A high-rise in Hong Kong

A high-rise is a tall building or structure. Hong Kong ( officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located on China 's south coast on the Pearl River Delta, and borders In Architecture, Construction, Engineering and real estate development the word building may refer to one of the following Any man-made Normally, the function of the building is added, for example high-rise apartment building or high-rise offices. An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an Organization with specific duties attached

High-rise buildings became possible with the invention of the elevator (lift) and cheaper, more abundant building materials. An elevator or lift is a Transport device used to move people or goods vertically from one floor to another Buildings between 75 feet and 491 feet (23 m to 150 m) high are, by some standerds, considered high-rises. The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International Buildings taller than 492 feet (150 m) are classified as skyscrapers. A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable Building. There is no official definition or a precise cutoff height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper The average height of a level is around 13 feet (4 m) high, thus a 79 foot (24 m) tall building would comprise 6 floors.

The materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. The term structural system or frame in Structural engineering refers to load -resisting Sub-system of a structure Reinforced concrete is Concrete in which reinforcement bars (" Rebars quot or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen a material that would otherwise be Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0 Most American style skyscrapers have a steel frame, while residential tower blocks are usually constructed out of concrete. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable Building. There is no official definition or a precise cutoff height above which a building may clearly be classified as a skyscraper Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a " Skeleton frame" of vertical Steel Columns and horizontal I-beams constructed A tower block, block of flats, or apartment block, is a multi-unit High-rise Apartment building.

Although the exact definition is immaterial, various bodies have tried to define what 'high-rise' means:

• The International Conference on Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings defined a high-rise as "any structure where the height can have a serious impact on evacuation"
• The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines a high-rise as "a building having many stories".
• Massachusetts General Laws define a high-rise as being higher than 70 feet (21 m). The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit
• Most building engineers, inspectors, architects and similar professions define a high-rise as a building that is at least 75 feet (23 m) tall.

High-rise structures pose particular design challenges for structural and geotechnical engineers, particularly if situated in a seismically active region or if the underlying soils have geotechnical risk factors such as high compressibility or bay mud. Structural engineering is a field of Engineering dealing with the analysis and design of Structures that support or resist loads Structural engineering is Geotechnical engineering is the branch of Civil engineering concerned with the engineering behavior of earth materials Bay mud consists of thick deposits of soft unconsolidated Silty Clay, which is saturated with Water; these soil layers are situated at the bottom of They also pose serious challenges to firefighters during emergencies in high-rise structures. New and old building design, building systems like the building standpipe system, HVAC systems (Heating, Ventilation and Air conditioning), fire sprinkler system and other things like stairwell and elevator evacuations pose significant problems. A standpipe is a type of rigid Water Piping which is built into multi-story buildings in a vertical position to which Fire hoses can be connected allowing manual HVAC (pronounced either "H-V-A-C" or occasionally " H-vak " is an Initialism or Acronym that stands for " Heating A fire sprinkler is the part of a Fire sprinkler system that discharges water when the effects of a fire have been detected such as when a predetermined temperature has An elevator or lift is a Transport device used to move people or goods vertically from one floor to another

An example of challenges posed to firefighting crews is in this real example. Fire companies were dispatched to a high-rise hotel in Lexington, Kentucky with reports of smoke in the building. Lexington (officially Lexington-Fayette Urban County is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 68th largest in the United States. When the fire companies investigated the source, they found smoke in the hallways, but not in the guest rooms. This in turn helped the fire companies determine that the problem was in the HVAC system and that a real hazard wasn't actually posed. HVAC (pronounced either "H-V-A-C" or occasionally " H-vak " is an Initialism or Acronym that stands for " Heating

High-rise buildings actually began in the time of early America during the rise of industry. Using light materials, they were able to create over 8 stories of building. The Asch Building had 10.

See also

• Skyscraper
• Tower block