Tall buildings win bragging rights, but decades of skyscraper inflation mean that those who want to stand out are setting their sights sideways. So-called groundscrapers, which tend to be longer than they are tall, have been popping up in the busiest cities. Google’s London HQ in King’s Cross is longer than the Shard skyscraper is tall. Hong Kong will next year complete the first phase of its maiden groundscraper on the harbour front. With a gross floor area of 1.6mn sq ft, Central Yards will match the vertiginous nearby IFC 1 office block and mall combined.
For the most part, developers do not have the choice of whether to build up or out: some central areas will lack sufficiently big plots of land, while others will not permit high-rises. But the economics of each, as well as their impact on the skyline, are very different. Skyscrapers come with cons: build costs would tend to be higher given the need for additional steel underpinnings and braces. The Shard, for instance, cost some £320 per sq ft to build, equivalent to perhaps £500 per sq foot today. Jason Phelps of the University of the Built Environment suggests development costs for a two-storey building might be close to £340 per sq foot. But that differential needs to be set against the lower land acquisition costs associated with high-rises.
Despite that, the groundscraper might just be the design of the future. Risk management is one reason. Skyscrapers are big, fixed investments that are hard to repurpose. Groundscrapers can be built and financed in sections. Given the uncertainty around office-space needs in the AI era, a flexible approach looks sensible. Besides, low-rise buildings spread over a larger footprint are better suited to casual interaction and sharing of ideas. Tech firms have traditionally valued this: it is no accident that Google, in Mountain View, and Apple, in Cupertino, pioneered the groundscraper campus. Tech companies are already reshaping the way we live, think and consume; they may also change the way we build.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing