Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Is there a height limit that skyscrapers can be built to?

With the shrinking space to build more buildings, the logical thing to do is build taller. But is there a limit to how tall can you build one?

Twin Towers
At 452 metres high, Petronas Twin-Towers in Kuala Lumpur stand among of tallest buildings in the world. Photo by: de engineur


Yes, there are many limits. The heavier a building, the stronger its foundations need to be. In turn, that’s limited by how deep it’s possible to excavate and the land available to accommodate the building’s footprint.

Even the slenderest designs need larger bases as they get taller. Another factor is the speed of the lifts. People on the top floor don’t want to take all day to get up there.

But in cities with limited amount of space, people will find ways to try to set the limit higher and higher.


Ref: Sciencefocus

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