Each city has its own unique landscape and historical and cultural heritage.

Only starting from the actual conditions such as the level of economic development, geographical conditions, historical and cultural changes, etc., can we design the city skyline with its own characteristics, so as to truly polish the city's business card.

　　Zhou Qi

　　Professor, School of Architecture, Southeast University

　　Few architectural forms are like super high-rise buildings. While expanding the living space for human beings, they also attract huge disputes, such as high construction and operation costs, long construction periods, difficult fire rescue, and low housing rates.

　　Recently, my country's determination to "limit the height" of super high-rise buildings has been greeted with applause on social media: "practicality is the most important", "later maintenance and maintenance are all problems"... The heated discussion of netizens has made "my country will no longer build 500 new buildings." The topic of "high-rise buildings above meters" rushed to the hot search on Weibo.

　　The center of the topic is the "height limit" standard for buildings mentioned in the "14th Five-Year Plan for New Urbanization Implementation Plan" recently released by the National Development and Reform Commission, that is, no new buildings with a height of more than 500 meters are allowed, and new buildings with a height of more than 250 meters are strictly limited. .

　　Why are those Internet celebrity landmarks that want to compete with the heavenly test and once propped up the city skyline, why are they now abandoned?

How should the appearance of the city be decorated so as to strike a balance between economic and social development and human livability and industry?

Four times in two years, the management and control of super high-rise buildings has been continuously improved

　　Four times every two years, the "encirclement, pursuit and interception" of super high-rise buildings in the policy system involving the country's architectural style, infrastructure construction, and new urbanization can be described as huge.

　　Counting the first three "containment", it is not difficult to find that my country's "height limit" direction for super high-rise buildings is becoming more and more clear.

　　In April 2020, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Urban and Architectural Features", stating that "generally no new buildings over 500 meters are allowed" and "new buildings over 250 meters are strictly restricted".

　　In June 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Infrastructure Construction Projects to Ensure Project Safety and Quality", which mentioned that "new buildings over 250 meters are strictly restricted" and "super high-rise buildings over 500 meters are not allowed".

　　In October 2021, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Emergency Management issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Planning and Construction Management of Super High-rise Buildings", clarifying that cities with a permanent population of more than 3 million in urban areas strictly restrict the construction of new super high-rise buildings over 250 meters, and no new super high-rises over 500 meters are allowed. architecture.

　　Faced with the "height ceiling" of 500 meters, developers have made moves to stretch the height of the building to the extreme: Nanjing Jiangbei International Financial Center has dropped from 600 meters to 499.8 meters, Suzhou Zhongnan Center has dropped from 729 meters to 499.15 meters, Xi'an, China The International Silk Road Center Building has dropped from 501 meters to 498 meters...

　　High-rise buildings are the result of modern civilization, and the human desire to stand higher and see farther has long existed.

"At the beginning, the giants in the oil, telecommunications, steel and other industries in the United States built high-rise buildings one after another, and then quickly developed into super-high-rise buildings, that is, the development stage of buildings over 100 meters." Zhou Qi, a professor at the School of Architecture of Southeast University, introduced that technology, With the support of multiple factors such as market, capital, and land, super high-rise buildings are rapidly blooming all over the world.

Six out of ten, my country has a large number of super high-rise buildings

　　Building larger buildings on limited land to save land is the driving force behind super high-rise buildings.

　　my country has been exploring the construction of high-rise buildings since the beginning of the twentieth century.

At that time, in Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other places, my country actively learned the advanced high-rise building construction technology from the West, and built a number of high-rise buildings with the world's advanced standards at that time.

In 1976, with the completion of the 114-meter-high Guangzhou Baiyun Hotel, my country entered the development stage of super high-rise buildings.

　　"After the reform and opening up, the process of urban modernization has accelerated, and the agglomeration effect in the central area of ​​the city has become more and more obvious, which has spawned a large number of office and residential needs. A popular concept at the time is that the height of the tallest building in a city represents the level of urban economic development and is a sign of urban modernization.” said Cao Wei, a master of design in Jiangsu Province and executive chief architect of the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Southeast University.

