Summaery 2014

iAAD 2014 - European Skyscraper III

Fakultät: Architektur und Urbanistik, Studiengang: Architektur (M.Sc.)

„The use of the word „skyscraper“ is first recorded roughly 120 years ago in reference to certain newly
erected buildings in Chicago. The motivation for them was an urge for innovation (which would have been inconceivable without technological invention), and the desire of commercial companies for self-portrayal in an urban context. It is no coincidence, therefore, that the high-rise building had its origins in Chicago and New York at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries with the rise of American‚cathedrals of commerce’.“

“At all events, the architecture of skyscrapers is regarded as a development that took place on the other side of the ocean. While most US churches, museums and banks were uninspired reproductions of European ideals, the skyscraper was a native product and a symbol of the American spirit, according to the US architectural critic Claude Bragdon. The direct relationship between this type of building and the American ideology of progress and success is probably an important reason why it is still regarded with such suspicion in Europe.”

Robert Kaltenbrunner
Icons of Progress – High Rise Buildings, Their Motivation, Aesthetics and Effects
DETAIL No. 9 2007