Recent trends in tall building design

Abstract

Tall building developments are rapidly increasing worldwide. The development of structural systems and construction methods, as well as façade technologies and service systems implemented for tall buildings, has been continuously an evolving process. This paper, providing information on the evolution of lateral load-resisting systems initially, presents the latest trends in structural systems and categorizes the systems through a new approach. Initially the definition of the term “tall building” is given and tall buildings share according to regions in the 1980s and 2000s are presented. After providing a brief history of structural systems, a classification of the lateral load resisting systems for tall buildings is presented. Finally after dealing with the new design trends, such as twisted forms, sustainability approaches for tall buildings are revealed and a number of impressive tall buildings worldwide are provided. © 2010 Taylor and Francis Group, London, UK.