Skyscraper

Higher, flashier, wider. Worldwide, mainly in large cities, there are many buildings that "scrape the sky". The people want to fly high for thousands of years. Already the Pyramid of Cheops were originally almost 147 meters high. The highest church tower in the world measures 161 meters and is located in Ulm, Germany. Meanwhile the construction of skyscrapers mutated to an international competition, which should primarily demonstrate power.

Even if humanity already tried for millennia to build up, however, the story of skyscrapers only really started with the invention of the elevator by the American Elisha Otis. The development of reinforced concrete in the second half of the 19th century was an important step.

The "Woolworth Building" in New York is considered as the first skyscraper in modern interpretation. It is 241 meters high and was built in between 1910 and 1913. Concrete pillars form a reinforced foundation. They stretch under the road to the bedrock and keep the building´s centre of gravity stable. The battle for the highest building in the world then began in the 1920s. In 1930 the New York "Chrysler Building" was accomplished and hold the title of "world's tallest building" initially only for one year until it was replaced by the "Empire State Building".

Only 40 years later, the Empire State Building was replaced as the highest building. The "Twin Towers" (417 and 415 meters) of the World Trade Center soared over Manhattan from 1972 on. They became legends, although after two years the "Sears Tower" in Chicago (442 meters) took the title of world's tallest building over. Since 1997, the "Petronas Towers" (452 ​​meters) in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur for a short time were in the lead. Then as the first skyscraper, the Taipei Financial Center, completed in 2004, exceeded the 500-meter mark. It rises 508 meters up to the sky and sets standards for structural safety. In Taiwan, there are frequent earthquakes and violent storms. In early 2010, the Burj Khalifa was officially opened in Dubai. With 830 meters, it surpasses any other building in the world by far.

The ambition of executives, politicians and architects to set themselves a monument, sometimes exceeds economic and safety-related concerns. As far as one still can estimate the effects of fires, storms or earthquakes in the construction of skyscrapers - the criminal activity of terrorists is unpredictable. Unfortunately, we had already painfully experienced this situation in the case of the World Trade Center on 11th September, 2001.