Recently, due to rapid modernization, an increasing number of tall buildings have been developed in cities, in contrast to the flat ones. This has raised a debate among stakeholders on whether or not this trend brings more advantages to the society over disadvantages. This essay will discuss both views in detail, while presenting a more favorable view towards tall buildings.
Admittedly, taller buildings are more energy-and-resource-consuming and bring higher safety risks in extreme conditions than lower buildings. They are inconvenient when it comes to evacuation in catastrophes. One noticeable example would be the evacuation during earthquakes, where all elevators are out of order. People at higher levels have less chance for survival than those at lower levels, as they need to use stairs to go all the way down from a high-elevation place, such as the eighteenth floor. Compared to those living or working at the first floor, this would take them a much longer time, reducing their chances for a successful escape. It is also argued that tall buildings bring a higher consumption of energy and resources including electricity and water, in comparison to the lower ones. A higher cost could be incurred to maintain a smooth operation across all floors, potentially accompanied by more waste.
Nevertheless, tall buildings provide more benefits than drawbacks to the society, both from a landscape perspective and a functional perspective. Visually speaking, they offer a more diverse city landscape than only having wide flat buildings. Various architectural styles can be realized with various heights of the buildings. For instance, Shanghai, China is a great example of a well-designed metropolis with a variety of building styles. Tall and skyrocketed buildings are often built in a modern style with glass and steel, while the flat ones preserve traditional Chinese architectural styles, led by the historical Shikumen architecture built with stones and mud. Moreover, different heights of the buildings provide different features and functions, leading to a wide variety of options for accommodation and working places for people with different preferences. Some people may prefer living in high-rise apartments, as they can enjoy city views from the top, while others prefer single flat houses, being the only one occupying the whole space which provides them with more freedom in house design. In the long run, these benefits could be maintained and promoted with a more deliberate and careful design of tall buildings to cope with the safety and consumption concerns.
In conclusion, under more effective measure and educated designs, building tall architectures would bring more merits than demerits, since they maximize the entertaining and practical functions of city architecture. Thus, relevant governmental departments are suggested to give designers, construction workers and maintenance staff sufficient guidance and surveillance to ensure that the safety risks and the issue of wastes and consumption could be minimized for high buildings.