Shanghai reportedly has about 3,000 buildings over 30 storeys, and some 12,000 over 18 storeys. Hence, it makes sense that conference organisers, Marcus Evans and the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) joined forces to create this inaugural Tall Buildings conference. Built Environment leaders gathered during 9 th - 10 th July at the 88 storey, the world's third tallest tower, Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai.
The Tall Buildings conference was a great success, with over 360 delegates from 28 countries gathering to hear 32 international speakers in 14 plenary sessions and 4 concurrent topic streams. From Australia speakers included Geoff Hardy (Bassetts), Stephen Ballesty (Rider Levett Bucknall), Michael Cook (Investa Property Group) and Geoffrey Lee (Woodhead). Case studies included iconic Tall Buildings such as Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai; Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur; 126 Philip Street, Sydney; Russian Federation Towers, Moscow; Shanghai World Financial Centre; and Taipei 101, Taiwan.
"The conference topics dealt with the planning, design, marketing and management of sustainable skylines for current and future generations" said Marcus Evans' senior producer, Michelle Wong.
Australia’s Stephen Ballesty of Rider Levett Bucknall alone was there to make the case for ‘Facilities Management in the clouds’. Ballesty, the 2007 winner of FMA Australia’s Member of the Year award and recent appointee to the IFMA Foundation board, made much of FM being schedule at the end of the conference, as is often is in real life. He presented the research findings from the FM Exemplar Project: Sydney Opera House as published in ‘FM as a business enabler’ (2007). Stephen linked this to his other research for the Property Council of Australia published as ‘a Guide to Office Building Quality’ (2006).
Complexity was repeatedly emphasised as a feature of the Tall Buildings phenomenon, be it; London’s planning by Steven Bee, English Heritage (UK); design by Lillian Too, World of Feng Shui (Malaysia); structural by David Scott, Arup (USA); energy efficiency by Ruan ZhenJi, Jin Mao Group (China); and delivered quality by Stephen Ballesty, Rider Levett Bucknall (Australia).
However it’s not just about being the "Tallest", as "Tall" is relative to your local environs, but how these icons impact on the image and culture of world cities. Importantly along with these urban centrepieces comes a range of surrounding developments.
Many of the conference speakers covered the nature of iconic buildings, identifying trends for future differentiation as being:
or indeed a combination of all three!
Further, delivery in terms of buildability and quality were seen as vital to success in a competitive global market where major Contractors were becoming increasingly selective as to which developments they would pursue.
Whether it was the UK, USA or Asian experience, Tall Buildings is a matter of global trend rather than local leadership. Interestingly, the Australian Government's FM Action Agenda vision of contributing to a more "productive and sustainable Built Environment" seems to best sum up the aspirations of those leaders gathered this week in Shanghai.
Marcus Evans' Tall Buildings 2008 will be held next 9 th - 10 th June in Seoul, Korea