Still keen on skyscrapers? Fever!
In July of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice requiring strict inspection of super high-rise buildings, strict restrictions on new construction of buildings over 250 meters, and no new construction of super high-rise buildings over 500 meters.
This policy is aimed at the skyscraper construction boom in many cities in recent years.
It is undeniable that as landmark buildings in some cities, skyscrapers can increase the utilization rate of urban land and form a beautiful “city skyline”.
However, its cost and various risk issues have attracted more and more attention.
It is worth noting that behind the “high fever” of skyscrapers, some places blindly use building height as a symbol of modernization, and have a deformed view of political achievements.
At present, it is urgent to correct the thinking and concepts of urban construction planning, pay attention to the ecological, cultural and practical value of buildings, and promote the sustainability and refinement of urban operations and space governance.
1
Mega cities tighten, second-tier cities "take over"
According to my country's relevant regulations, civil buildings with a height of more than 100 meters are super high-rise buildings, that is, skyscrapers.
Since the reform and opening up, my country's urban construction has developed rapidly, and skyscrapers have sprung up in many cities.
In Shanghai, it started with the Shanghai Hotel, which was completed in 1983. Since then, the highest height in Shanghai has been continuously updated in the past 10 years, and several super high-rise buildings with a height of more than 100 meters have appeared, mainly high-end hotels and office buildings.
The skyscraper construction boom is surging in many places.
Shenzhen Diwang Tower is 384 meters away, Shanghai Jin Mao Tower is 420 meters away, Guangzhou Chow Tai Fook Financial Center is 530 meters away... the city skyline is constantly being refreshed.
Statistics from third-party organizations show that by the end of 2020, China has 2,395 buildings above 150 meters, 823 buildings above 200 meters, and 95 buildings above 300 meters. All three indicators rank first in the world.
Shi Wei, general manager of Shiwei Intelligent, who is engaged in the intelligent maintenance of high-rise buildings, believes that the rapid development of cities has caused a shortage of land resources. Skyscrapers can alleviate the contradiction between population and land. Focusing on the title of "the tallest building", tall buildings have become an important output window for local governments to display their political achievements.
Some mega cities have gradually realized a series of problems caused by super high-rise buildings.
For example, in 2003, Shanghai issued the "Height Limit Order", which officially incorporated the "control of building height and capacity" into Shanghai's local regulations.
Megacities are tightening, while the "pushing up" process of some second-tier cities is accelerating. Some provincial capitals have begun planning to build skyscrapers.
The height of the "highest building" in a certain western city has been constantly refreshed.
According to incomplete statistics, the city currently has more than 30 super high-rise public buildings that have been built, are under construction, and are planned to be above 200 meters in height.
A cadre engaged in urban planning said that as the pace of urbanization accelerates, skyscraper construction has become an important reference for some cities to compete with each other.
2
Risks of problems
——The high cost of the whole life cycle appears.
The cost of building a 200-meter-tall skyscraper far exceeds the cost of building four 50-meter-tall high-rise buildings.
The construction and installation cost per square meter of a skyscraper is 1.3 to 1.5 times higher than that of an ordinary high-rise building.
After the construction of the skyscraper is completed, the maintenance and replacement cost of the supporting facilities of the building is very high, which increases the operating cost.
Schweizer said that the curtain wall glass used in a large number of skyscrapers is old, and indoor temperature control consumes a lot of energy.
——The fire safety hazard is relatively high.
Li, a senior engineer at the Fire Protection Supervision Office of the Nanning Fire Rescue Detachment, admitted that skyscrapers are getting bigger and bigger, taller and more complex in structure, plus a large number of new materials, new processes, and new technologies are widely used. Its potential fire hazard is increasing day by day, and it brings extremely severe challenges to fire fighting.
Once a skyscraper fires, a strong "chimney effect" is easily formed, and it will be quite difficult for people to evacuate, escape, and extinguish fires.
The Banyuetan reporter learned from the fire department that the current firefighting and rescue capabilities are not enough to deal with super-high-rise building fires in an all-round way.
The maximum arm length of the fire climbing vehicle in our country is generally 101 meters. Due to actual factors such as the site, the fire climbing vehicle may rise to 70 or 80 meters.
Even so, there is only one such fire-fighting vehicle in Nanning. In many cities, the number of fire-fighting vehicles is zero. In the event of a fire on floors above 100 meters, the building’s own fire-fighting facilities can only play a rescue role.
——A certain impact on the environment.
In order to reduce their own weight, skyscrapers often use glass curtain wall systems, which not only affect the outdoor light environment, but also adversely affect the indoor thermal comfort environment.
To a certain extent, skyscrapers will also have a negative impact on the surrounding natural environment, such as affecting daylighting, poor air circulation, and light pollution, which are prone to "heat island effect".
In addition, blindly building skyscrapers in some places and blindly learning foreign architectural styles have destroyed many historical sites.
3
High-rise building construction should be scientifically guided
Although the construction of skyscrapers can reflect the economic level of the city, its development should be guided scientifically.
Space planning should be prepared with "one city, one policy" instead of blindly comparing and blindly pursuing "the best in the world" and "the tallest building".
Li Jingxin, vice chairman of the Guangxi Real Estate Association, believes that in the process of building skyscrapers, all localities must follow the laws of the market and economics, and prevent administrative means from intervening in the creation of achievement projects and image projects.
For mega cities with extremely tight land resources, the layout of super high-rise buildings should be reasonably configured.
Liu Lei, deputy chief planner of Shenzhen Urban Planning and Design Institute Co., Ltd., believes that the construction of skyscrapers should reflect the urban construction goals of culture, ecology, and livability.
From a cultural perspective, the landmark of architecture lies in its inner spiritual meaning.
“Relying on skyscrapers as a city's business card is by no means the best way to develop a city.” Schwe said that a city needs to rely on its comprehensive strengths such as economy, culture, environment, and transportation to show its own characteristics. Pursue the thickness and depth of the city.
For super high-rise buildings, a large number of national standards currently used in our country are the 2002 standards, which have fallen behind compared with other industries.
The total volume of the real estate market has gradually met social needs. The floor area ratio should be controlled from the perspective of livability, and the construction of high-quality projects should be guided to make the building density and storey height more in line with the people's needs for a better life.
Source: "Ban Yue Tan Internal Edition" Issue 9, 2021
Half a month to talk about reporters: Sun Fei Tan Xingxing Huang Anqi