American reacts to 'Why Europe Doesn't Build Skyscrapers'

Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to Why Europe Doesn't Build Skyscrapers

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[mif]

We do build Skyscrapers but we don't build them in the "old Towns".

[Boudi-ca]

I do think there’s a place for sky scrapers within the financial hubs of a city, but we must preserve the history and culture of a city on the whole at all costs!

[OriginalPuro]

Just so it's said, no one in Norway likes the skyscrapers in Oslo or anywhere else, we tolerate them because they are in a slightly remote area from the city center, but we don't like them.
Skyscrapers are what he said, "soulless".

[rolfoleynik]

Beijing has skyscrapers. To build these, they demolished old historic parts of the city. They want to avoid that in Europe..

[alexialu]

In Italy, except for Milan, if you build a skyscraper anywhere 90% of the people that live in the area will hate it ahaha

[Danceofmasks]

It's not just about big buildings, it's about the sheer volume of people that use those buildings.
Skyscrapers come with ungodly amounts of traffic, and traffic causes everything from air pollution to noise pollution.
Some cities in Europe are very clean and quiet, and if you're there for a significant period of time, you might find that you're less crazy as a result.

[nonchip]

fun fact the weirdly "bent" looking skyscraper in london you commented on actually sometimes sets things on fire because they accidentally built the glass facade in just the right shape to act as a giant solar cooker :P

[SiqueScarface]

6:15 The joke goes like this: Which is the most beautiful place in Warsaw? On top of the stalinist Pałac Kultury i Nauki. Why? Because from there, you can't see it.

[-sunrise-parabellum-]

In Belgium, there was this big protest movement after city planners wanted to build skyscrapers in Brussels to house several international institutions. Although some of these skyscrapers were built successfully, the protest movement effectively halted any further plans to build them. As a result, a lot of cities enacted laws limiting the height of new buildings to medium height at best. People here hate skyscrapers

[neuralwarp]

US: let's build houses out of pine
US: (fires, tornadoes, earthquakes)
US: we don't have iconic buildings

[judithrowe]

As well as wanting to keep the beauty of historic cities, there was a long tradition of not overshadowing churches and cathedrals, often left as the tallest buildings on a city skyline.

[kortanioslastofhisname]

There are now actually academic studies regarding blandness of modernist architecture and how the human brain reacts to it. One recent study that employed computational neuroscience for example found that as opposed to the stress-reducing effect of nature and a lot of classical human-scale architecture, the oversized bland surfaces and lack of fine details of purely modernist cityscapes produced mental stress.

If you want to read the study it's "What Happens in Your Brain When You Walk Down the Street? Implications of Architectural Proportions, Biophilia, and Fractal Geometry for Urban Science." Urban Sci.2022, 6, 3.

[victorcapel]

Commie blocks aren't the most pleasing to look at, but outside the former USSR they're suprisingly good to live in. Functional, lots of green space between houses, built to good standards. We have a lot of them in other parts of Europe as well, outside the eastern block. If properly built and maintained, they're actually really good to live in.

[WNdry]

In Prague (and I bet in other historic cities) you can't even put roof cover of your choosing on a building you own to preserve the look of the town from above.

[jenniferharrison]

Absolutely right Ryan, if it ain't broke don't fix it! New and Bigger isn't always better! 👍🤗

[ltrtg]

Your right. Big Ben isn't a skyscraper. It's a bell inside the Elizabeth Tower.

[shaneeslick]

G'day Ryan,
Yeah I think Europe has not been hit with the "Tear it down for a new Skyscraper" mentality is that there is just so much Beautiful Historic Architecture in their cities that would need to be pulled down to make way.

[XgruenaugeX]

We don't need to proof that we got the biggest one ;) We prefer buildings and places with a bit of character and history. With some dark corners to explore, beautiful and charming inner courtyards to discover that you would have never thought were there from the outside, and some spooky old cellars that usually come with a story if you take the time to ask an older neighbour. There is nothing to explore or discover when it comes to Skyscrapers. They're superficially impressive. But that's it. You take one look and that is all you need to know about the building. Clean and boring.

[andreanecchi]

I don't want to have large pieces of metal and glass ruin the view of my country

[viis]

In Germany we actually have a bunch of buildings which are under ‘Denkmalschutz’ (monument protection) those buildings are forbidden to be demolished even if you think some might need it because restoration honestly wouldn’t help anymore or even cost more. That’s also why you might see some buildings that are both modern and old school because the modern part is often an add on to the original structure