# Biggest construction boom in human history ?



## Carpenter01 (Feb 14, 2016)

Hi gang,
I'm new to the site. The content here looks amazing. I've read pieces online that say we are living through the biggest global construction boom in human history. I live on a small island on the Atlantic Ocean so I don't get to see a whole lot of it.

I'm just wondering if you believe this is true?
How much infrastructure / structures have humans built? I'm just looking for confirmation because I love the thought of humanity building and building and building, further developing the planet.

Thank you all for your time


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## KillerZavatar (Jun 22, 2010)

this thread belongs into this subsection: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3252

nevertheless, I believe in terms of skyscrapers this is true of course as we have more had the most 200m+, 300m+ etc finished in recent years. Also six years ago the first building over 600m finished and now we get to look forward to a new one basically each year. This boom will also not really stop i believe. While it is likely to slow down in china, when most big cities have their icons and landmark towers done, there are still a lot of cities in india and all around the world that have cities very large that are likely to support huge projects with an initial investment. More over the amount of residential blocks should increase for the same reasons with even larger numbers.


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## Carpenter01 (Feb 14, 2016)

Sorry about posting in the wrong section. I appreciate your post.

It makes sense man. There are massive infrastructure booms occurring in India and the continent of Africa that will more than pick up the slack of the "slow down" in China


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## Speechless.♥ (Nov 8, 2012)

China has much more supertalls U/C than rest of the world. And this is true for rather a long time. 
But China has also the same number of skyscrapers as the rest of the world.


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## Jay (Oct 7, 2004)

China now probably, but if you're referring to a specific city maybe NYC?


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## Augustão d2 (Feb 13, 2013)

Shenzhen?


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## ilovecoffee (Jul 9, 2013)

i read an article on something like this on the citylab.com last year; 70% of the worlds population will live in cities by 2050. And by 2100 the current city population will triple, Hence the 21st century is termed the "urban century" because all the construction that will go on it will esclipe all the construction ever done, at-least doubling what currently exist now in terms infrastucture and city areas. Im also really excited for this to.

p.s., i dont think chinas construction boom is going to slow down anytime soon, at-least not till after 2025. Currently the urban population resides at 55% and china is keen on getting that to atleast 70% by that time.


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## Carpenter01 (Feb 14, 2016)

Incredible stats I lovecoffee 

I often wonder like how much has humanity already built? Is it massive already? I mean I've seen pics and videos of global cities, I've spent time in Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton . However, how huge are things globally? It's hard to put anything really in perspective? Can anyone help with an explanation

Globally how
Much infrastructure and buildings etc are there?
Is it mind blowing (like I imagine) or not?


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## Carpenter01 (Feb 14, 2016)

Anyone have any insight on my last post?
Thanks


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## ilovecoffee (Jul 9, 2013)

Carpenter01 said:


> Anyone have any insight on my last post?
> Thanks


to get an idea of whats "there" i would download google-earth and look at different cities. Most of the construction will be taking place in what has been termed the global south: africa, pakistan, oceania, asia and so on. Also to put it in "perspective", most of the worlds largest cities are in asia. The canadian cities you mentioned probably range within the 1-5 million population whereas cities like seoul, jakarta, and manila all have over 25 million people. On a larger scale canton China has recently been integrated into one large metro of 50 million and other metros such as deli, although lacking in infrastructure are home to something like 40 million.

This website is a really good resource for getting your 'feet-wet' and understanding whats going on around the world. Look into different projects going on and get an idea of the trends that are occurring.


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## lowenmeister (Oct 1, 2012)

Carpenter01 said:


> Incredible stats I lovecoffee
> 
> I often wonder like how much has humanity already built? Is it massive already? . However, how huge are things globally? It's hard to put anything really in perspective? Can anyone help with an explanation
> 
> ...


It is,globally 2-3% of the total land area in the world belongs to a urban area administratively,total area that is built on is "just" 0.65% of world area(comparable in area to Texas,Pakistan or Turkey) 
In Asia a full 0.9% of the total area is built up but this percentage will probably grow fast in the next few decades when China,Southeast asia and the Indian subcontinent urbanize further and their cities sprawl outwards. 
If we disregard central,west and north asia aswell as the empty western part of China which in total hold only 500million people out of Asias total population of 4.5 billion we get 4 billion people in an area of around 14.5million sq km,a good 90% of asia lives on only a third of the area,if 90% lives there roughly 90% of the built up area should be there too or roughly 360 000 sq km(0.9*44.6million sq km or asias total area). 360 000 sq km/14.5million sq km is roughly 2.5%. 2.5% of land area in the more populated parts of Asia is built on and a doubling to 5% this century is not unfeasible with increasing suburbanization and sprawl,land that falls under urban administration would be almost 10% of the total land area in the populated parts of Asia if it followed the same pattern of built up area to urban administrative area(roughly 4 times in asia).

http://leml.asu.edu/jingle/Wu-Publications-PDFs/2014/Liu_ZF_etal-2014-Global urban land.pdf


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## Carpenter01 (Feb 14, 2016)

Wow,
Great info. I appreciate your post. Seems really anti climatic. Figured humans would have built a lot more. I guess it's a small world after all (groan)

Or maybe it's that the land surface is huge and actually having built on nearly 1% is actually quite impressive


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## Carpenter01 (Feb 14, 2016)

I lovecoffee
Good call on the google earth. I'll check it out 
Thanks!


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## KillerZavatar (Jun 22, 2010)

You can always use google and tencent streetview to travel around cities virtually as well to get a sense of a city you are interested in.


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## agoragk (Feb 9, 2016)




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## Carpenter01 (Feb 14, 2016)

I've been doing a lot of research, using a lot of the tools you fine folks have recommended. It really is incredible to see what humans have built! Incredible really! Especially in the last 30 years!!!


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## KavirajG (Apr 5, 2011)

Carpenter01 said:


> I've been doing a lot of research, using a lot of the tools you fine folks have recommended. It really is incredible to see what humans have built! Incredible really! Especially in the last 30 years!!!


^^ Yeah, and it's not over yet...the population growth will be tremendous in some places like India, which is experiencing high economic growth but is yet to embark on a large scale urbanization program.

Same for China where millions more will migrate to cities and also much of Africa.


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

I think 2007 in the run up to the Beijing Olympics was one of the biggies - both Shanghai and Beijing built more highrise space in that year than all 
the office space in Manhattan, and housing up to 3000 newcomers every day.

the speed of change in Shanghai:


1995










2009-2015


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## Carpenter01 (Feb 14, 2016)

Those pics of Shanghi are incredible!!!
I've been reading a lot about the international investments Chinise companies are doing as well. The build up for their "New Silk Road" trade route is staggering as well


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## lowenmeister (Oct 1, 2012)

Shenzhen didnt really exist until the early eighties,now it has 15 million people and counting and the most 200m+ skyscrapers of any city in China and soon the world.
Shenzhen ca 1980









roughly the same angle today:
By bobzql









Shenzhen ca 1980








roughly the same angle today:
originally posted on gaoloumi by 深南向上


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