Although skyscrapers are pushing the bounds of how tall we can build, little is being done to use all of the space captured in these new structures. According to a new report by the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat unnecessary “vanity space” is being added to the skyscrapers in attempt to set records.
"We noticed in [a] case study on Kingdom Tower, Jeddah, that a fair amount of the top of the building seemed to be an unoccupied spire. This prompted us to investigate the increasing trend towards extreme spires and other extensions of tall buildings that do not enclose usable space, and create a new term to describe this – Vanity Height, i.e., the distance between a skyscraper’s highest occupiable floor and its architectural top", states the CTBUH report.
In the CTBUH report the UAE had the highest number of skyscrapers crowned with vanity space. However, the Emirate also contained the skyscraper with the least amount of wasted space – The Index a 328 meter (1076 ft) which waste a scant 4 meters (13ft).
Images Courtesy of CTBUH