Роль небоскрёбов в жизни современного общества.

Contents.

I. Introduction p.2

II. The term «Skyscraper» p.3-4

III. History p.4-

III.1 Ancient skyscrapers p.4-5

III.2 Skyscrapers.  The reasons of building p.6-7

           III.3 Early skyscrapers p. 7-8

        III.4 Modern skyscrapers. Supertall Towers p. 9-12

IV. Materials p. 12

V. Skyscrapers and the economy p.12-13

VI. Tragedies p. 13-15

VII. A look to the future p. 15-16

VIII. Skyscrapers in our town p. 16-17

IX. Conclusion. p.17

X. Applications p.18-20

XI. Literature p. 21

I. Introduction.

The aim of the work  is to prove that skyscrapers play a great role in the development of modern society. 

The tasks are  to get and analyze information about their   history and materials, to find out the reasons for their construction and popularity, to define the role of skyscrapers in the modern world.

Hypothesis: Skyscrapers are both a necessity and masterpieces of design art.

Object – Skyscrapers.

Subject – their role in the society.

Methods of the research -analysis

                                   -  determinations of concepts

        -  generalization

II. The term «Skyscraper».

A skyscraper is a tall building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use.                                               

The term was first applied to buildings in the late 19th century as a result of public amazement at the tall buildings being built in Chicago and New York City. The main causes of the application of this word were a skeletal frame  and height of these buildings.

What is the chief characteristic of the tall office building? It is lofty. It must be tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it.

The word skyscraper often carries a connotation of pride and achievement. The skyscraper, in name and social function, is a modern expression of the age-old symbol of the world center or axis mundi: a pillar that connects earth to heaven and the four compass directions to one another.

                                                                                  100 M

HIGH-RISE BUILDING               SKYSCRAPER

The Emporis Standards Committee defines a high-rise building as "a multi-storey structure between 35–100 metres tall”, and a skyscraper as "a multi-storey building whose architectural height is at least 100 metres."

III. History.

III.1 Ancient skyscrapers.

The desire to build big is nothing new. Big buildings have been used to show off power and wealth, to honor leaders or religious beliefs, to stretch the limits of what's possible, and even as simple competition among owners, families, architects, and builders. While

these types of buildings may look very different from each other, they all have one thing in common. They were built with masonry or stone.

The tallest building in ancient times was the 146 metres (479 ft) Great Pyramid of Giza in ancient Egypt, built in the 26th century BC.

It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops ).The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.

The skylines of many important medieval cities had large numbers of high-rise urban towers, built by the wealthy for defense and status for example the residential Towers of 12th century Bologna. The Towers of Bologna are a group of medieval structures in Bologna, Italy. The two most prominent ones, also called the Two Towers: the Asinelli Tower (97 m) and the Garisenda Tower (48 m)., are the landmark of the city. Between the 12th and the 13th century, the number of towers in the city was very high, possibly up to 180 . The reasons for the construction of so many towers are not clear. One hypothesis is that the richest families used them for defensive purposes.

An early example of a city consisting entirely of high-rise housing is the 16th-century city of Shibam in Yemen. Shibam was made up of over 500 tower houses, each one rising 5 to 11 storeys high,with each floor being an apartment occupied by a single family. The city was built in this way in order to protect it from Bedouin attacks. Shibam still has the tallest mudbrick buildings in the world, with many of them over 30 m (98 ft) high. Shibam is often called "the oldest skyscraper city in the world" or "the Manhattan of the desert", and is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction.

An early modern example of high-rise housing was in 17th-century Edinburgh, Scotland, where a defensive city wall defined the boundaries of the city. Buildings of 11 storeys were common, and there are records of buildings as high as 14 storeys. Many of the stone-built structures can still be seen today in the old town of Edinburgh.

The oldest iron framed building in the world, although only partially iron framed, is The Flaxmill (also locally known as the "Maltings"), in Shrewsbury, England. Built in 1797, it is seen as the "grandfather of skyscrapers”, since its fireproof combination of cast iron columns and cast iron beams developed into the modern steel frame that made

modern skyscrapers possible. Unfortunately, it lies derelict and needs much investment to keep it standing.

III.2 Skyscrapers.  The reasons of building.

