Video: Why should we build taller cities? Because cities with taller buildings are cool as hell.
But seriously, building cities upward rather than outward can help solve a lot of problems that come with living in our terrible urban sprawls. People would spend less time stuck in traffic during their commutes. Water could be saved with smaller distribution and less pipe leakage. We’d also reduce our carbon footprint. And again, taller buildings are just cool as hell.
Real Engineering examines the benefits of building higher against the costs of urban sprawl, and it’s obvious that taller cities makes more sense both socially and economically. But it’s also fun to hear about the history of tall structures (no buildings taller than a church), see how different cities adapt to their environment (Hong Kong buildings shoot straight to the sky), learn about the regulations and zoning laws preventing taller buildings from being built (New York has an interesting formula on that) and find out how a city like Paris tries to combine its skyscrapers with its history. The video is long but it’s a good one.