Title : The impact of the raising number of the high-rise building

Name : Muhammad Fadhiila

NIM : 16615025
Class : WR-03
Lecturer : Dr. Bambang Supriyanto. M. Ed.
Words : 2051
Phone no. : 085363952123
E-mail : Fadhiil214@gmail.com

Asia is the largest and the most populous of earths continent and its
located in both the northern and eastern hemisphere. Asia comprises a full 30%
of the worlds land area with 60% of the worlds current population. For a
number of social-economic reasons, Asian countries have a higher number of
population growth than any other continents in this world. The data shows that
Asias population growth number has already reached 2% in 2014 compared to
Europe (1,2%) and USA (0,7%). This population growth percentage number
might be small but if we take a look at the number of the Asias population this
number of population growth would be enormous. This will cause Asias
population has almost reached quadrupled during the 20th century. As a country
that is located in Asia, Indonesia is one of country that contributes a lot of
population growth percentage. Indonesias population growth in 2014 has
reached 2.3%. This means that Indonesia is one the fastest populations growing
country compared to any other country in this world. Coupled with the rapid
economic development and urbanization in the past two decades, population
problem arise as the impact of the population growth. Land sanitary, shortest of
water and the lack of land are some problems that arise and have to be resolved
immediately. As those problems are coming, high-rise residential buildings
appear over the horizon so rapidly as the solution. High-rise building come to
finished the problem about the lack of the land. High-rise building is expected to
be the land saver for the community in the country. Besides, some people say
that high-rise building will save more land for plants so that it would make our
society more eco-friendly. But the truth behind those statements says the
otherwise. The research shows that high-rise building brings some bad impacts
to the environment around us. The research says that high-rise building is a good
space saving in the country but on the other side it also brings some bad impacts
such as not effective and efficient, has the higher unit utility cost, and blocking
the ambience around its building.
Before the 19th century, tall buildings were as temples, mosques, and
church that are designed mainly to their political or religious. The ancient
Egyptians probably were the first to apply scientific knowledge to the
construction of buildings. Late 19th century and early 20th century tall building
in the West was a relatively new phenomenon of the architecture and urbanism
as a solution to create more space in the centers of cities with high demand for
offices. High-rise buildings, according to Christopher Alexander (1977), are
exceeding the level of a tree in its natural surrounding, i.e., higher than 12 15
meters. Nowadays, the definition of a high-rise building has already changed due
to its importance. A high-rise building (Tower) nowadays is defined to be a
building which total height exceeds 36m or more than 12 floors and its use
varies between residential, administrative or as a hotel. People are building a
high-rise building as the result of there is no longer much land left for the
housing. The population growth in urban communities is growing rapidly, and
therefore the constant pressure of the limited land area affected the evolution of
building. This condition resulted the rise of the high-rise building around the
city. Moreover, the more limited land left in the city, the more expansive the land
prices would be. This also force people to use the smaller land to accommodate
more people. On the other side, by expanding the land for housing, it would
reduce the amount of the land that is used for agricultural. If we do not stop
expanding the land for housing, the agricultural land would be rapidly reduced
and it will make our country deficit. Furthermore, expanding the land for
housing would also force the government to build new infrastructures for those
areas. Building the new infrastructure for the new areas will cost the
government a lot of money. It would be more prosperous if the government
chooses to build the high-rise building. So, building the high-rise building is the
best solution for the city that has not much land left for the housing. Constructing
the high-rise building is the best space saving for the city. Besides, constructing
the high-rise building is also cost less than opening the new land for the housing.
 Beside of the benefit that can be gained by using the high-rise building,
constructing the high-rise building has also some weaknesses. The first and
biggest concern about using the high-rise building is that the high-rise building is
less effective and efficient than low-rise building. Tall buildings are colder in
winter and hotter in summer than regular buildings and so require more heating
and more cooling. The higher level that the building is constructed; the higher
level of air conditioning is required for the building. It means that the higher
building is constructed, the more electricity needs to feed up the building. The
same condition happens on the winter. When the winter came, the high-rise
building needs more electricity to heating up the temperature inside it rather
than a home needs. This is particularly true of modern glass towers. This
phenomenon shows that the high-rise building is not efficient in energy
consuming. The other reason why high-rise building is not efficient in energy
consuming is that because a high-rise building requires more electricity to
supply the needs for the people that are living on the higher level from the
ground.
Another weakness of using a high-rise building is that the higher unit
utility cost has to spend. Higher buildings are proportionately more expensive to
build and operate: building costs increase per square meter because of increased
structure and construction required to make them earthquake, fire- and
weatherproof, in addition to more elaborate systems needed to operate the
building lifts, escalators, water pumping, heating systems. Lifts alone can
account for between 5% and 15% of the running costs of a high building. The
