Vanity Height: The Truth Behind Super Tall Towers
By Lucas on Jan 28, 2014
Image via world-visits.blogspot.ca
By Penny Munoz
What do the Burj Khalifa, Zifeng Tower and the Bank of America Tower all have in common? According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), these towers, along with many super tall towers around the world can be distinguished by the long length of their spires.
Though these spires contribute aesthetically to the length and design of the tower, the CTBUH has noticed that this growing trend tends to render a large percentage of the tower uninhabitable. Also noting that without these spires, 61% of the world’s tallest skyscrapers would lose their super tall standing, falling under the 900 feet requirement. Coining the term “vanity height” for this unoccupied space, the CTBUH put together a list of the world’s “vainest” towers.
“We noticed in … Kingdom Tower, Jeddah, [which is set to become the world’s next tallest building if it opens as planned in 2017] that a fair amount of the top of the building seemed to be an unoccupied spire,” CTBUH stated. “This prompted us to investigate the increasing trend towards extreme spires and other extensions of tall buildings that do not enclose usable space, and create a new term to describe this -- Vanity Height, i.e., the distance between a skyscraper’s highest occupiable floor and its architectural top, as determined by CTBUH Height Criteria.”
Coming in first is The Ukraina Hotel in Moscow, with 42% vanity height thanks to its unoccupiable spire. To put things into perspective, the world’s tallest standing tower, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa which is an impressive 2,717 feet tall would only be the world’s 11th tallest tower without its 800 foot spire (a skyscraper on its own!). Also on the list are five towers located in Dubai, three in China, and two in New York.
The CTBUH provided research based on the rise in popularity of super tall towers since the trend began in 1930 with New York’s Chrysler Building. Studies showed that altitude enhancing designs reached its peak in 2010, discovering that the United Arab Emirates have the highest average vanity height in the world by 21%, followed closely by China at 15%.
In accordance with the criteria outlined by the organization, a 50% or greater vanity height would deem a structure a non-building, but with health and safety concerns limiting the liveability of high-rise apartments, how will architects manage to top each other now? Have we finally reached the maximum altitude? What do you think?
