The World's Tallest Buildings Are Shorter Than You Think

these are the tallest skyscrapers ever constructed but while these structures may inspire or many of them have achieved their record-breaking status by using one of architectures most controversial tricks the vanity height the term is officially defined as the difference between a skyscrapers highest useable floor and its pinnacle and the global ranking of the world's ten tallest buildings would undergo a pretty serious shake-up if it didn't count the early 20th century saw many tall buildings include vanity Heights partly as a result of the art deco style popular at the time however as architectural trends moved on we saw the emergence of skyscrapers that did away with vanity height in order to maximize floor space controversy seemingly first erupted in 1998 when Chicago's Willis Tower lost the title of a world's tallest building to Kuala Lumpur's petronas towers despite their roof lines sitting some 63 meters lower than the Willis Tower the Petronas Towers decorative spires were included in their official height the owners of the Willis Tower argued that if minor additions like these slender pinnacles can be included then the substantial antenna on their structure should certainly be counted this led the council on tall buildings and urban habitats to deliver a ruling on what it considers part of a building's overall height the ruling excluded anything that can be arbitrarily increased in Heights such as communication antenna but allowed for the inclusion of decorative spires as long as they formed part of the buildings original design and if not exceed 50% of the structures overall height since then the heights of several tall buildings have been called into question by professionals and the public alike with many architects and developers using pre-designed vanity highs to inflate their products for prestige and to lay claim to various tallest titles around the world nowhere is this more evident than in Dubai a city which has spent the last 30 years in the midst of an unprecedented construction boom and that is now home to some of the tallest structures on earth striving to make its mark on the world stage the vanity height has become a prolific part of the city's development and Dubai now holds the title of world's vainest skyline the city's 19 tallest skyscrapers Oh on average 1/5 of their overall heights - unusable space indeed the world's current tallest building the Burj Khalifa officially stands 828 meters tall but 244 meters of that is made up of unusable spire somewhat 29% of the building exists purely to increase its height the nearby Burj Al Arab became the tallest hotel in the world when it first opened in 1999 claiming the title by way of a 124 meter spire that made up 39% of its height this trend and its ensuing controversy is by no means limited to emerging Asian and Middle Eastern markets [Music] in the United States one World Trade Center officially became the third tallest building in the world when it completed in 2014 and has only fallen three places in the global rankings since despite appearing dwarfed by several other more recent skyscrapers over on the west coast Los Angeles US Bank Tower was overtaken by the Wilshire Grand as the tallest building in the city in 2017 despite Wilshere's roofline sitting 26 meters lower Australia's tallest building q1 on the Gold Coast has held the title since 2005 despite skyscrapers in Sydney Melbourne and Brisbane all rising far beyond Q ones 235 meter highest usable floor meanwhile the verso Tower will bring the title of Europe's tallest skyscraper outside of Russia to Warsaw in 2020 thanks to an 80 meter spire that has been included in the building's overall height more recently the council on tall buildings and urban habitats has sought to ease tensions by developing three separate rankings for tall buildings height to architectural top height to highest floor and height to tip despite this the debate about where to draw the line when we measure tall buildings rumbles on the controversy is set to heat up again in 2021 as the 644 meter Medeco pn b11 8 in kuala lumper becomes the world's second tallest building bumping China's Shanghai Tower into third place so where do you draw the line when measuring skyscrapers let us know in the comments below and as always if you enjoyed this video and would like to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the b1m [Music]

Channel: The B1M

Views: 2,022,713

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, skyscraper, tower, worlds tallest building, tall building, new york, sydney, chicago, vanity height, sears tower, willis tower, petronas tower, world trade center, shanghai, kuala lumpur, spire, antenna, controversy, merdeka pnb 118, burj khalifa, q1, 111w57

Id: SOcpipUgo9c

Length: 5min 40sec (340 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 05 2020