Exciting, Boring, and Nonexistent Skylines
Despite the widespread prevalence and economic importance of tall buildings, little is known about how their patterns vary across space and time. This paper focuses on vertical real estate, aiming to quantify differences across major world regions over time (1950–2020). The paper exploits a novel database on the location, height (above 55 meters), and year of construction of nearly all the tall buildings in the world. It proposes a new methodology to estimate the extent to which some world regions build up more than others given similar economic and geographic conditions, city size distributions, and other features. The analyses reveal that many skylines may visually appear more prominent than they really are once all the tall buildings and core controls are included, which alters how regions are ranked in terms of tall building stocks. Using results by city size, centrality, height of buildings, and building function, the paper classifies world regions into different groups, finding that international tall building stocks are mostly driven by boring skylines of residential high-rises, and to a lesser extent exciting skylines of skyscrapers and supertall office towers. Finally, land use regulations and preferences, not historical preservation nor dispersed ownership, likely account for most of the observed differences.
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2023-03
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| Subjects: | BUILDING HEIGHT, HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS, SKYSCRAPERS, GLOBAL REAL ESTATE, HOUSING SUPPLY, GLOBAL REAL ESTATE DATA, GLOBAL TALL BUILDING INVENTORY, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099420203152314749/IDU0bedb1cec0e34c0495f0b7c40e02a3428c91b https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/39567 |
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| Summary: | Despite the widespread prevalence and
economic importance of tall buildings, little is known about
how their patterns vary across space and time. This paper
focuses on vertical real estate, aiming to quantify
differences across major world regions over time
(1950–2020). The paper exploits a novel database on the
location, height (above 55 meters), and year of construction
of nearly all the tall buildings in the world. It proposes a
new methodology to estimate the extent to which some world
regions build up more than others given similar economic and
geographic conditions, city size distributions, and other
features. The analyses reveal that many skylines may
visually appear more prominent than they really are once all
the tall buildings and core controls are included, which
alters how regions are ranked in terms of tall building
stocks. Using results by city size, centrality, height of
buildings, and building function, the paper classifies world
regions into different groups, finding that international
tall building stocks are mostly driven by boring skylines of
residential high-rises, and to a lesser extent exciting
skylines of skyscrapers and supertall office towers.
Finally, land use regulations and preferences, not
historical preservation nor dispersed ownership, likely
account for most of the observed differences. |
|---|