Shiny glass skyscrapers are a hot thing. Literally

[KUALA LUMPUR] One thousand feet above city traffic, from her new 74th-floor apartment, Anastasia Zeeman has the kind of enchanting views that only floor-to-ceiling glass can offer. She looks out on a skyline and horizon where storms and sunsets play out like big-screen movies.

But Malaysia’s tropical sun sometimes delivers what Zeeman calls a “wall of heat” radiating from her windows.

More than any other form of architecture, glass skyscrapers testify to the human desire for sweeping views and a sense of rising above the fray. In some of the world’s fastest developing places – Dubai, Mumbai, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur – they have become city-defining showpieces, signalling sophistication and rising financial clout.

And yet glass tends to be ill-suited for keeping out the heat, and its overuse often makes buildings more energy intensive to cool. That is fuelling a debate about whether these symbols of modernity make sense in a world growing hotter because of climate change.

Some argue that the ambition and innovation that spawned the high-rise era can help modern skyscrapers fend off rising temperatures while maintaining the million-dollar views. Others say the all-glass aesthetic is at odds with the environmental goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. They say that it is time to rethink city skylines.

When he was New York City mayor in 2019, Bill de Blasio briefly floated the idea of banning the “glass and steel” structures altogether. Philip Oldfield, an Australian architecture scholar who wrote a book on sustainable high-rises, calls the glass towers “environmentally criminal”.

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Ken Shuttleworth, a prominent British architect who three decades ago helped design London’s Gherkin building, now says he would do it differently, without quite as much glass all the way around.

“You really just need to have smaller windows,” said Shuttleworth. He noted that his approach to skyscraper design has changed as he has come to realise that “we are burning a hole in the planet”.

Despite that criticism, the glass skyscraper’s appeal endures.

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The form, which originated in American cities like Chicago and New York, has now spread across China, the Middle East and South-east Asia. Over the past decade, the world has constructed 25 times the number of buildings 655 feet or taller that it did in the 1980s, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Some 91 per cent of the world’s skyscrapers of that height have been built since the turn of the 21st century.

The “vast majority” have facades largely of glass, said Antony Wood, who was the president of that council until last year.

Proponents of glass-dominant design say that this building spree can still be responsible if strategic choices are made.

Because the sun does not hit a building equally from all directions, buildings can boost their energy efficiency simply with the right orientation. Architects can also add features like fins or undulations, so less sunlight directly hits the glass. Stringing greenery on glass facades is also a trend.

Glass can also be treated with gossamer-thin metallic coatings that reflect away radiation. Most buildings use several layers of glass to impede the heat. One high-end option involves sandwiching automated blinds between them.

“It’s not as simple as people think it is,” said Gordon Gill, an architect at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill. He has helped design numerous skyscrapers, including a 3,280-feet tower in Saudi Arabia that will be the world’s tallest once completed. “I’m not a big fan of, ‘Aha, we found the answer: We’re just going to use less glass.’ I don’t believe in panaceas. Your entire process is about balance.”

Most studies conclude that cutting down on glazing, as glass is sometimes called, does help reduce energy for cooling. A 2019 analysis of 1,000 American office buildings found that structures with larger window ratios had higher air-conditioning loads – though window size did not predict a building’s overall energy use.

A research paper from Saudi Arabia concluded that glazing “should be minimised in hot regions”, with windows ideally amounting to 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the facade.

But skyscrapers, of course, are so much more than objects meant to maximise efficiency. Big windows let in natural light, which limits the need for artificial lighting.

They also help units sell.

Zeeman, for example, had looked at seven or eight properties before walking into Oxley Towers, one of which is Kuala Lumpur’s sixth-tallest building. She had moved from the Dutch countryside with her husband, who had gotten an engineering job in the city. They saw the panorama and paid over their budget.

“To wake up with this view, it’s a completely different mood,” she added. “It inspires me to do more.”

Glass has helped give Malaysia the very thing its prime minister said he wanted three decades ago: buildings that evoke development and are “beautiful to the eye”.

The country started in 1996 by completing the twin Petronas Towers, the tallest buildings in the world at the time. Then it kept going, constructing hundreds more skyscrapers – including two taller than Petronas. Malaysia, with just 35 million people, now has more buildings 656 feet or higher than any country but China, the US and the United Arab Emirates.

Some of them, particularly ones with top-end technology, have good energy efficiency numbers, said Sarly Adre Sarkum, an architect and the chief executive of Malaysia’s Green Building Index. But Sarkum added the overall quality of the towers is “still not so good”.

He pointed out that in Malaysia’s climate, extensive glass facades carry “significant energy consequences”.

Roughly 60 per cent of the building energy use in Malaysia stems from air-conditioning, Sarkum noted. “When buyers purchase these, they think they get great views,” Sarkum said. “But you need to keep the curtains closed.”

The Oxley Towers, where Zeeman lives, represents one of the city’s heaviest uses of glass. Even the bathrooms next to the gym have floor-to-ceiling windows.

The Oxley was designed by a firm founded by David Mizan Hashim, a self-described “idealist” who obtained his master’s degree from Harvard University in 1986 and launched his company, Veritas, soon after. Veritas says it accepts only projects that aim for green certifications.

The Singapore-based company that developed Oxley said in a sustainability report that it works “continuously” to improve the efficiency of its properties, and uses energy-efficient air-conditioning systems and motion-sensor lighting where possible. According to it, Oxley Towers have “high-quality glazing” that “reduces the need for extensive air-conditioning”.

Even so, Hashim said, the building is “not as cutting-edge as it could be”. That’s because the development company wanted a relatively unadorned look, which removed the possibility of adding shading features. “That was an aesthetic choice,” Hashim noted.

The development company, Oxley Holdings, did not respond to a request for comment.

The towers will likely obtain a silver rating from Malaysia’s rating index, the third-highest level, he pointed out, though Hashim had hoped it could be gold. Ultimately, he added: “It is a building that is being sold.” NYTIMES