“Anything past 100 meters is an environmental disaster - and even 100 is way too high.” “Using glass as an envelope material means we are building greenhouses, creating an unbearable environment for the people in those buildings.” “Most tall buildings are fully glazed with glass from floor zero and up,” says Meir. Let’s summarize the problems motivating Meir to send an anti-skyscraper message to his students and to urban planning professionals everywhere. “Even with today’s growing population density, we could easily limit buildings to no more than 15 stories.” “Anything past 100 meters is an environmental disaster - and even 100 is way too high,” Meir asserts. As of today, there are 115 supertalls and three megatalls completed globally, with more under construction. A “megatall” building tops 600 meters (1,968 feet). What defines tall?Īccording to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a building of 14 or more stories – more than 50 meters (165 feet) high – may be classified as “tall.”Ī “supertall” building rises higher than 300 meters (984 feet). “A multidisciplinary team has been working with me on the issue of tall buildings for nearly 10 years and I don’t think we’ve gotten to half the issues yet.”Ī member of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s department of civil and environmental engineering and School of Sustainability and Climate Change, Meir will be the keynote speaker at the International Council for Research and Innovation in Buildings and Construction’s SBE23 Sustainable Built Environment conference in Greece this March. “I keep screaming bloody murder,” he tells ISRAEL21c. Isaac Meir looks at the towering glass-and-steel skyline, he sees an environmental, economic and social catastrophe. And they conserve space in increasingly dense urban areas.īut when Prof. Saudi Arabia is planning a skyscraper of more than 167 stories, stretching a kilometer (0.62 miles) into the clouds.Ī few reasons: Supertall buildings have an aura of success and sexiness. The half-mile high, 163-story Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the world’s tallest building… but not for long.
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