Building the Bubble - Architecture and Financial Crisis

Since a few days a report by Barclays Capital that points out correlation between skyscraper boom and economic crisis is topic of international news, e.g. BBC and BI. Economist Andrew Lawrence suggested in 1999 the Skyscraper Index, as predictor of economic crisis.



The relation between skyscraper building and finance has earlier been discussed earlier in the great book Form Follows Finance by Caroll Willis.



Furthermore, I found an interesting figure related to this topic on page 94 in Alex Lehnerer’s Book Grand Urban Rules, showing the relation between industrial production and building height limitations in Chicago.