A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least 100 meters (330 ft) or 150 meters (490 ft) in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise buildings. Historically, the term first referred to buildings with between 10 and 20 stories when these types of buildings began to be constructed in the 1880s. Skyscrapers may host offices, hotels, residential spaces, and retail spaces.
A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material, a sash set in a frame in the opening; the sash and frame are also referred to as a window. Many glazed windows may be opened, to allow ventilation, or closed, to exclude inclement weather. Windows may have a latch or similar mechanism to lock the window shut or to hold it open by various amounts.
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unlike active solar heating systems, it does not involve the use of mechanical and electrical devices. This image shows the characteristics of a Passive Solar home and it's benefits.
A mechanical floor, mechanical penthouse, mechanical layer or mechanical level is a story of a high-rise building that is dedicated to mechanical and electronics equipment. "Mechanical" is the most commonly used term, but words such as utility, technical, service, and plant are also used. They are present in all tall buildings including the world's tallest skyscrapers with significant structural, mechanical and aesthetics concerns.
The Arabella-Hochhaus is a 23-storey, 75 m (246 ft), hotel/apartment building at Arabellapark, in the Bogenhausen neighborhood in eastern Munich, Germany.
Window film (tint) is a thin laminate film that can be installed on the interior or exterior of glass surfaces in automobiles and boats, and as well as on the interior or exterior of glass in homes and buildings. It is usually made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family, due to its clarity, tensile strength, dimensional stability, and ability to accept a variety of surface-applied or embedded treatments.
Passive house is a voluntary standard for energy efficiency in a building, which reduces the building's ecological footprint. It results in ultra-low energy buildings that require little energy for space heating or cooling. A similar standard, MINERGIE-P, is used in Switzerland. The standard is not confined to residential properties; several office buildings, schools, kindergartens and a supermarket have also been constructed to the standard. The design is not an attachment or supplement to architectural design, but a design process that integrates with architectural design. Although it is generally applied to new buildings, it has also been used for refurbishments.
The Standard Bank Centre is a skyscraper in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located at the corner of 27 Simmonds Street and 78 Fox Street in the Central Business District of the city. Construction of the building started in 1966 and was completed in 1968. It is 139 m (456 ft) tall. It was also home to Standard Bank, until the company moved to other site in 1990.
Building insulation is material used in a building to reduce the flow of thermal energy. While the majority of insulation in buildings is for thermal purposes, the term also applies to acoustic insulation, fire insulation, and impact insulation. Often an insulation material will be chosen for its ability to perform several of these functions at once.
Pearl River Tower is a 71-story, 309.6 m (1,016 ft), clean technology neofuturistic skyscraper at the junction of Jinsui Road/Zhujiang Avenue West, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China. The tower's architecture and engineering were performed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with Adrian D. Smith and Gordon Gill as architects. Ground broke on the tower on 8 September 2006 and construction was completed in March 2011. It is intended for office use and is partially occupied by the China National Tobacco Corporation.
1600 Pacific Tower, also known as the LTV Tower, is a skyscraper in the City Center District of Dallas, Texas, USA. The building rises 434 feet. The structure contains 33 floors, made up originally of office space, standing as the 29th-tallest building in the city. The building is adjacent to Thanks-Giving Square and was, for a time, connected to the Dallas Pedestrian Network.
Shanghai Tower is a 128-story, 632-meter-tall (2,073 ft) megatall skyscraper in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai. It is the tallest building in China and the world's third-tallest building by height to architectural top. It is the tallest and largest LEED Platinum certified building in the world since 2015. It shares the record of having the world's highest observation deck within a building or structure at 562 m. It had the world's second-fastest elevators at a top speed of 20.5 meters per second until 2017, when it was surpassed by the Guangzhou CTF Finance Center, with its top speed of 21 meters per second. Designed by international design firm Gensler and owned by the Shanghai Municipal Government, it is the tallest of the world's first triple-adjacent supertall buildings in Pudong, the other two being the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. Its tiered construction, designed for high energy efficiency, provides nine separate zones divided between office, retail and leisure use.
Post Tower is the headquarters of the logistic company Deutsche Post DHL with the two brands postal services for Germany Deutsche Post and the worldwide logistics company DHL. The Post Tower is a 162.5-metre, 41-storey office building in Bonn, Germany. It was designed by German-American architect Helmut Jahn and won the 2002 Silver Emporis Skyscraper Award.
The double-skin façade is a system of building consisting of two skins, or façades, placed in such a way that air flows in the intermediate cavity. The ventilation of the cavity can be natural, fan supported or mechanical. Apart from the type of the ventilation inside the cavity, the origin and destination of the air can differ depending mostly on climatic conditions, the use, the location, the occupational hours of the building and the HVAC strategy.
Westhafen Tower is a 109.826 m (360.32 ft) 30-storey skyscraper in the Gutleutviertel district of Frankfurt, Germany. The building was designed by the architects Schneider & Schumacher and was completed in 2004. The tower, whose name literally means "West Port Tower", is one of the first buildings at the former West Port.
110 Tower, formerly known as AutoNation Tower, is a 410.1 feet (125.0 m) modernist office building in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The building was one of the first modern high-rise office buildings constructed in the city, and became part of the city's sprawling skyline. The building has a baltic-brown granite clad and glass exterior, it currently stands as the fourth-tallest building in Fort Lauderdale's skyline, and also the tallest office building.
The Tower at PNC Plaza is a 33-story skyscraper in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the corporate headquarters of the PNC Financial Services Group and has approximately 800,000 square feet (74,000 m2), standing 33 stories tall. Nearby buildings totaling 37,000 square feet (3,400 m2), were purchased by PNC and deconstructed to make space for the Tower at PNC Plaza. It is located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Wood Street, where PNC and its predecessors have been based since 1858.
The Shopping mall Fünf Höfe in the center of Munich was created from 1998 to 2003 after the coring of a HypoVereinsbank building complex. In 2004, the Fünf Höfe was sold to DIFA and since then the official name has been CityQuartier Fünf Höfe.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Headquarters is the corporate headquarters of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, located in Los Altos, California. The Packard Foundation was created in 1964 by David Packard and his wife Lucile Salter Packard, one of the top 100 grant-making foundations in the United States, with the goals of improving the lives of children, enabling the creative pursuit of science, advancing reproductive health, and conserving and restoring the Earth’s natural systems. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Headquarters is designed by EHDD to be the largest net zero energy building in California, and it has successfully reduced the energy use by 65% over conventional buildings.
Quadruple glazing is a type of insulated glazing comprising four glass panes, commonly equipped with low emissivity coating and insulating gases in the cavities between the glass panes. Quadruple glazing is a subset of multipane (multilayer) glazing systems. Multipane glazing with up to six panes is commercially available.
