China is dominating skyscraper design by planning dozens of 200m and 300m buildings bdoline.co.uk reports.

New Research by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat showed that 23 buildings over 200m were completed in the last year alone. By the end of this year, the number of structures over 200m is expected to be 250- up from just five, in 1990.

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Construction of super tall buildings

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Timothy Johnson, chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings said:

”China is dealing with issues and challenges of developing urban environments on a massive scale. The key is developing well-designed projects that are environmentally sensitive and serve the needs of the city.”

China’s ascendancy represents an integral shift in the construction of supertall buildings, wordpropertychannel.com reports. In 1970, 92 of the world’s tallest buildings were located in North America, however by the end of this year, only 29 out of 100 will be located there.

Too big? Too tall? … ‘white elephants’!

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However some have criticised China’s tall building developments lately, labelling them as too big and expensive, with one local newspaper even referring to them as ‘white elephants’.

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660m Ping An Finance Centre – to become 2nd tallest building in the world

The list of towers under development includes the 660m Ping An Finance Centre, which will be the second tallest building in the world on expected completion in 2015.

Author: Samantha Bartlett    Date Written: 17 October 2012