A dominant feature of today's urban landscape, the first skyscrapers were built toward the end of the 19th century.

           electricity                     “Bessemer                     immigration                      art of design

   electric arc welding                Process”                industrialization

       safety elevator

Several technological advances in the late nineteenth century allowed to make skyscraper design and construction possible.  Among them were invention of electricity and  electric arc welding, the invention of safe and efficient elevators, the ability to mass produce steel, the development of improved techniques for measuring and analyzing structural loads and stresses. But the most important inventions were mass production of steel and safe elevator.

The development of a safe elevator. 

Primitive elevators of various designs had been used for centuries, and starting in the mid 19th century, steam-operated elevators were used to move materials in factories, mines, and warehouses. But these elevators were not considered safe for people; if the cable broke, they would plummet to the bottom of the elevator shaft. Then in 1853, an American inventor named Elisha Graves Otis developed a safety device that kept elevators from falling if a cable should break. This new development had an enormous impact on public confidence.

Henry Bessemer - The Steel Man.

Englishmen, Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898) invented in 1885 the first process for mass-producing steel inexpensively, essential to the development of skyscrapers. Modern steel is made using technology based on Bessemer's process. The "Bessemer Process" for mass-producing steel, was named after the author.

Immigration and industrialization increased urban population density and created a need for more and taller buildings. The cultural reasons are very important too. Each skyscraper design is unique. Some of them became  real  masterpiece of design art.

III.3 Early skyscrapers.

An early development was Oriel Chambers in Liverpool. Designed by local architect Peter Ellis in 1864, the building was the world's first iron-framed, glass curtain-walled office building. It was only 5 floors high.

Further developments led to the world's first skyscraper, the ten-storey Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1884–1885. While its height is not considered very impressive today, it was at that time.

In 1871, Chicago suffered a great fire. In the years that followed, however, instead of recovering slowly, the city experienced explosive growth, and it quickly began to strain against its natural boundaries. By the 1880s, the available land for new buildings in this area could not keep up with demand; the only alternative was to build up. But in order to achieve the desired height, construction techniques had to change. A new method of building was developed that used a grid of steel beams and columns that were strong enough to support any stresses or forces a building might experience, including both the weight of the floor and the building contents, as well as the force of wind or even, in some areas, earthquakes. And with this new building method, the skyscraper was born and the race for the tallest building began.

The architect, Major William Le Baron Jenney, created a load-bearing structural frame. In this building, a steel frame supported the entire weight of the walls the weight of the building. This development led to the "Chicago skeleton" form of construction.

Most early skyscrapers were built in the land-strapped areas of Chicago, London, and New York toward the end of the 19th century. A land boom in Melbourne, Australia between 1888–1891 spurred the creation of a significant number of early skyscrapers. At the beginning of the 20th century skyscrapers also began to appear in Latin America (Santiago, Caracas, Bogotá, Mexico City) and in Asia (Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Mumbai, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Bangkok).

The real competition for the tallest buildings of the world began just after appearance of the first skyscrapers. Especially this competition took place in Chicago and New York in 1920s.

The Flatiron Building, designed by Daniel Hudson Burnham and standing 285 ft (87 m) high, was one of the tallest buildings in the city upon its completion in 1902.

The Woolworth Building, a neo-Gothic "Cathedral of Commerce" overlooking City Hall, was designed by Cass Gilbert. At 241 m, it became the world's tallest building upon its completion in 1913.

The Woolworth Building                                                The Flatiron Building

In 1930 the Chrysler Building took the lead as the tallest building in the world, scraping the sky at 319 m. Designed by William Van Alen, an Art Deco style masterpiece with an exterior crafted of brick, the Chrysler Building continues to be a favorite of New Yorkers to this day.

The Empire State Building, the first building to have more than 100 floors (it has 102), was completed in 1931. It was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon in the contemporary Art Deco style. The tower takes its name from the nickname of New York State. Upon its completion in 1931 at 381 m, it took the top spot as tallest building until 1972.

The Empire State Building                                            the Chrysler Building

Immediately after World War II, the Soviet Union planned eight massive skyscrapers dubbed "Stalin Towers" for Moscow; seven of these were eventually built. The rest of Europe also slowly began to permit skyscrapers, starting with Madrid, during the 1950s. Finally, skyscrapers also began to be constructed in cities of Africa, the Middle East and Oceania (mainly Australia) from the late 1950s.

