massurban:

“Are Skyscrapers Torpedoing the World’s Economies?

Jennifer Hattam. Jan 15, 2012

Does pride goeth before a fall, as the biblically based saying has it, for the world’s booming cities too? A new report by an investment bank that postulates an “unhealthy” link between skyscraper construction and financial crisis suggests it might.

Barclays Capital recently issued a warning to investors about avid skyscraper-builders China and India, noting an “unhealthy correlation between construction of the next world’s tallest building and an impending financial crisis”:

[O]ften the world’s tallest buildings are simply the edifice of a broader skyscraper building boom, reflecting a widespread misallocation of capital and an impending economic correction.

But Isn’t Density Good?
The news might come as a bit of a downer to advocates of greater density, typically an environmental plus, but the focus of Barclays’ attention appears to be “bubble” construction, where skyscrapers and other skyline-defining buildings are erected because they can be (due, in China’s case, to cheap liquidity) or as shows of economic might, not because they provide a well-thought-out solution to the city’s needs.”

Via: Treehugger

Photo: Chelsea Hicks/CC BY 2.0; The Hong Kong skyline.