buildings Review The Sustainability of Tall Building Developments: A Conceptual Framework Kheir Al-Kodmany Department of Urban Planning and Policy, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA;
[email protected] Received: 26 November 2017; Accepted: 3 January 2018; Published: 5 January 2018 Abstract: As cities cope with rapid population growth—adding 2.5 billion dwellers by 2050—and grapple with expansive sprawl, politicians, planners, and architects have become increasingly interested in the vertical city paradigm. This paper reviews and examines shortfalls of tall buildings found in the literature to inform future developments. The paper gathers a vast amount of fragmented criticism and concerns, and organizes them around the three pillars of sustainability: social, economic, and environmental. Mapping out the “unsustainable” aspects forms the foundation for addressing them in future research and tall building developments. Keywords: sustainability; high-rise developments; economic shortfalls; social failure; environmental problems 1. Introduction 1.1. What Is a Tall Building? There is no universally accepted definition of a “tall building”. Governments around the world differ in how they define “tall buildings”. For example, German regulations define “tall buildings” as buildings higher than 22 m (72 ft) with room for the permanent accommodation of people [1]. City officials derived this limit from the length of ladders used by the firefighters. Leicester City Council in the UK defines a tall building as any structure over 20 m/66 ft in height, and/or a building of any height that is substantially higher than the predominant height of the buildings in the surrounding area, and/or a building that would make a significant impact on the city’s skyline [2].