　　Reform and opening up has not only brought about accelerated urbanization.

Zhou Qi said that after many foreign companies entered China, their demand for modern office environment and facilities also promoted the boom of super high-rise buildings.

China's continuous economic development for many years has also objectively provided an internal driving force for the development of super high-rise buildings.

　　"As the price of land becomes more and more expensive and the demand for landmark buildings in some cities continues to increase, the scale of super high-rise buildings in my country reached its peak around 2010." Zhou Qi said.

　　The reporter logged on the website of the World Society for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and found that there are currently 2,964 buildings over 150 meters in China, of which 964 are over 200 meters and 102 are over 300 meters.

Six of the ten tallest supertall buildings in the world are in China.

The Shanghai Tower, completed in 2015, is currently the tallest super high-rise building in China, with a height of 632 meters and a total of 120 floors.

Globally, the Shanghai Tower is second only to Dubai's 828-meter Burj Khalifa in height.

Among the 10 cities with the largest number of buildings over 150 meters in the world, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing are among the five Chinese cities.

Not only height, how to better build urban landmarks

　　The construction, operation and maintenance costs, fire risk, vertical traffic congestion and potential ecological impact of super high-rise buildings have been criticized many times in recent years.

　　"For every 50 meters of high-rise building, the construction cost increases by about 20%. The taller the building, the greater the horizontal thrust of the wind and earthquake to resist, so the foundation has to be built deeper, and the columns and beams of the building have to be thicker. The glass curtain wall should also be consolidated and tightened, and the external building maintenance system should be strengthened. For the convenience of the building, high-speed elevators should be installed in the building. In addition, super high-rise buildings need to be set up every 50 meters. and equipped with corresponding fire protection facilities, so that people can evacuate and take refuge in the event of a fire." Zhou Qi said that the above factors all lead to a lower rate of room acquisition in super high-rise buildings than ordinary buildings, and the higher the floor, the lower the rate of room acquisition.

And super high-rise buildings are expensive to build, which leads to higher rents and higher sales prices.

This high and one low make super high-rise buildings less cost-effective and gradually lose their halo, resulting in a high vacancy rate.

　　Even the super high-rise buildings in use have inherent deficiencies.

"The current fire ladder can only climb to about 100 meters, which means that it will be very difficult to rescue a super high-rise building in the event of a fire." Cao Wei said.

　　Cao Wei said that the high energy consumption caused by super high-rise buildings does not conform to the concept of green and low-carbon development.

Some data show that the energy consumption of a single elevator in a 150-meter high-rise residential building is more than 40% higher than that of a 100-meter high-rise residential building.

Compared with ordinary high-rise residences, the additional water consumption of super high-rise residences is about 2,400 kWh/year.

Because the pumps and water tanks are usually pumped in sections, the water pressure on some floors is too large, which in turn causes the water to flow too fast from the faucet, which is also prone to waste of water resources.

　　"In addition, the light pollution caused by the glass curtain wall and the air flow between the buildings formed in the dense area of ​​high-rise buildings will also form a micro heat island effect." Zhou Qi added.

　　Walking in today's Chinese cities, the skyscrapers show the city's international ambitions.

How to let the city get rid of the "one thousand cities" and change the colorful appearance?

　　"The height and scale of buildings can often change the scale of a city. Although super high-rise buildings have contributed to the improvement of the city's skyline to a certain extent, we should pay more attention to the inherent quality and connotation of urban style." Cao Wei believes that, "Urban landmarks do not necessarily need to be reflected by the height of the building. Those public facilities and public spaces that can stimulate the vitality of the city and inherit the urban civilization can become the landmarks of a city."

　　Zhou Qi believes that the pursuit of an increase in the floor area ratio of urban architecture will not bring a comfortable working and living experience: "People prefer ecological and livable living spaces rather than high-density living spaces. Every city has Each has its own unique landscape, city, forest and historical and cultural heritage. Only from the actual conditions such as the level of economic development, geographical conditions, historical and cultural changes, etc., can we design the city skyline with its own characteristics, so as to truly polish the city’s business card.”

　　Our reporter Jin Feng