"Why Europe Doesn't Build Skyscrapers?" They don't feel like it | Thoughts & Commentary

Watching/considering why Europe doesn't build skyscrapers. Drop a building you think is worth seeing down below! No literary recommendation, but there is music..
Original Video: • Why Europe Doesn't Bui...
B1M channel: / @theb1m
Music Recommendation(s):
Once I Had a Love (aka the Disco remix) by Blondie: • Once I Had A Love (AKA...
Green Onions by Booker T and the MG's: • Booker T. & The MG's -...
La Leyenda del Tiempo by Camarón de la Isla: • LA LEYENDA DEL TIEMPO ...

[@Cobbido]

Whenever an old building is demolished a horrendously ugly concrete monstrosity takes it place

[@user-st8rg1fy9x]

You're 100% correct. Europe cities have beautiful old 500+ year old buildings n they want to preserve them. In Lisbon only high-rise buildings allowed are in the city borders.

[@OriginalPuro]

On my family property in Gjøvik, Norway, we have an outhouse which is older than America. America does not have history, they're an infant country so they make dumb mistakes, like a child not understanding that the square peg goes into the square peg.

[@ortros1]

@@OriginalPuro they will learn eventually.

[@cosmincasuta486]

@@ortros1 Or not!

[@CarlosGarcia-ze1mk]

​@@cosmincasuta486 Well, considering that their oldest buildings date back to the 16th century (not counting pre-Columbian structures, of course), built by the Spaniards in Puerto Rico, they don't have their own architectural cultural legacy until the 19th/20th century. That is precisely the skyscrapers, which could be considered their architectural legacy, so no, they won't change

[@sipkestorm4050]

If you want to look into more urban planning, I would suggest the channel 'Not Just Bikes'. It's a channel by Canadian who now lives in Amsterdam, he makes some great comparisons between North American and European city planning, and explains why prefers the latter.

[@NoProtocol]

Thank you for the suggestion!

[@ProfTydrim]

@@NoProtocol As a Geodata-Analyst working in urban mobility, I strongly support this suggestion

[@nedludd7622]

You took the words right out of my out of my mouth.

[@alcor4670]

@@NoProtocol On the Asian side, I'd also like to suggest a vid from the "Life Where I'm From" channel regarding Japanese zoning practices. It highlights how and why most of Japan's urban centers are pedestrian and bike friendly.

[@llothar68]

A very hated channel by all car lovers 🤣

[@halwakka504]

7:42 It's the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) in Milan! :)

[@NoProtocol]

Thank you!

[@scb2scb2]

I live in Utrecht Netherlands in a area that they planned a 262 meter high building (860ft) and would be the biggest building in the country at that time. The plan failed but i do remember the architect interview that told me everything i needed to know 'It would be seen by 5M people (about 30% of the country) on a daily basis'. He seemed very pleased and mostly motivated by forcing a large part of the country to look at his giant ..... all day ...

[@thevoid5503]

I remember that as well (Amersfoort here). It's just as well that the plan fell through.

[@scb2scb2]

@@thevoid5503 i am not against higher buildings myself but his 'logic' seemed a little off. What is amazing is how these plans are born and how first drawings look when they are discussed. The last plan in that area called for a 140meter building and both that 262meter and 140meter building they show surrounding areas that simply don't exists unless they take down a large part of the city.. these images are all made up to look good with buildings around it that don't exists, parks that somehow pop up to create the 'view' they want to sell...

[@thevoid5503]

They could just build a much smaller version in Rotterdam. It's not like anythjng over there can still be messed up any further.@@scb2scb2

[@LudoTechWorld]

"Does cities require cohesion?" It's a really American thing to ask ^^ As a European, it does, it can't even be a question, it's a fact!

[@TheGabrielPT]

I visited Sagrada Família and went inside, in my trip to Barcelona and its awesome, really detailed. Also if you go look the first picture of S.F. that they took in 1800s when it was being built, its crazy how they built Barcelona almost from scratch, it was deserted, and now look at the city.

[@MellonVegan]

Wasn't the city built over 2k years ago? Crazy that it stayed small-ish for that long, then. Then again, so did Berlin iirc and Rome was a village again until recently, so maybe not that crazy

[@Blues666]

07:38 Its the "Bosco Verticale" in Milano, Italy.