In 1970s the competitions between the tallest building of the world renewed. The Tallest Buildings Council elaborated the criterions and drew up the List of tallest buildings of the world from 1889.  

See application 1.

III.4 Modern skyscrapers. Supertall Towers.

As you can see from the List Skyscrapers become taller and taller today. The term 'supertall' has recently been coined and means a building over 300 meters in height.

Today, skyscrapers are an increasingly common sight where land is expensive, as in the centres of big cities, because they provide such a high ratio of rentable floor space per unit area of land. They are built not just for economy of space; like temples and palaces of the past, skyscrapers are considered symbols of a city's economic power.

Tall, colossal, impressive achievements of the modern architecture, skyscrapers took a significant place in an architectural landscape of many cities of the world.  Let’s look at 10 most fascinating accomplishments in the skyscrapers’ architecture.

Burj Khalifa known as Burj Dubai is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is currently the tallest manmade structure in the world, at 829.84 m. Construction began on 21 September 2004. The building officially opened on 4 January 2010. It was built for the commercial and residential purposes.

The total cost for the project was about US$1.5 billion. The project's completion coincided with the global financial crisis of 2007–2010, so out of 900 apartments in the tower, around 825 were still empty at that time because the demand in Dubai’s property market was slow.

Taipei 101 ( 509 m ) is located in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan. The name of the tower reflects its location in Taipei's international business district as well as its floor count. Not only the name, but also the design of the tower is quite symbolic. The tower features a series of eight segments of eight floors each. In Chinese culture the number eight is associated with abundance, prosperity and good fortune. From 6 to 10 pm each evening the tower's lights display one of seven colors in the spectrum. The colors coincide with the days of the week. The cycle through the spectrum connects the tower with the rich symbolism of rainbows as bridges linking earth to sky and earth's peoples to one another.

Located in the center of the Zone, international financial area in Shanghai, Shanghai World Financial Center is the third tallest building in the world (492 m). The most distinctive feature in the design of the building is an aperture at the peak. Originally designed as a circle, the form of the peak was changed to a trapezoidal hole. As a result this fascinating skyscraper slightly resembles a giant bottle opener. Among of many SWFC facilities are the world’s highest observatory on the 100th floor and the highest bar in the world on the 92nd floor.

The tallest skyscraper in the United States, the Sears Tower is a 108-story (442 m) building in downtown Chicago, Illinois. At the time of its completion in 1973 it was the tallest building in the world. The landmark of Windy City - the Sears Tower is one of the most popular places to visit in Chicago.

The Empire State Building (381 m ) is probably the most known skyscraper in the world, thanks to the representation of the building in popular movies such as “King Kong”, “Affair to Remember” and “Sleepless in Seattle”. The tower is not only the popular touristic attraction but also one of the most romantic places in New York City. At night the tower lights, which colors usually match seasonal events such as St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas, the Fourth of July and etc., add a special magnetism to a breathtaking panorama of the city that never sleeps.

The tallest brick building in the world (319 m ), the Chrysler Building is a masterpiece of Art Deco architecture. The distinctive ornamentation of the building is based on features that were then being used on Chrysler automobiles. As an iconic part of the New York City skyline, the Chrysler Building has been depicted many times in films, photography, video games, art, advertising and etc.

The Baiyoke Tower II, located in Bangkok, Thailand, is 304 m tall and it is the country's tallest building. The Baiyoke Sky Hotel, the main resident of the building, occupies floors 22 – 74 of 85 floors of the tower. Also, the tower has public observatory on the 77th floor and an open-air 360 degree revolving roof deck on the highest floor of the building.

The most recognizable skyscraper in San Francisco skyline, Transamerica Pyramid (260 m ) has a unique shape of four-sided pyramid with two "wings" on opposite sides of the building. It is strongly associated with the Transamerica Corporation and is depicted in the company's logo. This 48 floors building is reminiscent of San Francisco and one of main symbols of the city.

The world's tallest educational establishment, Moscow State University (240 m ) is situated on top of a hill on a bank of the Moscow River just outside of the center of Moscow. In 1953, when it was  completed, the building was the tallest outside of New York City. And it is still among the tallest buildings in Europe. The most famous skyscraper in Russia, Moscow State University building has the 57 m spire topped by a 12 tons star, decorated with ears of wheat.

