Editorial

Abstract

It is with great pleasure that we see the inaugural edition of this seminal publication come to fruition—the results of several years of collaborative dialogue between journal editor Gary Hart, myself at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, and John Wiley & Sons, the Publishers of the journal The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings. Over the past 15 years, Gary and the Publishers have crafted this journal to be the foremost research-scholarly journal focused on tall buildings in existence. In fact, with the exception of our own CTBUH Journal—a professional/association journal—there are very few journals focused on tall buildings in existence internationally. Given the resurgence of money and effort being poured into built tall buildings internationally in the past decade or so—in intellectual and research terms as well as physically—this is additionally surprising. A desire from the CTBUH to promote more outlets for the publication of scholarly research work in the field of tall buildings was thus the driving point behind the dialogue with the Publishers. Further, though, there is an increasing need for more multidisciplinary dialogue, especially as the boundaries of what is possible in tall building design increase, the impact on one discipline on another becomes more significant, and the major challenge which binds us all together—how to create more sustainable cities and patterns of life—becomes more pressing. This inaugural edition of the CTBUH special issue of The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings is thus somewhat of an experiment in the multidisciplinary journal field. As well as including several involved structural papers, these sit alongside forays into architecture–design, fire engineering and even tall building economics. The result is a snapshot of current best practice in the tall building industry, and an indication of where the field is perhaps heading. Given the predominantly professional bias of the CTBUH membership (something, incidentally, we are striving to change by encouraging the involvement of more academics and researchers in the network), it is perhaps not surprising that most of the papers contained in this inaugural edition are case study based. As well as embracing two papers on the incredible design and technical achievements of the currently-under-construction ‘next world's tallest’ Burj Dubai (Paper 1: Wesimantle et al.; and Paper 2: Baker et al.), we see case studies traversing from the United Kingdom (Beetham Tower, Manchester, Paper 10: Simon Lay), Chicago (full-scale wind monitoring, Paper 9: Kijewski-Correa and Pirnia), Bahrain (Bahrain World Trade Center, Paper 6: Smith and Killa) and Russia (Russia Tower, Paper 3: Halvorson and Warner). Laced in between this are insights into current movements revolutionizing tall building design—complex, non-orthogonal articulated form (Paper 7: Scott et al.), the potential of building information modelling (Paper 12: Robinson), new advances in structural damping (Paper 11: Smith and Willford), the consideration of sustainability in design (Paper 4: Wood; and Paper 5: Yeang and Powell) and the global economics that binds and drives it all together (Paper 8: Watts and Kalita). The international flavour of the papers reflects not only the Council's network, but also the global arena in which all tall building projects are now constructed. Very few of these buildings are conceived and realized in a completely local culture, with often consultants and materials across many countries and continents contributing to the finished product. The international reach of this journal thus parallels that, and lends credence to the need for more multidisciplinary dialogue. I do hope you enjoy absorbing the content, and will consider your own involvement in future editions or other initiatives of the CTBUH.