[@Jonny-sv9ni]

Congrats on 100k subs. Well deserved. Easily one of the better channels on the platform. Love the way you handle the topics of the vids, very refreshing. 🙏🧡

[@martinsbrugis7687]

Love that old modem sound you put in. 😂 I was sitting ther like : "Am I hearing that or.. I am, that's so funny!" you're so cool! ❤

[@solokom]

haha, same. :D

[@NoahFroio]

Green Onions, for the Win!! I have listened to this, really, just about all of my life, I am 6 years younger than the song, thanks for putting it back on my radar... Peace!

[@mattpotter8725]

Not a huge fan of skyscrapers but some in London are quite cool, the Gherkin, the Walkie Talkie, the Shard, and some of the ones in the Canary Wharf/ Docklands area are quite cool as well. They should be kept well away from historic buildings though. In the 60s some concrete monstrosities were put up next the St Paul's Cathedral which was not great. As long as they are in areas of the city where redevelopment is needed it can work.

[@EdMac40]

While not about skyscrapers, I would highly recommend "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett. It's set in the Middle Ages, and is about a man whose dream is to build a cathedral. A number of years ago, I visited Edinburgh castle, and my appreciation of it was greatly enhanced because of what I had read in that fascinating book. BTW, if you look at the New York City skyline from either the Hudson River or East River side, you'll notice that the southern end of Manhattan features many skyscrapers, and then, as you look north, the buildings are quite small, and then the skyscrapers reappear as you approach midtown (Empire State Building). The reason is a feature of where the bedrock is located. The area immediately north of lower Manhattan does not contain the bedrock necessary to support tall buildings, but as you move further north, it is present again. Interesting video. As always, love ya.

[@Perktube1]

True, the geologic situation is important.

[@voodooacidman]

you are an enigma! hehe, architecture, with a hint of musicality at the end! keep up the great work please! big love to all people :)

[@madoxxxx06]

Smart, great comments, reacting on my favorite channel B1m, plus really cute, subscribed!

[@dquanissavage6287]

No Protocol Awesome Video Today!!🔥🐐🐐💎

[@robertvirnig638]

I am with you about not being emotionally connected to any skyscrapers. There is a part of me who is fascinated by science and technology and thinks it is cool that they exist, but it is more of an intellectual appeal. I certainly wouldn't want to live in one, especially after 911.

[@eckligt]

When admiring skyscrapers from a distance, we should also be mindful of what's on the inside. There are exceptions, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Space Needle in Seattle, and residential skyscrapers do exist, but mostly skyscrapers are office blocks, with bland open-plan or cubicle-filled spaces, repeating uniformly through most of the floors. So when you see skyscraper office blocks, their presense is also an imprint of a certain type of corporate culture, and a certain organisation of cities, where workers are supposed to live in one zone, commute to a different zone where they're supposed to do menial work, before commuting back home to repeat the cycle. To be sure, there are lots of bland offices in low- and mid-rise development as well, but skyscraper offices are a tell-tale sign that the culture surrounding work and city planning is stuck in the past.

[@threestumps7560]

Hi NP, a great video from the B1M. I love tall buildings but I admire European cities that have chosen to take the opposite path and preserve their historic centres and mix it with low rise modern architecture. Very interesting! This past week B1M published a video on Christchurch's long road back to rebuilding their city after the 2011 earthquake; focusing on their cathedral. Well worth a watch or a reaction video. While Australian cities have taken the American road with tall buildings in the centre of town and sprawling suburbs; my city of Melbourne also produces some pretty slick buildings, tall and small. If not familiar, def worth a gander in your spare time. 🌁🌁🌆🌆

[@not_glad]

In London specifically, the bed rock is clay. Skyscrapers are being built now but it's much harder to do on soft rock. I used to have a view of the Gherkin from my flat until a skyscanner was built next door, after that it was more like 50 windows with a view into my bedroom.

[@kasperkjrsgaard1447]

At least it have left you with a possibility view into 50 bedrooms too

[@not_glad]

@@kasperkjrsgaard1447 lol. They were all above my bedrooms height, I could only really see the ceilings. I was on the 4th floor but because the new building was so massive the flats didn't really start until a 6th floor kinda height.

