High rise buildings in Europe from energy performance perspective

Abstract

The United States is well known for the birthplace of tall buildings in the world since the nineteenth century. The trend continued across all continents and in 1940, Europe developed its first tall building of over 100 meters in Genoa, Italy. Building codes, technological development, energy crisis, etc. have all influenced the built environment in different ways, a very visible sign of such impacts can be seen in high rise buildings not only on their architectural style but also on their performance. Different studies worldwide investigate energy performance of modern high-rise buildings; however, evolution of such buildings is rarely considered; energy performance of different high-rise buildings’ generations is seldom investigated and compared. To close a gap this study aims to make a closer look of how technological developments and energy crisis affected high-rise buildings in Europe with a focus on their energy performance.