What is the limitations of skyscrapers?

Answer 1

do you mean what are the pros and cons of a skyscraper?

skyscrapers are built out of necessity, not because of pros and cons. the need is driven by a combination of available real estate in a given area and cost of real estate in that given area. this explains why you generally only see skyscrapers in very dense core of the largest cities in the world. the only available land has a tiny area ("footprint") and that tiny area cost a fortune. thus, to make proper use of that land, you must go upwards. the further up, the more office space or rentable space. there are a few exceptions to this. for example, out in the desert of abu dhabi and dubai, scarcity of land is not an issue. in this case, the skyscrapers were built purely to portray the nascent city as a major modern metropolis.

the pros of skyscrapers might be said to be their ability to house hundreds of tenants/businesses in such a small footprint. if designed nicely, another pro of a skyscraper is the powerful image they display for both the corporation, city, and nation (should be noted however that a "nice design" is highly subjective both through time and region).

cons of skyscrapers include tradeoffs one must make to go higher and higher. by definition, the cross sectional area of a skyscraper is already fairly small. to build up very high, much of this already tight space has to be dedicated to elevators, stairs, Plumbing, ducts, steel columns and other structural elements, and do on.

another potential con of a skyscraper is the effect when many are located adjacent to each other. this can result in dark street levels and views on upper floors blocked by all the other skyscrapers. these problems were recognized long ago, and now architects must design to take into account issues such as setbacks, daylight penetration to street level, and views.

another complication (if not a "con") of skyscrapers is the highly complex forces they must be designed to withstand. examples include torsion/twisting from high winds, suction forces on leeward side (if designed poorly, windows can pop right out and fall many stories!), and seismic forces. even the mildest sway if a building that poses no structural danger may cause occupants at highest floors to feel uncomfortable.

lastly, anither sophisticated complication ("con") of skyscrapers deals with life safety. it isnt reasonable to design a skyscraper to withstand a fueled airliner strike, but aside from that there are still other more practical life safety issues. because fire fighters cannot quickly reach such heights, and because fires spread so quickly, what begins as a modest fire in a microwave poses and enormous threat. thus, skyscrapers must be designed with extremely sophisticated sprinkler systems, smoke detection systems, air pressurization capabilities, and so in. likewise, stairs for emergency egress must be capable of maintaining stability for hours while surrounding building burns.

i might add, because of the high number if occupants in such a small area, the design of a skyscraper often also involves considerable infrastructure cost in the surrounding area for utilities, mass transit, parking, etc.

these are just some if the technological challenges (cons) involved with skyscraper design. for these reasons, it only makes sense to build these structures in cities that are major economic powers of our world where free land is rare or non-existant (ex: tokyo, manhattan, singapore, etc). it is also for these reasons that it takes an army of architects, mechanical engineers, structural engineers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, traffic studies, urban planners, bankers, etc to make such a structure a reality.