[@threestumps7560]

Megatall - 600 metres or higher Supertall - 300 to 599 metres Skyscraper - 150 to 299 metres High Rise - 50 to 149 metres Medium Rise - 20 to 49 metres (or 5-10 stories)

[@xFurashux]

Warsaw even thought it's way older than the US itself was destroyed in over 80% during WW2 so it was possible to kinda build it from the ground with it's modern purpose so the city feels more open, wider etc. so more space for skyscrapers. A lot of old buildings were also rebuilt though.

[@bob_._.]

Stewart Hicks has a good channel on architecture/city planning. He's based in Chicago so uses it for a lot of examples. His video on the design of the city's skyline is excellent.

[@Piquet2]

I live in Denmark and we have very few buildings that could be considered skyscrapers. The tallest building in Denmark is called “Lighthouse” and is 142 meters tall. Western Europe’s second tallest building was supposed to be built in Denmark. It was called “Bestseller Tower” and was planned to be 317 meters tall (only the Eiffel Tower in Paris would be taller). It was supposed to house a large hotel, conference rooms, offices, cafés, restaurants and around 60 shops. It got cancelled in 2020 for various reasons, less than a year after the project was approved. Tall buildings in Denmark are usually met with opposition in the local population because they don’t “fit in” with the surrounding landscape. This also applies to things like very tall wind mills which we have a lot of (they are very unpopular locally).

[@owenchang2290]

Just listened to "La Leyenda del Tiempo" by Camarón de la Isla. The vocals remind me of Gypsy Kings. Of course, "Green Onions" is an American classic. Thanks for the video and recommendations! 👊😎

[@Benito-lr8mz]

Camarón es un genio absoluto en su arte muy posiblemente el mejor que ha habido según todos los expertos; Gipsy Kings es un grupo pop- flamenco de mucha menor calidad y con mucho sonido enlatado si fuera por ellos el flamenco seguramente no sería patrimonio UNESCO saludos

[@user-ky6vw5up9m]

Booker T and MGs were the legendary house band of the Stax Studios in Memphis. Green Onions was made-up by the band jamming with no initial intention of making it into a record.

[@ruk2023--]

The big problem with skyscapers in Europe is that the infrastructure can't support the additional population density. They might mention that in the video but I haven't watched it all yet and I'm too impatient to wait until the end. Example. I live in Manchester UK and out of my apartment window I can count 11 cranes building buildings 20+ stories. The roads here can't cope with the thousands of additional people. I love the progress and seeing the city grow but really they should limit the high rises to places where the supporting infrastructure can be built around them instead of making it take me 30 minutes to get out of town in the car now when it used to take 5 minutes a few years ago.

[@astrecks]

I'm a 68-year-old Mancunian. When I was small, my older brother used to take me to 'town', 'to watch the skyscrapers being built'! Those being the Piccadilly Plaza and the CIS building (which had the accolade of being the tallest building in the UK until the Post Office tower in London was built. The towers built around Deansgate are impressive in their height but hardly inspiring in their design. An interesting fact; The Artdeco Sunlight House, on Quay Street, would have been the UK's first 'skyscraper' had the council not rejected the original plan of 40 storeys in 1932. It has an impressive swimming pool in the basement lit by an atrium; I went swimming there many years ago.

[@ruk2023--]

@@astrecks I believe they have to look like that for planning reasons but that’s just something I heard. I’m in a conservation area on deansgate so hopefully we won’t get a tower block next door for a while yet

[@astrecks]

@@ruk2023-- I've read that The Deansgate (pub) is going to be surrounded by really tall buildings. From the artist's impression, it will look like the building from the film 'Batteries Not Included'!

[@ruk2023--]

@@astrecks good film but better pub. Shame that’s happening. With todays drone and robot technology maybe they will make a real version of the film

[@hw5614]

One of the other reasons that other options are used instead of skyscrapers is one of efficiency. Building a single skyscraper requires more utilities, money, time and preparations. Also there are a lot more permits that are required as higher buildings can interfere with radar etc. Another point is that unlike in the US, in Europe zoning is less black and white. In the US there seem to only be two types of zoning, freestanding detached housing and non-zoned areas. Where the non-zoned areas are often limited in size meaning that any density of housing/offices needs to be done in a much smaller area, making skyscrapers the ideal solution. In European cities there is a large area zoned for multiple types, meaning the density of housing/offices can be spread over a much larger area. This means there is much less need to optimize the density of housing/offices on a very small footprint area. As noted in the video, as populations of cities in Europe increase more high rises are needed to facilitate the increased demand potentially also making sky scrapers more attractive.

