Dear Colleagues:As the Burj Dubai heads on into the sky at level 137, the Shanghai World Finance Center is close to topping out and, when complete, will claim the title of the “tallest occupied floor” for a short while. Meanwhile construction of the upper levels of the dramatic CCTV Tower in Beijing is well underway and the finishing touches are being made to the Bahrain World Trade Center, with its spectacular form and exposed wind turbines. Now is a great time to be in the tall building industry, when projects such as these are clear indicators of the opportunities and potential that the industry has to offer.
However innovations and new developments are not just happening on these mega-projects but on many medium sized tall buildings around the world, where architects, engineers and builders are honing their skill. Indeed some 40 story buildings can be just as interesting and challenging as the 100 story tower and certainly, they all offer potential for innovation in design and in construction.
What is exciting to me is that today’s modern architects are showing that there are many new forms and options that have yet to be explored in the design of high rise buildings. Similarly modern engineers keep discovering ways to make buildings perform better and to be more efficient, more sustainable and less costly and easier to build.
We expect to learn all about these issues and more at the World Congress in Dubai next year. Despite the fact that most of the international design community is extremely busy designing tall buildings, we have had an excellent response to the initial Call for Papers for our World Congress in Dubai, and many commitments from the industry to submit papers. Our plan is to have papers from a wide range of city planners, government officials, developers, architects, engineers and builders, and that these shall be published in a physical congress proceeding for the benefit of each delegate. The deadline for receipt of papers is 30th September 2007, within the themes of Tall Building Sustainability, Mega Projects, and Tall / Articulated Towers. If you have a paper or an idea for a paper I would encourage you to contact Antony Wood, who is leading the peer review panel at awood@ctbuh.org.
This is an exciting couple of months for the Council. Having hosted the international height criteria meeting in May (see below), June will see the first print of the Congress brochure and the launch of the new Congress web site. We are also about to go to print on the long awaited next edition of the CTBUH Journal, whose production has been delayed somewhat by a complete reformatting of its contents. It now looks excellent and I hope that you will want to showcase your work there in the future.
David Scott
Chairman, CTBUH
Principal, Arup