Why Humans Build Up: The Rise of Buildings, Temples and Skyscrapers
Author: Gregor Craigie
Illustrator: Kathleen Fu
Publisher: Orca Book
Why did they build it so high?
People have been constructing tall buildings for thousands of years, for many different reasons. Castle walls kept people safe. Utility towers transmit TV and cell-phone signals. Observatories give people a bird’s-eye view of the world. Beautiful buildings stand out in the crowd. Skyscrapers provide housing for a lot of people. There are some good reasons for building up, and a few bad ones as well.
With a growing global population, we will need more and more space to live, learn and work in. But what does that mean for the health of the planet? Can we do it sustainably? Tall buildings may be part of the answer. From the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Leaning Tower of Pisa to the Burj Khalifa and the Shanghai Tower,
Why Humans Build Up: The Rise of Buildings, Temples and Skyscrapers offers a window onto the aspirations of builders, past and present, who sought to build vertically, and the impacts of building up on how we live.
The book is divided into chapters based on reasons for building up, including security, spirituality, utility, competition and sustainability. Each chapter is full of examples of exemplary buildings and inventive building practices and is accompanied by pictures and diagrams that make it both a great book for skimming as well as for gaining a deeper understanding of the social and economic impacts of building up.
While offering a detailed list of interesting structures and practices, the book also meets the expectation of its title by exploring why humans build vertically and addresses many of the challenges and impacts of tall structures on urban life and on the environment. In particular, the chapters on luxury buildings and efficiency consider how tall buildings can both exacerbate and address economic and social inequities, and the chapter on sustainability considers various green processes and new technologies. The increase in the number of women involved in the design process is also addressed in the chapter about rivalry.
In addition to detailed text and a variety of pictures and diagrams, the book comes with a short glossary of terms. Perhaps also helpful might have been a world map showing where some of the buildings are located and a “tallness timeline” to track which buildings were the tallest and for how long. It may also have been interesting to explore some of the failures in building up, including structures that collapsed or perhaps never made it off the page (although it does discuss how the failure of the mooring mast of the Empire State Building became a success as a telecommunications tower).
But overall, the book offers a detailed look and a heightened understanding of the human urge to build up and the ability we have to design and change the world in which we live.
- James Steeves