cost that has to spent for constructing the high-rise building is more expensive
than constructing the low rise building because in the process of constructing the
high-rise building, the constructor need to lift up the materials in to the level that
requires it and this is exactly cost more money. Moreover, high-rise buildings
have the higher unit utility cost due to the need to pump water up multiple
stories. For example, the energy to pump water up 60 stories for someone to
take a simply take shower is enormous. Another example is exterior cleaning and
maintenance of a high-rise building can be very costly and dangerous. With
global warming causing higher wind speeds, insurance companies may refuse
coverage to maintenance companies at certain high-risk times of the year.
Constructing a high-rise building is also more risky than constructing the low-
rise building. The wind speed is increasing above the ground level. The higher
the building is being constructed, the more safer construction is needed, and the
more money that the constructor will have to spent for the construction process.
That condition resulted to the higher unit utility cost that the buyers have to
spend. Moreover, the higher the building it is, the more money has to be spent
for the safety protection for the building from some the natural disaster such as
windstorm and earthquake. For example, in Taipei 101, one of the highest
building in this world, the building has a huge pendulum hanging on the top floor
of the building. The pendulum functioned to balance the building when there is
an earthquake or a windstorm coming. This pendulum is exactly cost much more
money. Those are the reasons why a high-rise building cost much more than a
low-rise building. Because of all those reasons, someone who pays the same
amount of money to rent a high-rise building will get smaller room than renting
from a low-rise building. Tall buildings by their very nature can use twice as
much energy as equivalent low buildings to raise people, goods, water etc.
The high-rise building could also blocking the ambience around its
building. It happens because the high-rise building, by its height, blocking the
ambience around it such as the wind and the sun. Once the width of a building
increases beyond about 12m it is difficult to get the daylight in the low-rise
building around it. This phenomenon is just so bad because not having the
daylight for some particular time will get the people around those places lack of
vitamin d. Moreover, for some area that is lack of the daylight, it will get the plant
harder to grow. This phenomenon will get those areas lack of plants and it will
make the environment unstable. High-rise buildings also create higher wind
speeds at street level. Studies by the building research establishment found that
wind speeds of 5 m/s were exceeded less than 5% of the time in areas of low
rise, but were exceeded 20% of the time in areas with high rise buildings. The
problem of wind speeds will only increase with global warming. This means that
the high rise building will disturb not only the sun but also the wind that is
affecting the people around its building. The other aspect is the high-rise
building will make the areas around it more dangerous. The high-rise building
will make the condition around it more dangerous because of its height. For
example is on the 9/11 tragedies. The high-rise building (World Trade Centre) is
collapse and it broke everything around it in the radius of 1 km. On the other
side the dust release from its collapse make the environment not healthy at all
and have made people getting some respiratory diseases. The collapse of the
building also broke the environment around it. So that without careful
consideration of block and street profiles in relation to the location of towers,
over shadowing and down drafts can create adverse climate effects both locally
and in a wider context. Making a high-rise building needs more research than a
low-rise building because without a good research, constructing a high rise
building will disturb the ambience around its building and will also make the
environment around its building unhealthier.
Indonesia is one of the most populous countries in the world and it
has one of higher number of population growth. This means that Indonesias
population is getting enormously high every year. As the population growth,
some problems are coming as the impact. One of the most important problem
that has not been resolved yet is the lack of the land problems. The population of
Indonesian is growing rapidly but therefore the area that is available for the
housing is limited. This condition brings out the evolution of the building as the
solution for that problem. The evolution of the building that is invented is the
high-rise building. The high-rise building comes as the solution because it
requires less land to accommodate more people. There are some controversial
about using the high-rise building whether it is beneficial or not. The worlds
first iron framed building was the Oriel Chambers in Liverpool built in 1864; it
was only five stories high as elevators had not yet been invented yet This was a
reason why construction was so limited before the mid 1800's. It seemed that
the higher the office building the cheaper it was to rent because it was
impractical for inhabitants to walk a great number of stairs. That is the first
reason why people thought that the high-rise building is not beneficial for people
to live. Nowadays the invention of the lift made people think that high-rise
building is more beneficial and practical, because it also requires less land that is
so expansive nowadays. But the truth behind is beside of its opportunities, the
high-rise building also bring some negative impacts that is bad for the
environment. The research says that high-rise building is a good space saving in
the country but on the other side it also brings some bad impacts such as not
effective and efficient, has the higher unit utility cost, and blocking the ambience
around its building. Because of those weaknesses, a high-rise building consume
more energy and electricity to overcome those problems and it makes a high-rise
building poor energy efficiency and not eco-friendly.