I’m surprised that there are not many tall buildings in Taipei. Except fort Taipei 101, there are really no skyscrapers in Taipei. I just realized that Taipei is not built like tokyo or NYC. I would think a city with a high population density would be building higher buildings. Any ideas why? I’ve asked my co-workers and they don’t think it’ s illegal. So I’m puzzled.
Before it became home to a metropolis, the basin in which Taipei now sits was muddy farmland, and before that it was a swampy floodplain. To build foundations, engineers have to dig down about half as deep as the planned building is tall in order to remain stable. Considering the costs and technologies involved, most companies weren’t able to accomplish this until the time of the Economic Miracle.
Most of the newer apartment buildings seem to be around 20 floors or so. Maybe not impressive skyscrapers, but tall enough wouldn’t you say? A lot of the older buildings are 4 or 5 floors. Did you get lost in the middle of Luzhou and trying to find your way out or what?
In addition to what Chris said, there is apparently also a regulation that the footprint of a tall building must be larger to prevent excessive shadowing, although if true, this law is almost completely ignored.
I guess there were regulations against it due to earthquake risks and poor construction techniques. Most of Taipei was built in a hurry in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Later construction techniques improved and there is now more confidence in the ability of tall buildings to withstand typhoons and earthquakes.
There is one more reason, the area around Songshan is height limited due to the airport, and the area around the Presidential house aswell due to security concerns. There may have been military concerns in the martial law era.
Taipei’s lacks skyscrapers compared to other Asian capitals, that’s probably the most obvious difference. But the apartment buildings are also not high compared to HK or Shenzhen, for example. They are higher and more densely situated than many Japanese cities though. Until recently many Taiwanese were wary of living in very tall buildings. I feel the 921 earthquake helped to disprove the myth that taller buildings are more dangerous.
I read that Hong Kong has the most 30±story buildings in the world. I think it’s got about 2,400.
Remember before they built Shin Kong Tower?
At least we had the tallest building for a while. Yay. :neutral:
In Taiwan the taller buildings are safer, and for a reason. Several years back it was widely reported that there was a problem with contractors paying off building inspectors to overlook shoddy work on apartment buildings. They use a different class of inspectors for buildings 12 floors or higher using more stringent requirements, and for whatever reason harder to pay off it seems 
So buildings 12 floors or higher are actually the safest ones to be in in the event of a major earthquake.
Have you ever been to Berlin? Almost no traditional buildings higher than 4 stories, in fact that seems rather pervasive in Germany. The tallest structure in Berlin is the TV tower and that isn’t really that high. They don’t use a lot of reinforced concretes except for those slab concrete buildings built by East Germany that are around 10 floors high.
Floor naming is really confusing in German… 1st floor is actually second floor there.
Somewhat off topic, but since you mentioned it… For most of the world, the american first floor is called the ground floor. In Hong-Kong they don’t bother with explanations and say “Press 3” in the Lift/Elevator.
Well, there are these 40 something floor monstrosities in Yonghe/Zhonghe area, which used to be the most densely populated area in the world after Bangladesh… 20 floor is tall enough for me, especially downtown.
Downtown the land price is obscenely high, so no newer, taller buildings are being/have been done recently. The “center”, like around Main Station, is restricted because of the nearby Presidential Building -up to Wanhua-, then you get Zhongxiao Fuxing which is too expensive, and you hit Songshan with airport restrictions. On the North side, you get an area that is not yet overly developed, until you hit Danshui, and there you will see lots of 20 to 30 floor termite mounds. How safe they will be in that soil, beats me. South you will see the same high building clusters in Xindian, Taoyuan, Sanxia, Linkou. Heard the fever is trickling down to Yingge.
Downtown is way too expensive and limited, but I’d like to see the new buildings for the airport line they are working on.
I think the xinguan building was the tallest building in Taiepi (30 or 40 stories?) until the Taipei 101 got built… It really feels like only American downtowns are characterized by a skyline of tall skyscrapers. Most European cities I’ve seen are centered around a main train station (like Taiwan) without any tall buildings at all.
They’ve erected a pretty tall building (twin towers with domes on top) in Dazhi. It looks taller than the Miramar Ferris Wheel.