The materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. Most American style skyscrapers have a steel frame, while residential tower blocks are usually constructed out of concrete.
reinforced concrete: concrete in which reinforcement bars or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the material that would otherwise be brittle.
Why are these materials suitable?(steel and concrete)
Steel and concrete must always be together when building tall buildings as when building, the steel they use are normally hollow so in order to make the steel stronger, concrete is used to fill in the hole. After which, the concrete would harden and thus, making the object stronger and more durable. Steel and concrete are hard, strong, durable. They are able to withstand the weight of the building.
So i assume that the foundation of the building is heavier? Because the building must have the support.
Would you use the same materials to build other buildings?
I think that majority of the buildings that were built were made with steel and concrete so they would stay still at all cost. However, in Japan due to the earthquake that happen regularly there, the houses are made of wood so when it tumbles, the impact would not be so great. It depends on the environment and the weather etc. If there are terrible disasters going on there, the best material should be wood, but strong wood.
Before Sep 11, 2001 incident, how was the World Trade Centre being viewed? A mighty building that cannot be destroyed?
Instead of having the same building structures as the other buildings that were built before,it had a load-bearing perimeter steel columns called Vierendeel trusses that were spaced closely together to form a strong, rigid wall structure, supporting virtually all lateral loads such as wind loads, and sharing the gravity load with the core columns and thus, making it stronger than other buildings. Although it was one of the most well-known buildings, it had criticisms as well. A small group of business were affected and many residents, tenants etc resisted force relocation of the center as well.
