Skyscrapers : Lust For Height
Paucity of land space in urban area has given rise to the size of buildings, now they are aptly called skyscrapers.
There is a historical trace. In the 12th century, the city of Bolonga, , historic capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, in northern Italy, witnessed a craze for tower building. Directly influencing the design of the world Trade Centre, it seems mystifying that the leaning Towers of the Asinelli and Garisenda families have outlived the former, even if the stories behind them have slipped into obscurity. The exact number of structures raised and the reason for doing so in the city at that time are matter of conjecture (factional rivalries, a mass Tarantella-esque hysteria for building and a real-estate Dutch Tulip style bubble have been suggested) but the city would have resembled an impossibly modern metropolis of stone skyscrapers. Most of these would have fallen through structural faults, lightning strikes, fires and demolition. In the town of San Gimignano, rival tower building between the Guelph and Ghibelline factions was political factions was political violence by other means. Eventually,the council forbade any tower taller than its own, to prevent chaos.
Now come to the present age, competitiveness over tower-building has reintensified. Given skyklines,iconic skyscrapers are part of global city-branding, the lust for visibility often overpowers other infrastructural concerns and egalitarian hopes. It is a case of follow the money skyward and tower's inhabitants (mainly banking and oil magnates) are an immediate guide to where the power has shifted today. Ethics aside, these buildings are not without their character, the twisting Shanghai Tower, the vast clock-faced Abraj Al-Bait Towers, which illuminates their peaks at every call to prayer, the earthquake and typhoon-proof Tapei 101 which incorporates traditional Japanese symbolist design comparable to pagoda towers. The current tallest building in the world, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, borrows its climbs from Frank Llyod's unbuilt mile-high. The Illinois, its Y shape from Le Corbusier and an adoptation of the spiral from the traditional regional minarates. They are collectively the perfect setting for the slick spy thrillers and adverts for glossy authoritarianism.
Such skylines have become omnipresent, so too the carefully manufactured nicknames. deliberately anthropomorphising structures which are built in the spirit of hard headed cynicism. In these cases, form disguises function. It also makes these towers difficult to satirise: criticism is deflected from the reality of an imposing exclusive tower to an entity akin to a child's toy or a cherished pet. Hans Hollein's Rolls Royce Grill on Wall Street (1966) pales in postmodern absurdism next to actually built Johnson and Burgee's AT&T Building. They are brands but what these buildings are advertising is deliberately opaque, as is what they might be hiding. It is as if the buildings simply exist, self-designated icons,man made natural formation. When we consider the activities of the glass shared financials centres and vanity projects of oligarchs, the Ajyad Fortress obliterated to built Abu Dhabi, we might reassess how harshly the history has judged the likes of Prince Ludwig, a man more sinned against than sinful. Where would Maupassant dine now given the few towers he would be allowed access to would restrict him to be paid appointment of no more than 20 minutes with a high security ID check and body scan?
It reminded me Von Chamisso's tale, Peter Schemihl barters a bottomless purse of gold from devil in exchange of his shadow. He is horrified to find that despite his immense new found wealth, he is treated as an outcast and chased from suburbs. He abandons his cursed wealth and spends the rest of his life in penitential travel, investigating nature.In myths,hubris inevitably meets nemesis. This serves the function of a lesson but it also, like liberal Bollywood films, serves as pressure valve. There is justice here because in life there is little. The towers shine and glow innocently and dazzlingly from far away places like Mercer island. There is certainly condemnation but context is crucial: North Korean architecture is widely mocked as totalitarian and impersonal but outside of the proscribed dictatorship, other silent omniscient ideologies absolves all sins. Repatriate Pyongyang's Mansudae Apartments in Hong Kong or French Rivera, the Grand People's Study Hall to Japan, gives the monstrous Ryugyong Hotel a lic of paint and glass refit , and it would be fit for critical celebration on the former docklands and seafronts of any sparkling metropolis. The spectacle wins at it's most spectacular, no matter how many abandoned cars wait at airports and how many dead are buried beneath them.
There is a historical trace. In the 12th century, the city of Bolonga, , historic capital of the Emilia-Romagna region, in northern Italy, witnessed a craze for tower building. Directly influencing the design of the world Trade Centre, it seems mystifying that the leaning Towers of the Asinelli and Garisenda families have outlived the former, even if the stories behind them have slipped into obscurity. The exact number of structures raised and the reason for doing so in the city at that time are matter of conjecture (factional rivalries, a mass Tarantella-esque hysteria for building and a real-estate Dutch Tulip style bubble have been suggested) but the city would have resembled an impossibly modern metropolis of stone skyscrapers. Most of these would have fallen through structural faults, lightning strikes, fires and demolition. In the town of San Gimignano, rival tower building between the Guelph and Ghibelline factions was political factions was political violence by other means. Eventually,the council forbade any tower taller than its own, to prevent chaos.
