Abstract: Is there a need of a code for tall buildings? What is the purpose of a code?

What
should be the criteria for limiting height of a building in a given location in the country? Who
should specify that limit?

A history of some of the most fascinating tall structures (Empire State, World Trade Center,
Sears Towers (Wills), John Hancock, Burj-Al-Dubai, and Burj-Khalifa among others) around
the world during the past 100 years show that a code is secondary for such buildings. The
design team engages the best brains and best practices from around the world and come up
with very innovating systems, materials, construction techniques, and solutions. IS:875-
part 3 on wind loads, and IS:13920 have been revised during the past few months;
IS:1893-part 1 is under printing.

A new Code on Safety of RC Tall Buildings is under preparation. A discussion of various

provisions of these codes show that a lot of work is still required making them more
comprehensive, logical, and therefore, more users friendly.

Introduction based on technical considerations. Among the various loads acting on a tall
building, the wind loads, earthquake loads, snow loads (if applicable), fire and temperature
changes are the most critical. The design of tall buildings is mainly governed by
serviceability limit state against vibrations, lateral drift and fire.

The energy and water requirements need to be minimized to take care of temperature
variations. It is very rare that a building has collapsed under wind loads. It is the
earthquake loading code that specifies different types of structural systems appropriate
under different seismic zones and for various heights.
The 381 m Empire State Building in New York City was built in 1931 and remains even
today its most iconic building. In those days there were no codes and not even calculators.
Later in 1971, the twin towers of 110 storeys World Trade Center (419 m) were built in New
York city.

This was followed by the Sears tower (now Willis Tower 442 m) and John Hancock building
(344 m) in Chicago. These buildings used different innovative structural systems to resist
the various loads under serviceability conditions. The knowledge and understanding of wind,
earthquake, snow and temperature loadings were scanty. The subject of dynamics of
structures was still evolving.
These and many other tall buildings were built in various parts of the USA based on the
experience and judgment of engineers and architects. Similarly, Burj-Al-Arab (280 m), Burj
Khalifa, Dubai (829.8 m) and Shanghai Tower (632 m) are among the recent wonders. They
employed the best brains and put together the best construction teams, materials and
practices from across the globe to build such iconic tall buildings. They developed their own
design criteria, performance criteria and measurements to achieve their objectives. These
magnificent structures were not subservient to the codes.
A few tall buildings in the range of 75 m to 100 m have been built in Mumbai during the
past few decades. However, during the past one decade more buildings in the range of 40 m

Conflict in the scope

The scope of the Code on Tall Buildings is defined as follows:
1.1 This code is applicable for reinforced concrete (RC) buildings of heights greater than 45
m, but less than 250 m, normally intended for use as residential, office and other
commercial buildings.
1.2 This code is not applicable for tall buildings located in the near-field of seismogenic
faults. For the purposes of this code, near-field is taken as 10 km (shortest distance) from a
seismogenic fault.
1.3 This code may be used for design of medium- and low-rise buildings (of heights equal to
or less than 45m) also; the good practices mentioned in this standard will add value to the
design of the said buildings.
1.4 This standard is a prescriptive code covering design aspects of tall buildings. These
aspects include:
(a) Selection of appropriate structural system;
(b) Geometric proportioning of the building;
(c) Integrity of Structural System;
(d) Resistance to Wind and Earthquake effects; and
(e) Other special considerations related to high-rise buildings.
1.5 This code is applicable only for buildings that house 20,000 or fewer persons.
The scope of the IS:1893-part 1 Draft 2016 is defined as follows:
This standard primarily deals with earthquake hazard assessment for earthquake-resistant
design of (1) buildings, (2) liquid retaining structures, and so on.
The conflict is obvious.