h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Given that the World Trade Centre has been in the news recently, I was wondering if a psychological study had ever been carried out on the effects of living or working in tall buildings. Wouldn't you feel like fainting every time you looked out the window? Wouldn't there be a subconcious urge to jump? And over time, wouldn't you begin to become detached from reality (like in the ferris wheel scene in The Third Man)?

(Incidentally, I hope this doesn't sound insensitive, bearing in mind that many people in the WTC DID jump. There were some horrible photos in a newspaper at the weekend.)

Designers of tall buildings are vey conscious of the psychological factors involved. Although all windows are sealed and it is impossible to open them, people are still scared of being too close to them. It has been found that people with desks near the window will move them, eventually resulting in a no-go band of empty office space up to 15 feet wide around the outside of the building.

To counter this, tall buildings have been built with very large 'window sills', up to 6 feet deep, which prevent people sitting near the windows from seeing downwards. It is found that this results in a more efficient use of space because people are quite happy to have their desks right beside the window in this case.

Apparently the designer of the WTC has vertigo and didn't like the floor ending in pure window with nothing beyond it. He designed in many more deep vertical frames than were strictly necessary to reduce the feeling of 'hovering in space'. This gave the building greater strength than was originally planned and allowed it to stand longer following the attack than it otherwise might have. As a result many more people had a chance to escape.

F

I'm also intrigued by what it must be like to live in such buildings. When I was a student there was a hall of residence down the road from where I lived which was a huge tower-block. I often wondered how it would feel to be alone all night on the upper floors, particularly on winter nights.

I actually like looking down from tall buildings at what's going on below. It's a nicer view as well.

I do not like heights. I have been up to the top of St Pauls Cathedral. The whispering gallery is frightening when you look down to the nave.

I love looking down from tall buildings! My favourite is the Stratosphere hotel in Las Vegas. The windows slope outwards (see http://www.vegas.com/resorts/strato/stratoimages/images/strato13-01.jpg) and you can see straight down! Oh yeah - I also went on that roller coaster (the red thing around the tower in the pic) - one of the scariest experiences of my life!

wow...I just got at ease with coaster this weekend...I want to go

Is the Stratosphere coaster in operation at night too???
Was it really,really windy up that high...how high???

The view from the top of the Stratosphere at night is fantastic! Yes it can get windy up there and when it does they don't let you go outside. If you think the roller coaster looks scary have a look at this...http://www.joyrides.com/las_vegas/photos/big_shot2.jpg

I didn't go on "The Big Shot" which "launches passengers 160 feet in the air in a mere 2.5 seconds to experience 4 G's of force, and then drops them back down to the launching pad at 0 G's"...all at 1,149 feet up!!! (100 stories high)

I do get an urge to jump when looking down from a tall building. And when standing on the ground leaning my head backwards to look up at one, I often feel like I`m falling backwards.