Now come to the present age, competitiveness over tower-building has reintensified. Given skyklines,iconic skyscrapers are part of global city-branding, the lust for visibility often overpowers other infrastructural concerns and egalitarian hopes. It is a case of follow the money skyward and tower's inhabitants (mainly banking and oil magnates) are an immediate guide to where the power has shifted today. Ethics aside, these buildings are not without their character, the twisting Shanghai Tower, the vast clock-faced Abraj Al-Bait Towers, which illuminates their peaks at every call to prayer, the earthquake and typhoon-proof Tapei 101 which incorporates traditional Japanese symbolist design comparable to pagoda towers. The current tallest building in the world, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, borrows its climbs from Frank Llyod's unbuilt mile-high. The Illinois, its Y shape from Le Corbusier and an adoptation of the spiral from the traditional regional minarates. They are collectively the perfect setting for the slick spy thrillers and adverts for glossy authoritarianism.
Such skylines have become omnipresent, so too the carefully manufactured nicknames. deliberately anthropomorphising structures which are built in the spirit of hard headed cynicism. In these cases, form disguises function. It also makes these towers difficult to satirise: criticism is deflected from the reality of an imposing exclusive tower to an entity akin to a child's toy or a cherished pet. Hans Hollein's Rolls Royce Grill on Wall Street (1966) pales in postmodern absurdism next to actually built Johnson and Burgee's AT&T Building. They are brands but what these buildings are advertising is deliberately opaque, as is what they might be hiding. It is as if the buildings simply exist, self-designated icons,man made natural formation. When we consider the activities of the glass shared financials centres and vanity projects of oligarchs, the Ajyad Fortress obliterated to built Abu Dhabi, we might reassess how harshly the history has judged the likes of Prince Ludwig, a man more sinned against than sinful. Where would Maupassant dine now given the few towers he would be allowed access to would restrict him to be paid appointment of no more than 20 minutes with a high security ID check and body scan?
It reminded me Von Chamisso's tale, Peter Schemihl barters a bottomless purse of gold from devil in exchange of his shadow. He is horrified to find that despite his immense new found wealth, he is treated as an outcast and chased from suburbs. He abandons his cursed wealth and spends the rest of his life in penitential travel, investigating nature.In myths,hubris inevitably meets nemesis. This serves the function of a lesson but it also, like liberal Bollywood films, serves as pressure valve. There is justice here because in life there is little. The towers shine and glow innocently and dazzlingly from far away places like Mercer island. There is certainly condemnation but context is crucial: North Korean architecture is widely mocked as totalitarian and impersonal but outside of the proscribed dictatorship, other silent omniscient ideologies absolves all sins. Repatriate Pyongyang's Mansudae Apartments in Hong Kong or French Rivera, the Grand People's Study Hall to Japan, gives the monstrous Ryugyong Hotel a lic of paint and glass refit , and it would be fit for critical celebration on the former docklands and seafronts of any sparkling metropolis. The spectacle wins at it's most spectacular, no matter how many abandoned cars wait at airports and how many dead are buried beneath them.
Polish artist Alicja Dobrucka shed light on the dark side of the city for her project Life Is On a New High, highlight the stark socio-economic disparity of the cities across the globe.
Dobrucka said there are currently more skyscrapers under construction in Mumbai than anywhere else in the world, with many of them unregulated. Currently there are more than 15 super-tall buildings - those taller than 300 metres - under construction, along with hundreds of skyscrapers and thousands of high-rises.
She includes quotes from the real estate advertisements describing the towers she photographed, including the one above: "Wake up every day to a spectacular view of the blue sky romancing the sea. Come home to beach side joys".
Dobrucka says the slums account for 62 per cent of the population, and those living in them face more problems the higher the buildings around them get.
"There is no centralised urban planning and the towers keep popping up in all areas of central Mumbai, in particular on the huge pieces of land that accommodated textile factories that are now closed, as well as in the suburbs," she said. "The building companies are supported by the government and are given tax exemption.
"This building boom creates a great deal of problems and makes the city difficult to negotiate on foot, and it is damaging to the environment as the large glass windows require air conditioning, which in turn increases the consumption of electricity."
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