This article is from the public number: Ice Glacier (ID: icereview) , author: Sunxin Qi, from the title figure: vision China, the original title “Central China’s tallest building work stoppage, FerrisLogic and Dilemma Behind Building Worship

Skyscrapers burn so much money, why are there still people who regard it as an architectural miracle and continue to chase the “top of the world”?

On October 30, the China Construction Third Bureau issued a letter of engineering contact to Greenland Holdings Wuhan Real Estate Business Department, stating that “the large amount of project progress payment owed by the owner has caused our company’s funds to be unable to flow normally and was forced to start immediately The project will be completely suspended, and the work will be resumed after the owner resolves the payment of the project funds. “

The letter relates to the Wuhan Greenland Center, the “highest building in Central China” that has attracted much attention. Greenland won the project in 2010, with a design height of 606 meters at that time, and is expected to be completed in 2016. Since then, Wuhan Greenland Center once raised the target height to 636 meters, striving to become “the tallest building in China.”

For nine years, the Wuhan Greenland Center was continually restricted in height, and it was finally capped at an altitude of 500 meters and a net height of 475 meters. But even if the height drops again and again, the date of completion is still “indefinitely.” The news of the stoppage of the China Construction Third Bureau intensified, which undoubtedly made the outside world stunned at the fragile high-rise building under construction.

According to the “Southern Weekend”, the reason why the Wuhan Greenland Center project is struggling is mainly because the local commercial volume of Wuhan has shown oversupply, which has led to a sharp increase in the pressure for renting and selling shops, and the construction and maintenance costs of skyscrapers are unusual high.

Wuhan Greenland Center under construction

How much does it cost to build a skyscraper?

As early as 1930, economists Clark and Kingston put forward in the book “Skyscrapers: A Study on the Economic Height of Modern Office Buildings”. . In other words, this is a calculation question of income minus costs. A high-rise building will earn more rental sales, but will also bear higher construction and maintenance costs.

Clark and Kingston believe that there is no simple linear relationship between the height of a skyscraper and its cost. On the one hand, when the building exceeds a certain floor, the proportions of wind and earthquake resistance and safety factors will soar, which will quickly drive up the construction cost.

On the other hand, the elevator system of skyscrapers is complex and changeable. These elevator rooms that pass directly to Yunting will further reduce the rental area and affect the overall revenue. Therefore, they put forward the concept of “economic height”, that is, if a building is to maximize the return on investment, its building height should preferably be around 63 floors.

A year later, the Empire State Building in New York, USA, was completed. This 103-story skyscraper, in the eyes of Clark and Kingston, is an “exorbitant” building that obviously cannot recover its costs. Coincidentally, the Empire State Building was built during the Great Depression.

01 Worship of skyscrapers: a symbol of strength and power

Since skyscrapers burn so much money, why are there still people who regard them as architectural marvels and continue to chase after “the top of the world”?

The rise of skyscrapers is an inevitable result of economic development. In general, there are many high-rise buildings in urban centers in developed regions. This is because the land price in the city center is high. Only by expanding the building upwards can land costs be minimized.

In contrast, it is difficult for small cities to build skyscrapers, because the land price itself is not high, and there is no necessary demand for “straight into the sky.” Strategic vision.

Over time, skyscrapers have become a symbol of economic strength and global influence, which has led to the shift from the first world to the second world and from the first-tier cities to the second-tier cities. “