In our consumer society, social life
is not about living but about having; the spectacle uses the image to convey
what people need and must have. Consequently, social life moves further,
leaving a state of “having” and proceeding into a state of “appearing”; namely,
the appearance of the image. The role of the architecture in this consumption
context is very critical. There are lots of examples that prove the tendency of
having. The act of having and the tendency to reach an image (appearance) shape
our building discipline.
Vanity
height is a term that begins to take place with our changed consumption habits.
The term refers to the distance between a skyscraper’s highest
occupiable floor and its architectural top. We want to build the biggest, the tallest, and
most visible buildings to create new needs with appearances and consume them. Without
any consideration, being taller becomes criteria which we can compare and
eliminate our structures. This acontextual approach is strengthened itself in
the capitalist world. So, today we are building skyscrapers with unused space
at the top, manipulating the numbers.
Burj Khalifa building is the most obvious example. It is the tallest building constructed in the world. However, the validity of this title can be discussed. The 828m height structure offers just 528m usable space, where the last 244m is just a vanity space. In other words, 29% of the building is constructed just for being the heist. Just consuming the created appearance of the highest building. We have lots of similar buildings in the world. In those buildings, the architectural aim is defined under the ruse of creating the consumption material by the investors. Those empty floors can not be clarified even with the consumption. They are made just for having them.
