Between Fascination and Rejection

Tall buildings are, to a large extent, stagings and presentations of economic power. Each new design serves as an eye-catcher to exhibit a visualisation of the client’s own initiative and risk profile.

High-rise buildings have always been impressive, but they’ve also attracted criticism, far more so than other types of modern architecture in their 120-year history. One person considers a tall building a triumphant symbol, while another associates it with an imposing nature.

Experts have warned against the fact that skyscrapers can have a depressing effect on people. They often produce feelings of insignificance and anonymity.

Supporters view skyscrapers as a symbol of a city, as well as prestige. The form and function of these buildings can therefore always be read in different ways.

Architecture is more than the physical realisation of buildings. It also has place in cultural reality, and provides a projection surface for interpretations, views and emotional reactions. However, the buildings must work practically, primarily, and only carry a clear message in the second instance.

If high-rise buildings are scattered over the city, the urban space often becomes disorganized. If, however, a city ensures that high-rise buildings are rather combined in a closed system, a new city with a new quality and a public impact will be created.

As an often neglected criterion of the assessment of high-rise buildings, the map, which was often neglected in the past, must be cited. Today, this has changed in the sense that municipal and state authorities are trying to influence the logistics of the distribution of the heights of inner city soil. But here, too, the main attention is usually limited to the individual building.

Previously, individual corporations usually built high-rise buildings for themselves. Today this is different. In the high-rise buildings, an extremely high share of the floor space is leased, usually banks, insurance companies, consulting firms and more and more law firms. That is why the outside must also be right. Architecture has become an important part of successful rental. This development takes place for a lasting embellishment of the city silhouette. The critics are of course a thorn in the eye. But they can not prevent this with their attitude towards high-rise buildings.