[@nukiesduke6868]

For those interested in buildings and architecture in general DamiLee goes into details on how/why this stuff is made.

[@Outland9000]

yay! ArchiBeans!

[@Genesizs]

7:15 🤣🤣 nice little sound edit lol i laughed 🤣 Greetings from the Netherlands

[@Outland9000]

That's a sound I hadn't heard in a while!

[@Genesizs]

@@Outland9000 AHAHA Yes :3

[@sailiealquadacil1284]

An interesting thing happened in Vienna - we have a few areas in the city, especially on the eastern bank of the Danube, where they built several tall buildings - dunno if they qualify as skyscrapers. This has caused that area to become extremely windy. On the other hand, Vienna is one of the few cities in the world where you can shoot a helicopter chase between skyscrapers. I think they shot the last Tom Cruise film here.

[@christianstaub9808]

A "highrise" has a practical definition that can change based on geography. A high rise from a emergency services standpoint is described as any building taller than the responding fire department's tallest ladder's capabilities. So a building taller than the tallest ladder is a high-rise

[@colin-op2ty]

Great music selection, loved them all Thanks 😁

[@NoProtocol]

Thanks for checking them out!

[@colin-op2ty]

Once i had a love , original Heart of glass ,also by Blondie ?

[@NoProtocol]

Yes, they’re both by Blondie! Just different versions

[@troyshilanski380]

I think you would find Kowloon interesting. Its pretty amazing the place didnt fall over like a card house.

[@jimclark1374]

A book I would recommend is Tom Wolfe's "From Bauhaus to Our House"

[@kreftan]

I think we're gonna see some, but not the extremely big and tall ones. In my home country of Sweden you can see some "almost skyscrapers" in some cities having been build. For example Gothia Towers in Gothenburg and Turning Torso in Malmö, they are tall compared to rest of the structures but dwarfed next to a "real" skyscraper. It's definitely a preference thing and very much a try to preserve our skylines with church towers and other old buildings still taking front seat over more brutalist modern buildings. There is a movement among architects in sweden and I think it has spread pretty much world wide called "design upproret/arkitekt upproret" (design/architect rebellion) trying to work against the modern style buildings and urging architects to design classically once more. Great video and thoughts on a fascinating subject, thank you.

[@aleksandarrac7106]

Sve što vidiš, to je istorija. Teško je to shvatiti, za nekoga ko živi u državi koja istoriju nema. Ja sam iz Srbije i svaka daska u ogradama u mom selu je starija od države u kojoj živiš.

[@EdwardVonKhil]

I would like to recommend 2 "Isaac Arthur" videos on the subject. "Arcologies" and "Ecumenopolises".

[@streaky81]

There's definitely a balance - London manages this quite well, but London is geologically constrained in where skyscrapers can be built anyway - if there's enough cash on the table you can deal with almost any geological constraint, but there's almost never infinite money available. The deep clay in London means you need a lot of very very deep piles so outside 3-4 areas they're pretty impractical. The constraints on London geologically has let to quite a lot of innovative buildings - the new Google HQ for example at Kings Cross is a massive skyscraper: but on its side - and as a result is really interesting.

[@tobiasmuth2372]

In Germany, Frankfurt has high-rise buildings and skyscrapers that create a "real" skyline. 18 real skyscrapers, by definition over 100m and around 100 high office buildings. There are 10 more skyscrapers in the pipeline. Frankfurt's nickname is "Mainhattan". Main is the river that flows through Frankfurt and "hattan" is a reference to Manhattan. It is a trademark of the city and it is desirable that more high-rise buildings be allowed to be built there. Of the approximately 200 high-rise buildings throughout Europe, 66 percent are in these six cities - London, Paris, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Moscow and Istanbul.

[@icantthinkausername1136]

In Athens there aren't any skyscrapers because they will block the view of the acropolis. Recently tho they began constructing 7 of them down to the coast

[@Benito-lr8mz]

Soy Español y no cambio ningun rascacielos por la belleza de los campanarios centenarios en el horizonte de mi ciudad.

[@thomasthetankengine8418]

Ray lamontagne, you can bring me flowers. Sharon Jones and the dap kings, window shopping. Celeste, love is back. Music recommendations 😉

[@1dkappe]

I had my office in one of those Chicago skyscrapers (the previous tenant was the Daily Racing Form).

