The height of vanity in modern architecture
Cities around the world compete for the kudos of having the highest
buildings. But many 'super-talls' have swaths of space that is
uninhabitable
Some of the world's tallest skyscrapers have been criticised for
being built with added "vanity height", which serves no practical
purpose other than to push them into the architectural category of
"super-tall".
A report on the world's "vainest" buildings, by the Council on Tall
Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), has found that up to 39 percent of
many new skyscrapers' height consisted of entirely uninhabitable space.
 The iconic Burj Al Arab in Dubai - which mimics the shape of a boat's
sail - was found to be the world's vainest building, with 405ft of
uninhabitable space at the top. At 39 percent of its 1,055ft total
height, without it, it would fall well short "super-tall" status awarded
to buildings of 300m (985ft).
The CTBUH said: "We noticed in Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, that a fair
amount of the top of the building seemed to be an unoccupied spire.
"This prompted us to investigate the increasing trend towards extreme
spires and other extensions of tall buildings that do not enclose usable
space, and create a new term to describe this - Vanity Height."
The Bank of America building in New York City was judged the second
vainest, with 34 percent, or 131m, of its total height being
inhabitable.
The council class "vanity height" as the distance between a
skyscraper's highest living space, and its architectural top. The trend
for vanity space began in New York City with the Chrysler building,
which was built in 1930. As China and the United Arab Emirates began
competing for the world's most impressive skylines, the practice of
adding it to skyscrapers became commonplace. A total of 61 percent of
the world's super-talls would lose their status if their vanity height
weren't included, say the CTBUH, while any structure with 50 percent
vanity height would be deemed a non-building.
Standing at 306m, the Shard, designed by architect Renzo Piano, is
the UK's only super-tall. The top 20 percent of the structure is deemed
vanity height, with a glass and steel top that tapers off into the sky
above London.
A spokesman for the building said: "The design is the design, and it
was not come to with vanity in mind. It was the natural conclusion of
the building, with the Shard disappearing into the sky."
Piano has said his vision was inspired by the spires of London's
churches, as depicted by the 18th-century Venetian painter Canaletto.
Five of the 10 vainest buildings were found to be in the United Arab
Emirates.
The nation is home to the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj
Khalifa - which came in for plenty of criticism when it was completed
due to its supreme height being pointless in a country with so much open
land.
The 830m tall building has a vanity height of 244m - which in itself
would be enough to become the 11th tallest building in Europe.
As Paul Goldberger, the New Yorker's architecture critic, pointed out
in his review of the tower that "as with most super-tall buildings,
function is hardly the point of the Burj Khalifa."
- The Independent
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