在一个被麻烦困扰的世界中，从984英尺到1,968英尺的尺寸衡量的Supertall建筑物似乎在优先问题列表中的评分不高。173个完成的超级座位（是的，有很多）在狭窄的城市环境中解决了空间短缺，并以很少的项目的方式使设计师和承包商的才华与众不同。18luck官网

Most are technologically magnificent. But these buildings also smack of elitism, excess, architectural hubris and environmental carelessness.

Architect Stefan Al’s new book, “Supertall: How the World’s Tallest Buildings Are Reshaping Our Cities and Our Lives” (Norton, $30), is a welcome and balanced—but still unapologetic—blast of tall building optimism. It offers a lively history and assessment of these structures and all the complex issues
they create.

艾尔（Al）拥有城市规划博士学位，他是一位才华横溢的讲故事的人，具有生动的风格，通过建设建筑历史和有关著名超级套件的故事，可以作为友善的伴侣。

He’s really good at integrating little-known factoids—who knew that at age 25 in 1902, engineer Willis Carrier advanced air-conditioning in helping a Brooklyn printer deal with summer humidity fluctuations that expanded and shrunk paper, causing printing errors?—with discussion of subjects such as the need to cool sun-warmed glass-clad skyscrapers.

Since ever taller curtain wall buildings will only increase the reliance on air-conditioning, the demand for energy and global warming, “it’s time we cut the cord, and rethink our glass towers,” writes Al.

As such observations demonstrate, Al’s commentary sometimes gets stuck on the obvious. This small shortcoming could be said also about one of his previous books, “The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream” (MIT Press, 2017), a coffee-table-like volume full of photos of the city’s quirkiest structures. That book has pretensions to be a work of cultural interpretation, as does “Supertall.” Unsurprisingly, Al found in Las Vegas easy examples for the phases of American social trends.

在“ Supertall”中，Al类似地倾向于相当明显的解释，最糟糕的例子是“大多数文明都有天生的渴望朝着天空，”埃及的金字塔。他还冒险讨论超大建筑物（包括超过500万平方英尺）的超大建筑，作为建筑物中的多用途城市。

While “Supertall” is not brimming on each page with fresh critical insight, its discussion of evolving construction materials and system technology in tandem with the growth of cities is well worth the time to read—and also plenty of fun.

我们了解到我们的旧石器时代的祖先发现，将石灰石加热到炉子状的温度会产生一种粉末，当添加水时，它将“嘶嘶作响，产生热量并像岩石一样努力。”我们发现了古罗马建筑师工程师Vitruvius及其关于罗马论坛及其在沿海或内陆城市的位置的思想。我们还发现了大约20世纪的设计师Le Corbusier在钢柱上的思想，以取代负载墙壁和玻璃中的护套，以及此类方案的美感。

Al is especially good discussing the reigning world’s tallest, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, where the Putzmeister concrete pump exerted “more pressure than a high-power bullet striking a bulletproof object” to reach a height of 1,972 ft. To his credit, Al mentions exploited migrant workers who labored on this megatall building and its environmental problems, including possible corrosive groundwater eating away at the rebar. Although a sign of progress, the Burj Khalifa may also be “a concrete monolith contributing to environmental decay,” he writes.

Such nuance helps Al serve as the built world’s somewhat less anodyne version of travel guru Rick Steves. The architect’s book inspires wonder on what will succeed supertalls—and whether buildings will ever reach a limit or just keep climbing higher.