March 2010
As the short grey days of winter blanketed the northern hemisphere, many of us found an oasis in Mumbai, India for the CTBUH 2010 World Conference - Remaking Sustainable Cities in the Vertical Age that was held on February 3 – 5, 2010. The conference was attended by over 1000 delegates, representing 488 companies from 29 countries who took advantage of learning from the successes and failures of 71 speakers from around the world.
The conference jointly hosted by the Remaking of Mumbai Foundation and the CTBUH offered the city of Mumbai a look into the possibilities for this amazing city of 18+ million inhabitants and country of over 1 billion.The speaker topics, ranging from macro ideas concerning city and urban planning to detailed reports on the technical design of tall buildings, was a fitting forum for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat to offer the brain power of its members and industry leaders to this country as it searches for new urban models for growth, improvement of living conditions, and environmental, societal, and economic sustainability.
On the day prior to the Conference, the CTBUH Board of Trustees met to discuss strategy and vision for the future. This meeting was led by the new CTBUH Chair Professor Sang-Dae Kim and Executive Director Antony Wood. In summary, the Council had a positive year in 2009 with continued growth in membership, numerous publications, and the well attended and highly successful Chicago conference and awards dinner. The message we gleaned was that even with the global economic crisis bearing down on us all, the mission and content of the Council clearly is of value to the industry.
Therefore, the Board of Trustees focused on the following three key objectives for 2010: expand membership globally; invest further in our infrastructure to advance the research, collection, and dissemination of content on tall buildings and urban habitat; and commit to further conferences and a world congress over the next three years, which will be announced when dates and locations are finalized.
Professor Kim has outlined a program for membership expansion that has a particular focus on the Asian region where a vast majority of tall buildings are being designed and built. Our membership is growing there; however, there is significant room to grow much larger. The focus also continues to emphasize diversity - Architects, Engineers, Consultants, Owners, Developers, Contractors, Suppliers, etc., which is key to have this range of voices involved in the dialogue.
Although we are in the age of information overload, I hope you have all enjoyed the clarity of our monthly newsletter, quarterly Journal, and of course our always accessible CTBUH website. If you haven’t been to our website lately, please check out the Tall Buildings Database which continues to be populated with valuable information on a daily basis. The Board approved further funding and resources to assure that these vehicles for information dissemination would continue to be improved to offer our members – data, ease of access, and a forum for our dialogue.
So those of you reading this, please do your part for the Council – submit content for consideration to our newsletter and quarterly journals, as well as encourage your colleagues, clients, consultants, and industry leaders to join the Council and add to the rich discourse of realizing tall buildings and creating successful urban places.
Although it is March, it feels like we are ready to finally start the New Year. It seems we have been working through the year end calendar since late last year with Ramadan and Hajj, then Christmas and Hanukah, and with the Chinese New Year just ending. So we finally have some clear sailing ahead. It also feels like the world is finally settling back into the routine of supply and demand and, perhaps with the exception of China where growth still seems to be at hyper-speed, there is a sense of normalcy in the market place.
Here’s to blue skies ahead,
Timothy Johnson AIA LEED AP