Properly known as the 30 St Mary Axe, or the Swiss Re Building, Gherkin building got its popular nickname from its pickle-shape design. It is not the tallest building in London (just 180 m ) but definitely the most noticeable among London skyscrapers.  Completed in December of 2003, the building immediately became a popular icon of London and the face of the City of London.

IV. Materials.

Since the birth of the skyscraper, builders and engineers have continuously looked for ways to improve building methods and materials, in order to make structures stronger, taller, and lighter. Skyscrapers are built to last, so they must be made of materials that are strong; durable; resistant to the sun, wind, rain, frost, and snow; and affordable. Concrete and  steel are the most common materials. Its composition can be changed depending on the needs of the building. Another very important material is glass. Because the steel skeleton now supports the main loads of the building, the outer skin only serves to keep the weather out and let light in, the more light the better. So glass walls became very popular beginning after World War II, because they are weatherproof and also because they are so much lighter-and cheaper-than masonry or concrete.

Modern engineers use special mixture of plaster to protect skyscrapers from corrosion and heat. For exterior décor walls may consist of glass, metals, such as aluminum or stainless steel, or masonry materials, such as granite, marble, or limestone.

V. Skyscrapers and the economy.

Nowadays economists from all over the world study the correlation between the tallest skyscrapers and the economical crisis. They prove that the opening of the "world's tallest" building in the past century has coincided  with an economic downturn.

See application № 2.

* The 186-meter Singer building opened in New York in the wake of the market panic of 1907.

* The Empire State Building opened in 1931, taking the mantle of world's tallest building briefly held by 40 Wall Street and Chrysler Buildings. All of these New York buildings were conceived before the 1929 Crash, and opened after the Great Depression had begun.

* The two towers of the World Trade Center were opened in 1972 and 1973, and the Sears Tower (since renamed Willis Tower) opened in 1974 -- when the U.S. was mired in "stagflation" of growing unemployment and inflation.

* Petronas Towers opened in 1998 in Malaysia, just as the Asia Financial Crisis was sweeping through the region.

In 1999, economist Andrew Lawrence wrote a widely read research paper called "The Skyscraper Index" where he proposed to use The Skyscraper Index as a novelty economic indicator. The index shows strong correlation between the completion of world’s tallest buildings and  an impending  economic crisis.  

Mark Thornton is a senior resident fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama argues in his 2005 research paper, "Skyscrapers and Business Cycles,": Skyscrapers are a physical manifestation of the bull markets that build them.

"It has all the components that are involved in a major boom or bust cycle. The components that give rise to the skyscrapers give rise to the boom, it can be a result of misallocation of capital.

VI. Tragedies.

We can’t avoid speaking about tragedies connected with skyscrapers.

As skyscrapers are the places with large number of people there were tragedies in this buildings. The reasons of these tragedies were different but two most frequently are fire and planes. Below is a chronology of previous disasters in some of the world's tallest buildings. (1995-2002)

See application № 3.

November 23, 1995 - A blaze in the basement of New York's Empire State Building filled the skyscraper with smoke. Hundreds were evacuated as more than 40 fire engines dealt with the fire, believed to have started from an electrical short circuit.

January 17, 1996 - London's NatWest Tower, the tallest office block in the city's financial centre, caught fire but no one was injured.

February 23, 1997 - A fire at Bangkok's President Tower, a 36-floor complex on Ploenchit Road which includes a hotel, shopping plaza and office building, killed three. The seventh to tenth floors were destroyed.

April 7, 1997 - Nine died in a fire in a 20-storey block in Kowloon's Mei Foo district.

 December 8, 1997 - At least 14 people died in a fire that engulfed the top floors of a new tower block in Indonesia's central bank complex in Jakarta.

August 2, 2000 - A fire broke out inside a unit on the 13th floor of Hong Kong's Immigration Tower, injuring 47.

August 28, 2000 - Fire struck Moscow's Ostankino TV tower, Europe's tallest structure, crippling TV broadcasts across Russia and killing three people.

January 5, 2002 - A 15-year-old student pilot, Charles Bishop, flies a stolen single-engine Cessna into the 20th floor of the Bank of America building, a skyscraper in Tampa, Florida, killing himself and slightly damaging the building.

