Skyscraper architecture

The skyscraper is less an architectural style than an engineering typology — a building whose height requires a steel or concrete structural frame, mechanical lifts, and curtain wall cladding. Invented in Chicago in the 1880s, the skyscraper became the defining urban form of the 20th century and the most visible expression of economic ambition.

European skyscrapers differ from their American counterparts in scale and context. Where New York and Chicago built upward by necessity (expensive land, grid plans), European towers tend to be isolated landmarks — La Défense in Paris, Canary Wharf in London, Potsdamer Platz in Berlin — rather than continuous canyon walls.