Curiosities about skyscrapers — idealista/news

by time news

When we think of skyscrapers, one of the images that comes to mind most quickly is that of the ‘skyline’. from New York. And it is true that if there is an urban profile that we all know and associate with these tall buildings, thanks, of course, to the cinema, is that of the Big Applesurrounded by a great hustle and bustle, with thousands of people packed together walking along its sidewalks, avoiding each other, between the smoke and the sound of the horns of the yellow taxis that circulate in their shadow.

Beyond that image created in the popular imagination, and despite the fascination that they have aroused, the truth is that, in reality, a skyscraper is nothing more than a high-rise building that has several levels and is designed to accommodate many people or activities in a space at height, especially in places with a high population density. Different techniques and materials are used to ensure their stability, including steel and concrete, and designs often include reinforcements and support systems to resist wind and other structural challenges.

Then we’ll see some of the curiosities that, perhaps, you do not know about these impressive constructions:

China, the country with the most skyscrapers

Although the most iconic image of skyscrapers comes from New York, the reality is that the United States is not the country where we can find the most buildings of this type, but China. The Asian giant has experienced significant economic development in recent decades, becoming the second world power. This, how could it be otherwise, has impacted many areas, including urban planning and architecture. And one of the ways in which these changes have been shown is in the proliferation of towering skyscrapers. According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), China has 1034 skyscrapers with a height of more than 200 meters. In addition, among its cities, Hong Kong stands out, with the largest number of skyscrapers in the world, followed by New York in the United States and Shanghai in China.

A skyscraper of records

The Empire State Building is one of the most iconic in the world. To his credit he has various records throughout history. It was the tallest in the world for 41 years, which, moreover, is a record in itself for the longest period that a skyscraper has held the record. Another record, quite fortunate, is to have been the scene of the largest elevator fall in which the person inside survived. It happened on July 28, 1945, when a B-25 bomber carrying soldiers crashed into the building. Betty Lou Oliver, a 20-year-old elevator operator, was seriously injured while working on the 80th floor and was placed in an elevator to be transported down for medical attention. The elevator cables, damaged by the crash, snapped and she and the elevator plummeted 75 stories suffering only broken backs and legs. The young woman survived and holds the Guinness World Record for the longest survived elevator fall.

One word with different different meanings

Over time, words and their meanings change. One of those words that over time has come to mean something different than what it did in the past is the English term for skyscraper, skyscraper. According to The Oxford English Dictionarythis word was used to refer to anything that stands out in height, without necessarily being a building. For example, throughout the 18th century it was used to name the sails of a sailing ship or even a tall horse. In the 19th century, other meanings were added, such as a very tall person, some types of hats, or a cyclist who rode those old cycles with a high front wheel. It would already be at the end of the 19th century, when tall buildings began to proliferate, as we know them, when this word began to be used for buildings.

Time passes faster in skyscrapers

If you are one of those people who are impatient when they wait for something to happen and in the meantime, time passes very slowly, perhaps you should move to a skyscraper: Why? Why there, on taller floors, time passes faster. Well, let’s qualify it: it is true that it happens faster, but for us it is imperceptible. This change in the speed of time occurs by a phenomenon known as gravitational dilation, a concept introduced by Albert Einstein in his general theory of relativity, whereby time passes faster the further you are from ground level. This fact has been verified on many occasions, and one of them in a skyscraper, when a team of Japanese scientists with high-precision optical network clocks measured time on a platform located 450 meters from the Tokyo Skytree, a skyscraper of 634 meters. The result, although subtle, showed that this difference was real, since time passed 4 nanoseconds faster per day at that point.

200 meters in 19 days

Building a skyscraper can take a long time. Or not. It is true that many of them have taken several years to build, logically. And it is not enough to lift them, you have to carry out all the appropriate operations so that they are habitable and guarantee safety. However, there are some projects that have been really fascinating because of the speed at which they have been developed. This is the case of a 57-story skyscraper in China that was built in just 19 days. The secret was use a modular system, so that ninety percent of the total was prefabricated in a factory, so all that had to be done on site was to put the pieces together. In this case, the rate was three floors of modules per day.

The fastest elevator in the world

A building of such a height is inconceivable without at least one elevator. If going up a couple of floors can be a nuisance for many people, let’s imagine going up 30, 40, 50… or more. Well, in addition to helping to climb the skyscrapers, the logical thing is that the elevators are fast, so as not to waste too much time traveling those considerable distances. The fastest to date is the one in the Shanghai Tower, which with its 632 meters above the ground, with 128 floors, is among the highest in the world. And not only that: inside there are 106 elevators. The fastest of them reaches, nothing less, than almost 74 km/hour.

So high that you can enjoy two sunsets

Almost 830 meters high, Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai (UAE), it is currently the tallest building in the world, surpassing Taipei 101. In addition, it also has the highest inhabited floor in the world, as well as the highest outdoor observation decks and the most floors, with 163. Anecdotally, this building is so tall allows you to enjoy two sunsets a day. If someone wishes, they can see the first one from the base and three minutes later at the top. As the elevator takes just over a minute, with good planning, it will be possible to enjoy these two magical moments in the same day.

The first in Spain

The first skyscraper to be built in Spain was the Telefónica building in Madrid. It was built between 1926 and 1930 and, for a time, it was not only the highest in Spain, but also in all of Europe. With its 90 meters high, its design was totally inspired by the skyscrapers americans.

In fact, the architect who designed it, Ignacio de Cárdenas, moved to the IT&T headquarters in New York, of which the National Telephone Company was a subsidiary at the time, although the final result had a very traditional touch. Also, as a curiosity, it was the place from which the first transoceanic call from our country was made, where Alfonso XIII spoke for a few minutes with the President of the United States Calvin Coolidge, who was in Washington. Inside, important foreign journalists and correspondents reported on the Civil War, including Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos.

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