 April 18, 2002 - A small aircraft crashes into the 127 metre-high Pirelli skyscraper in Milan setting the top floors of the 30-storey building on fire.

But the most terrible and shocking tragedy took place in the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001. The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001. On the 11th of September , 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and crashed it into the northern façade of the North Tower at 8:46 a.m., the aircraft striking between the 93rd and 99th floors. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., a second team of terrorists crashed the similarly hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, striking it between the 77th and 85th floors. At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed after burning for approximately 56 minutes. The North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes. At least 2,800 people are killed.

This tragedy shocked people from all over the world. Today The World Trade Centre is rebuilding. In 2011 The Memorial was opened.

                                                                          The Memorial

VII. A look to the future.

It is difficult to imagine modern cities without skyscrapers. Today every big city has a skyscraper district or a skyscraper city. Manhattan in New York, Shijuku in Tokhyo, La Defence in Paris, City of London.  They usually built for commercial or residential purposes. Different business companies, banks, tourists firms, insurance agencies, hotels, restaurants, trade centres, concert halls are placed in skyscrapers cities. They attract business people, politicians, famous people and tourists, and become “the faces’ of modern cities.

But some of Skyscrapers City  projects are strike our imagination. They resemble the city of future or the city of dream.

 Moscow International Business Center, also known as Moscow-City is a commercial district of central Moscow, Russia. The Moscow City is expected to become the first zone in Russia to combine business activity, living space and entertainment in one single development. The Moscow government first conceived the project in 1992. The total cost of the project is estimated at $12 billion. It consists of Tower 2000,  Evolution Tower, Imperia Tower, Central core, City of Capitals, Naberezhnaya Tower,  Transport Terminal, Eurasia Tower, Federation Tower, Mercury City Tower, City Hall and City Duma,

Russia Tower, Exhibition-business complex. Almost all of the towers will be have apartments and hotel rooms, the place of shopping and entertainment with restaurants, cafes, water parks, office space, cinema and concert halls, winter gardens and terraces, galleries, clinics, fitness-clubs, beauty salons and underground parking. The City Hall and City Duma will be home to the Moscow government.

Federation Tower                          Eurasia Tower                                    Evolution Tower

       Moscow City

VIII. Skyscrapers in our city.

Although there are no good conditions for building skyscrapers in our town (cold climate and a lot of bogs) we  have two skyscrapers. Their height is 257 m. They were built in 1984 for the military purposes and are part of a radiolocation system «Daryal».

In the early 1970s, the development of a new highly effective radar, the Daryal type, was commenced by the Mints Radiotechnical Institute (RTI) under the supervision of A. Mints and V. Ivantsov. The main distinguishing features of this radar are an extremely high radiated power, use of a phased array for both reception and transmission, and digital processing of signals. The transmitter antenna of the radar had dimensions of 30 x 40 meters. The antenna included many centrally controlled transmitters within it. The receiving antenna had dimensions of 80 x 80 meters. There were nine stations of this type in the former Soviet Union.

IX. Conclusion.

Studied and analyzed this information we demonstrated the facts that skyscrapers closely connect with different branches of industry, economy, history and culture of modern society. So we can conclude that skyscrapers play a great role in the development of modern society. They are both a necessity and masterpieces of design art.

Applications.

Application №1.

Application 2.

Application 3.

List of literature.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/skyscraper.aspx

http://www.skyscrapers.com/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/skyscraper/

http://skyscraperpage.com/

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/index.php

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blskyscapers.htm

http://www.factmonster.com/spot/skyscraperhistory.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyscraper

http://mises.org/daily/3038

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lewrockwell-show/2008/08/22/25-skyscrapers-and-economic-cycles/

http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/04/18/italy.chronology/

http://www.citynext.ru/

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/daryal.htm

http://komitur.ru/index.php/puteshestvenniku-na-zametku/poleznaya-infomratsiya/interesnye-mesta-i-fakty/662-rls-daryal-v-pechore

http://www.mashpedia.com/Pechora_Radar_Station

18th century

symbol of world centre

symbol of economic power

height

skeletal frame

term

“Skyscraper”

modern inventions

the reasons

16th century

medieval

ancient

history

the production of steel

economical purposes

cultural reasons