[@stuartcook8823]

Love the sweater 👌

[@NoProtocol]

Thank you (:

[@carcarjinks1430]

as a child, my dad warned me to never live or work in a building that is higher than the local FD's ladders. anywhere above that, and you're on your own in an emergency.

[@fredrikekstedt3033]

Not a Brusseler, but I have been there several times and I kind of like mix of new and old in general. Generally the high-rises are built around train stations which make sense. A few ones are really ugly but in general they look okay. Being from Gothenburg, Sweden I have to mention the newly erected Karlatornet at 245 meters.

[@th.a]

In Munich for example there are restrictions on builing high rises inside the middle ring (city highway), that is surrounding the city center, that are taller than the 99 m high towers of the Cathedral. Outside the roughly 5 km in diameter rings higher buildings are allowed. The only amerinanized city in Germany is Frankfurt with it's financial district and it's band towers.

[@jonasfermefors]

One building that I find intriguing is The Interlace in Singapore. It's not quite a skyscraper at 88.7 m but the 6 levels of staggered blocks is oddly appealing to me. Here is a musical suggestion to go with futuristic architecture: Essenger - "Empire Of Steel" kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4mbh2drl9aahbcsi=ASb9MmyYFAdIwNKl

[@troyshilanski380]

Why you got the old handshake modem sound? Brings back memories and not from when i was a kid. I spent 3500 bucks on a pentium 66. Then 1 month later it was old. Like me now lol

[@jimgore1278]

Should have seen the price of RAM when the only factory - in South Korea - that produced one of the main components burned down in the '80s. I had just bought a 286 laptop and wanted to upgrade the ram. It was $900 CAD for something like 250 Mb.

[@troyshilanski380]

@@jimgore1278 it had to be more. I bought 4 megabytes for 400 dollars. Not giga, mega lol. 1990s that was the norm 100 bucks per megabyte. Down from 200 dollars.

[@jon5155]

So beautiful

[@SimonJM]

My first thought, pretty much, was a quote from a Rowan Atkinson sketch, "Modern architects? Scum of the earth. Eveything they design looks like a dustbin with a bicycle on top" Books: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet (a series, can't recall the other titles off the top of my head), about the building of a cathedral back in he 1100s I think

[@poxie2637]

there are skyscraper looking buildings in riga too, but sparse and relatively not too tall.

[@Ned-Ryerson]

It is not just about not liking something: You must consider that you were coming from an era where many European cities had grown more or less organically into something very historical, and the people living there still remembered those cities from before the wars. The new stuff was just a jumble without charm where before, it may have been a jumble, but WITH charm.

[@bakersmileyface]

I live in rural England. A village with a population of 5300 It takes me a 5 minute walk to get to a grocery shop with everything I want. A 10 minute drive to a superstore with everything I need and when I was a kid every school, every shop, cinemas, bowling and every other form of entertainment was within a 50 minute bus ride or a 30 minute drive. My mum lives in the outskirts of Newcastle. She has pretty much the same experience except shorter bus rides. Yes, we don't want Skyscrapers because they're ugly and destroy the scenery. But also we don't need skyscrapers. There's no central hub we need to be close to. And if something is far away, we have plenty of public transport to be able to access it easily. Even kids can freely travel without the assistance of their parents to drive them. I think that skyscrapers are just unnecessary for us at the moment. But we are slowly gaining the need for more housing space and I imagine we'll see more skyscrapers like this dude said.

[@martinsbrugis7687]

@noprotocol maybe you would want to react to geography now Latvia? That be nice😅

[@PinnacleNL]

5:28 To clarify this is not a diss. He is not referring to something against the influence of citizens local to Brussels and the region. European Union parliament sits in Brussels so EU legislation on the matters are often described as "coming from Brussels". That's what this man is getting at.

[@barrystrachan6340]

I think you would enjoy “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. A fictional story about the building of a cathedral in 12th century England.

[@carlgrove8793]

Sadly, although London is technically in Europe, it has been destroying many of its lovely old buildings and replacing them with huge and often ugly skyscrapers. This is especially the case in East London.

[@bucklberryreturns]

Stewart Hicks and City Beautiful both do excellent videos on architecture and planning. In any European wealthy city there is call for skyscrapers, but within architecturally rich areas it's fair to have restrictions. Old industrial land, such as disused docklands, are often great options to allow compromise, as they tend to have been built away from historic city centres.

