTBUH

The annual story is becoming a familiar one: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and now 2011 have each sequentially broke the record for the most 200...

01 May 2011

Validating the Dynamics of the Burj Khalifa

Ahmad Abdelrazaq, Samsung C&T

Historically, tall building design and construction relied solely on minimum building code requirements. While many research and monitoring programs have been implemented, these programs are...

31 December 2010

Tallest Buildings Completed in 2010

CTBUH Research

In a year dominated by news coverage of the new “World’s Tallest Building” – Burj Khalifa, Dubai – one may be surprised to learn that,...

15 October 2010

Case Study: O-14 Folded Exoskeleton

Jesse Reiser & Nanako Umemoto, Reiser + Umemoto RUR Architecture; Jaime Ocampo, Ysrael A. Seinuk

O-14 is a 22-story commercial tower characterized by 1,326 openings, randomly located and varying in size, throughout the whole exterior shell. It is one of...

01 February 2010

Structural Design of Reinforced Concrete Tall Buildings

Ali Sherif S. Rizk, Dar Al-Handasah Consultants

During the last 12 years the Structural Engineering Department at Dar Al-Handasah has designed 45 mixed-use tall buildings in different Arab countries. The designed towers...

07 August 2009

Case Study: Nakheel Tower - The Vertical City

Mark Mitcheson-Low, Woods Bagot; Ahmad Rahimian, WSP Cantor Seinuk; Dennis O'Brien, Norman Disney & Young

Nakheel Harbour & Tower, Dubai's new capital, will be a beacon of inspiration for the region and the world, incorporating elements from Islamic culture. Encompassing...

01 May 2009

Condenser Typology: Open Envelope Vertical Farming, the Extremes of Tower Urbanism

Matthew Wilson, Vectorfield.org

Can humidity-harvesting experiments inform tower urbanism in arid coastal environments? The finding of this study includes how the 'Condenser' tower typology deviates from other methods...

01 February 2009

Tall Buildings in the Global Recession: 2008, 2020 and Beyond

Philip Oldfield & Antony Wood, CTBUH

The year 2008 will long be remembered as the start of an economic crisis that has gripped the entire globe - a year that may...

01 January 2009

Optimization Tools for the Design of Structures

Mark Sarkisian, Eric Long, Chung-Soo Doo & David Shook, SOM

Structural optimization has attracted increasing interest in the building industry, especially in the design of high-rise buildings. By selectively distributing structural members in a building,...

31 December 2008

Tallest Buildings Completed in 2008

CTBUH Research

Against the backdrop of global economic crisis, 2008 witnessed the most successful year of skyscraper construction to date, with more skyscrapers constructed globally within a...

12 June 2008

The Tallest Buildings in the World: Past, Present & Future

CTBUH Research

Over time, the average height of the 100 tallest buildings in the world has been steadily increasing. However, by 2010, this average height will have...

09 June 2008

Toward a Better Urban Life: Integration of Cities and Tall Buildings

Mir M. Ali & Ajla Aksamija, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

In the context of a rapidly urbanizing world, architects and planners should aim to create cities that are thriving, vibrant, and healthy. Well-planned cities containing...

03 March 2008

How Supertall Buildings Can Benefit From Height

Luke Leung & Peter Weismantle, SOM

Utilizing the earth and near-grade environment as a source of energy has historically been a common practice. Beyond solar and wind, designers do not usually...

03 March 2008

Burj Dubai: Designing the World’s Tallest

Adrian Smith, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

This paper discusses the process of the Burj Dubai's design, offering insights into the refinement and development of the design in response to programmatic requirements,...

03 March 2008

Brief on the Construction Planning of the Burj Dubai Project, Dubai, UAE

Ahmad Abdelrazaq, Kyung Jun Kim & Jae Ho Kim, Samsung C&T

The focus of this paper will be on the construction planning of the Burj Dubai tower, this paper will briefly present an overview of the...

03 March 2008

Engineering the World’s Tallest - Burj Dubai

William F. Baker, D. Stanton Korista & Lawrence C. Novak, SOM

The goal of the Burj Dubai Tower is not simply to be the world’s highest building; it’s to embody the world’s highest aspirations.

03 March 2008

A Postcard from Dubai - Design and Construction of Some of the Tallest Buildings in the World

Andy Davids, Jonathan Wongso, Darko Popovic & Angus McFarlane, Hyder Consulting Middle East

This paper presents an overview of the design and construction of some of the tallest buildings in the world, currently under construction in the Gulf...

03 March 2008

Dubai Tower 29, Structure and Form

Mahjoub Elnimeiri, CDCI Engineers

The author will present the architectural design ideas that led to the creation of Tower 29. He will then introduce the innovative structural design concepts...

03 March 2008

Façade Access for the Burj Dubai and other Articulating Towers

Lee Herzog, Lerch Bates Inc.

With the advent of supertall towers, and in some cases, articulating architectural features, the designing of façade access equipment has necessarily become increasingly complex. However,...

03 March 2008

The Sustainable Vision of Dubai

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, H.E. Hussain Nasser Lootah, United Arab Emirates

This paper focuses on recent strategies implemented in Dubai that will improve the sustainable performance of the city’s built environment; specifically the green building directive...

03 March 2008

From the Tallest to the Greenest - Paradigm Shift in Dubai

Habiba Al Marashi, UN Global Impact; Jasleen Bhinder, Emirates Environmental Group

This paper discuses the Urban Challenges facing Dubai due to the construction boom, including the social, economical and environmental impacts of the construction industry, Dubai’s...

31 December 2007

Tallest Buildings Completed in 2007

333 meters high with 72 stories and 480 suites, Rose Rotana Tower in Dubai leads the list of the 10 tallest buildings completed in 2007....

01 November 2007

Burj Dubai Stack Effect - Passive Stack Effect Mitigation Measures in the Design of the World's Tallest Building

Peter A. Weismantle & Luke Leung, SOM

The purpose of this paper is to outline the challenges related to stack effect faced by the Burj Dubai design team and to describe the...

31 December 2006

Tallest Buildings Completed in 2006

Nina Tower 1 in Hong Kong, at 319 meters high, leads the list of the ten tallest buildings completed in 2006. The Sports City Tower/Aspire...

16 October 2005

The Wind Engineering of the Burj Dubai Tower

Peter Irwin, RWDI

The Burj Dubai tower will be the world’s tallest building by a wide margin when completed. Wind is the dominant lateral load and thus governed...

10 October 2004

Tower Buildings in Dubai – Are they Sustainable?

Khaled A. Al-Sallal, UAE University

The active construction of tall buildings in the UAE, as a result of the rapid growth of economy, goes in a fast pace and has...

10 October 2004

The World’s Tallest Building, Burj Dubai, U.A.E.

William F. Baker, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

In this paper, the process of shaping the 2000 ft tower, Burj Dubai, in order to mitigate wind effects and assist in resisting loads is...