A skyscraper is a habitable tower that is characterized by its great height.
A skyscraper is a very tall habitable tower . These buildings have a large number of floors or floors and stand out, due to their size, from the neighboring buildings.
For example: "My brother lives on the 30th floor of a skyscraper that is located in front of the sea: it offers spectacular views" , "Every day I go down the twenty-five floors of the skyscraper by the staircase, this is how I stay in shape" , "Fire in the skyscraper: fifty people had to be evacuated .
What is a skyscraper
There is no precise definition of skyscraper in terms of height . Sometimes, a skyscraper is considered to be a building whose height exceeds 500 feet (equivalent to 152.5 meters ). In other cases, a construction that protrudes considerably vertically from its surroundings is accepted as a skyscraper.
Currently there are many skyscrapers that exceed 400 meters in height . The construction of this type of buildings usually responds to promotional or advertising reasons , since such tall towers always attract attention. In any case, a skyscraper can also become a good business since it allows you to make the most of the land (many homes or offices are created on a reduced horizontal surface).
Several cities stand out for their abundant presence of skyscrapers.
Its advantages and disadvantages
The concentration of individuals and services in a relatively small space can contribute to achieving greater economic efficiency. The cost of this type of construction and its maintenance, however, is very high.
Among the cities with the most skyscrapers are Hong Kong , Dubai , New York and Shanghai . Currently, the tallest skyscraper in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai , with a maximum height of almost 830 meters .
Since time immemorial, human beings have wanted to rise above their environment, conquer everything and everyone in their path on this planet. The construction of tall buildings (note that the word building is usually used in some countries as a synonym for skyscrapers , although the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) does not consider it to be a particularly tall construction ) was one of its most significant tactics. in that search for power over other species, although it took many centuries to develop the technologies and materials necessary to achieve it.
Examples of skyscrapers
These are some of the skyscrapers that can be found:
ADNOC Headquarters, in Abu Dhabi
It is one of the headquarters of the oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Company , which was built with the aim of achieving LEED Gold certification ( LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a North American system that certifies sustainable buildings). It measures 342 meters high and has 76 floors.
OKO Tower, Moscow
This Russian tower, which measures 352 meters and has 85 floors, belongs to the International Business Center of the metropolis, a multi-purpose space that can be compared to La Défense in Paris or Canary Wharf in London . The architectural firm that was in charge of its design, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill , had worked on the One World Trade Center in New York and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai .
432 Park Avenue, New York
It was the tallest skyscraper in the West until 2015 , and the twenty-second in the world, with 425 meters and 85 floors. Penthouse 94 , with its six rooms and an area of 767 square meters, is the most expensive apartment on the market: it sells for $82,500,000, which is equivalent to more than $107,000 per square meter.
Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
Few skyscrapers in the world can exceed the 632 meters of this imposing Asian colossus, located in China . It consists of 128 floors and until 2015 it was the tallest on its continent. As a curious fact, the so-called rooftoppers , people who climb high-rise buildings without safety equipment, have it among their favorite destinations.