[@BR618]

... take a look at "Hamburg Speicherstadt" or "Leipzig Baumwollspinnerei" for an argument against that assumption that "old useless industrial lands" are/could be used for high-rise ^^

[@pistonburner6448]

Every corrupt place with weak, incompetent and/or corrupt governance has a demand for skyscrapers.

[@ravenward626]

"Why We Can’t Build Better Cities (ft.Not Just Bikes)" - Philosophy Tube It even comes with its own book recommendation.

[@kyutarohenon1265]

One funny example is the Montparnasse tower in Paris which is the most hated building in the city since its the only highrise, with a common joke being that the best view of the city is from the top of the tower

[@user-ky6vw5up9m]

Tour Montparnasse, Eiffel Tower and Grande Arche lie on an Axis.

[@matshjalmarsson3008]

I think it's also because of the public transportation, if you can travel by subway, bus, tram, for far less time than using a car, it doesn't matter that much to live a bit outside of the city

[@rafalkaminski6389]

5:27 Architects do look often and they always have a wider plan.

[@goassnmane]

When i was in St. Petersburg for work, they told me that skyscrapers are forbidden to build in the city. After a few days near the coast i saw one. They told me that it was the headquater of Gazprom, so obviously this was allowed by the government.

[@emanuele616]

Naples (Italy) has a district of skyscrapers: Centro Direzionale.

[@johnburns4017]

Liverpool has a policy *not* building high buildings. They have a small part of the fringes of the city centre where _in theory_ they are allowed. Even then they clip the heights on planning application.

[@jfrancobelge]

In order to preserve historical city centers, the construction of skyscrapers in many European cities is only allwed in the outskirts, off the limits center limits. One example is the la Défense business district in Paris (constrcuted from the 1970's on) which actually is outside the city of Paris per se. Actually, the standards for the construction of buildings are pretty demanding everywhere from the moment you're close to a historically classified building or area, city, town, or village. One small example: in the village where I live tiles are not allowed on roofs, only slates or slate-looking roofs , in order to preserve the local traditional architecture.

[@troyshilanski380]

Great video, i would pick Blondie it brings back roller rinks to me, again im old.

[@Biomirth]

I'm not an urban planner, but I've grown to really have a different view of them, or at least, the best of them. I really do think that largely they work for the people; Even if the pressures in some countries come from the govt., the solutions are always about the people either way. I've come to this by watching a lot of videos about roads vs. streets in the Netherlands vs. everywhere else, especially the US. Zoning laws, incentives, and a really interesting balance therein have created some amazing things for the people. I'll leave you with a quick interesting fact: In N. America wood was cheap, so bigger buildings were made of wood. When fire broke out the damage was catastrophic to whole cities. In Europe wood was already expensive, so larger multi-use buildings were already made of stone or brick, so fires, though still common, were not quite as catastrophic. Zoning laws precipitated from this, leading to US building of 4 stories or more requiring 2 staircases (for escape). This makes certain kinds of buildings not worth building, and apartments less valuable due to layouts that 2 staircases lead to. Combine this with the exclusionary and myopic zoning for 1. Commercial, and 2. Single family homes (no third option) and you get these strange car-centric cities that dominate the USA (I think you can figure out how A leads to B). Long and short: Urban Planners have really cool jobs that are more concerned with the movements of people than one would imagine.

[@DirkM-nr5uy]

Bedankt

[@NoProtocol]

Thank you as well (:

[@DirkM-nr5uy]

You're welcome, great videos!

[@phillipsilva1069]

I was in Barcelona last year and although the Sagrada Familia still was under a lot of construction, it definitely looks like it’s relatively close to being finished but I wouldn’t be surprised if they push back the 2026 date lol

[@dyoung3536]

Fred Mills (who run's 'The B1M') is well known in my industry (construction). While all their video's are interesting, one of the more interesting ones is on building the world's tinniest skyscraper.

[@snurfli5605]

And I read it like BIM not "B One M".

[@dyoung3536]

@@snurfli5605 it is a play off of "BIM" (Building Information Modeling" but it's definitely "Bee One Em".

[@anoldladysiest]

We respect and love our history and its architecture, our IDENTITY !

