Best of the Best

World high-rise construction has an over 120-year history of our times, but today we can witness a new stage in the development of this structure type. Since the turn of the 1960s and 1970s, a variety of engineering and technological innovations have prompted a rapid growth of interest in the construction of skyscrapers around the world. New approaches to design were created with emerging specialized computer software, which outlined a new field of parametric architecture. Consistent search for new forms of plastic expression with the help of new parametrism opportunities manifested itself in the new century and high-rise architecture, provoking a new round of “high-rise race”.

Over the past three decades, new categories of high-rise buildings have appeared: supertall (above 300 m) towers, mega tall (above 600 m) buildings have appeared as early as in the 2010s, eco towers, complex-shaped skyscrapers, twisters (twisted towers), etc. Various organizations involved in high-rise architecture studies, first and foremost, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) annually publish analytical studies and global statistics on the design and construction of skyscrapers. Competent experts regularly record most significant high-rise buildings in various categories. The “best of the best” are chosen taking into account many parameters influencing not only the actual height of the structure, but also its artistic solution. Every year, energy efficiency and overall eco-friendliness of new towers become more and more important. 

Over the past 20 years environmental parameters of designed and constructed structures has become more significant in the world architectural practice. As early as by the mid-2010s, no large-scale construction is complete without a set of LEED and BREEAM certificates or their local analogues. Standards and regulations of many countries have undergone radical changes in terms of upgrading requirements for environmental friendliness and energy efficiency of structures of any types.

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Text by Marianna Maevskaya