[@QuantumS1ngularity]

There is one thing that the video doesn't mention as to why skyscrapers will basically never take off in Europe. If anything, it basically cemented the death of skyscrapers in Europe - the transition to home office. That much commercial space is no longer needed in any big city, because 80% of the businesses that would've occupied it are now working remotely. IT companies, logistic offices, engineering and designing firms, attorney offices, law firms - 99% of those no longer require their employees to be held hostage in the office for 8-12 hours a day, while they spend ridiculous amount of money on all the usual running costs tied to renting an office space in an office tower. And in the last 3 years you can clearly see that those high-rising office buildings became 70% empty. If anything i actually see them starting to get demolished in the near future and be turned into parks or other recreational venues. As for the history - it's completely true. Most of the major cities in Europe have stood there for over 500 years. Some have ranked even 1000+ years under their belt. A few are even over 2000 years old. With so much history it's not only a question of preserving architecture and culture. The taller the skyscraper is gonna be, the deeper its foundation has to go. So they have to dig deeper. And It's actually a very common thing that when they start to dig that deep to place the foundations of a newly planed tall building or drill a tunnel for a new metro line, some old ruins of an even more ancient city pop up on the map. And the EU laws prohibit the destruction of this cultural inheritance. The major European cities are basically built in layers. One of the best examples is the city of Sofia, Bulgaria, where while they were trying to dig for the new line of the metro system, a 1700 years old ruins of the ancient city of Serdica popped up. They now incorporated them as an open museum in the middle of the city and when you go down in those ruins, you can clearly see the layers in which the city was built in time. So the only logical and available solution is to build those skyscrapers near the outer city limits, which completely defeats the entire purpose of building them.

[@Perktube1]

5:28 - They really need to focus on improving the taste of their sprouts. 😊

[@JoseGonzalez-se3ky]

I live in New York and trust, you’re always hearing or seeing something

[@solomonessix6909]

Music Recommendation: "Someone that I used to know" by Goyte

[@ispbrotherwolf]

It's not about holding back, we just don´t see the need. In Sweden we have rather hard rules about packing people to tight. What ever you do comes with a cost, balancing it makes a better society.

[@patrickholt2270]

It's not government vs the people, it's big business vs the people, when developers, banks and corporations capture regulatory authorities like planning departments of city governments. "High rise" I believe only applies to housing, whereas skyscrapers are always commercial office space plus maybe a restaurant or two. And yes, apartment blocks don't go that high, because it's not safe or convenient to live too high off the ground and be dependent on elevators when you have to go outside to shop and get to church and everything else. Office workers don't live there, and they only have to be in an office building during the working day, and then they get to go home somewhere more normal and healthy.

[@steveb1972]

The rebuilding of Europe after WWII and the desire to return to how it was, rather than modernise, is similar to London after the fire of 1666. Christopher Wren and others planned to remake London in a grid design, like New York, but the poorer and the criminal elements wanted the snaking, narrow streets returned as they were, so in a rare case of majority opinion rules, the original layout was remade.

[@Ikit1Claw]

2:02 Not necessarily, many cities have their skyscrapers placed in a new districts, built where before was empty field. And as for old buildings, unless it has some special historical significance, most buildings will be demolished without remorse even if they're 200 years old. There is plenty of 100 or even 200 years old buildings that are still being used. Maybe 300 years old is the limit, but usually - unless there's something unique about it - age is no obstacle.

[@leonbarry5403]

3:40 Because beauty is actually important.

[@fuckyoutubecomments7530]

Adamsomething has fantastic videos about skyscrapers if you're interested in the topic AND some good videos on Dubai, since you mentioned them. Highly recommend his video on Dubai specifically. Love your reactions man x

[@FieryMeltman]

I second this.

[@rexac1607]

Our city in Spain has a building limit: no building my be higher than the Cathedral (102 meter). They only made 1 exception... in decades.

[@Thunder1976NL]

Not every city in Europe has the soil for skyscrapers, next to the fact that most city centers are historical. Berlin for example is a former swamp/marsh, so it would need very long piling or very deep foundations to build a skyscraper. That would make such a building very expensive. In Amsterdam all building require piling. Building skyscrapers in Rotterdam also took a lot of engineering to keep out the water while making the foundation.

[@samuelsmith6804]

I'm not a fan of skyscrapers even thought I used to work in construction and build them. I worked on a couple in The UK, Dubai and in east Asia. I love the architecture in Italy. If you go to the top of the Vatican and look out over Rome, there's nothing quite like it. So much history. Florence is also a beautiful city I have visited. I look at the skyscrapers in Britain alongside mid rise post war gray tower blocks and I just find the architecture depressing. There are much more beautiful towns and smaller cities with old buildings that speak to the heart much more.

[@wWvwvV]

Futuristic Dubai? The city was planned and built without an adequate sewage system. An Amada of trucks had to transport it away every day, often illegally disposing it in the desert.

[@thevoid5503]

5:28. Then you need to actually visit Brussels. For another such horror story: try the Tour Montparnasse in Paris and the Norrmalm district and Hötorget in Stockholm. Parts of the inner city of The Hague make another case of what not to do.

[@thomasdalby8420]

The word skyscraper was adopted from sailing and was a term for the tallest of masts,in buildings it is a building of more than 150 metres in height,or around 40 stories. So more of the buildings you see are skyscrapers than you think...there are hundreds in new your city for example. People just see the tallest few and assume that they are the skyscrapers yet one much smaller is still technically a skyscraper. The really tall ones are categorised as "super tall" and there are only 17 of these in new York,this is what people think is a scraper yet as I said there are hundreds,they just look less impressive when next to a super tall.

[@gohumberto]

What you may think of as futuristic cities, like Dubai and Tokyo, I think of them as a dystopian future. Just about the only thing wrong with the Paris "skyline" is the Montparnasse Tower, the only true Skyscraper. It just ruins the whole look of the city, which is dominated by the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur Cathedral.

[@aurered6387]

Vilnius city in Lithuania has few skyscrapers too

[@TheGabrielPT]

Khruangbin released their latest single called "May Ninth" a couple days ago and Ive been listening to it non stop. Awesome song, more to the chilled side 👌

[@NoProtocol]

I haven’t heard it yet! I will right now

[@NoProtocol]

I like it already, the guitar is smooth

[@TheGabrielPT]

@@NoProtocol 🥰

[@maarten252]

The city where i live in (The Hague), has plans to build many skyscrapers. This is because there is no housing available.. also there is not enough free building space, so the only way to fix this, is building skyscrapers. But it takes years to lay the first brick. Hence the building time.

[@Siranoxz]

Europe is start building skyscrapers, but in specific areas to keep preserved buildings protected. But Europe is not exempt from high rises.. Futurism in architecture is definitely more prominent in Asia and Rich Arab countries. But Europe mixes beauty with some modern architecture to remind people that we still have beautiful buildings.

[@jurgenkersjes2150]

I hate Skyscrapers. No history. No feeling with it. It is just make for money making I think. I like flowers, trees, animals. Why watching human making stones. I will move away.

[@albin2232]

We don't want them. We are opposed to them.

[@madjarov42]

Ancient Egyptians: I hate pyramids. No history. No feeling with it. Just made for the vanity of the ruling class. I like flowers, trees, animals. Why watching humans making stones. I will move away.

[@madjarov42]

Ancient Egyptians: I hate pyramids. No history. No feeling with it. Just shapes for the vanity of the ruling class I think. I like flowers, trees, animals. Why watching human making stones. I will move away.

[@me5969]

Not watched it all yet but I imagine it's not necessary in most countries. European countries aren't that big so they can have more suburbs because travelling into a city centre doesn't take that long. I for example am from one City and my wife is from the next (Liverpool and Manchester) and it literally used to take me around 30 minutes to drive from one City to another, so you could live anywhere between those cities and you could get to work in around 15-20 minutes. In fact I met her because she was my boss and used to travel into work from hers. There's no need to be all living on top of each other. Britain is small even for a European country but compared to the US, China, Japan ect. They're tiny.

[@juergenbubeck]

Skyscrapers may be a very efficient area use, but with all other things it's the contrary. They need more building material than normal or mid-rise buildings with the same floor space and more carbon intensive ones at that, they are less energy efficient and need more maintenance. And they create way more traffic in one area rather than spreading it out. The are the like urban sprawl, just in a vertical direction.

[@rachealbrown2166]

In addition to the issues around building regulations in London there is also the issue of the city being built on clay based foundations which makes it more problematic.

[@gunnersTV81]

I live in England a city proudly with zero skyscrapers thank goodness but I traveled Australia 15 years ago and living in Brisbane wow I found skyscrapers all over the city all looked the same, I think in Europes case with architecture up to 1000 years old the last thing anyone wants to see next to beautiful listed buildings is a huge skyscraper lol big city’s great but so glad here in Europe there in the minority