MAYOR Han Zheng's advocacy of a limit being placed on the number of high-rise buildings in Shanghai received wide coverage in the local media in the past year.

One skyscraper that might have been affected by the proposed new regulations was the long-expected world's highest building - the Shanghai World Financial Centre in Pudong. It made the headlines on February 20 with the story "Soaring to new heights" which dealt with talks about a restart for the building.

On November 20, when most local media doubted if the huge project would go ahead, the Shanghai Star interviewed the investors, the first newspaper to do so.

Back in February, the developer, the Japan-based Forest Overseas Co Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mori Building Co Ltd declared a restart of the project which had begun six years earlier.

The building was planned as a super high-rise and multi-use building slated to be the world's most celebrated symbol, reaching to 492 metres with 101 storeys above ground. It was to be 72 metres taller than the Jinmao Tower, only a stone's throw away.

But six months later, when nothing seemed to be happening at the site, doubts arose over whether it really would be completed.

Experts' views

"To build the highest tower in the world, to me, is aimed more at showing the developer's economic power rather than saving ground space. I can't say whether it is correct or not to build it," said Cai Zhenyu, chief architect of Shanghai Modern Architectural Design Group Ltd.

The cost of building the Jinmao reached almost 20,000 yuan (US$2,418) per square metre. Insiders in the field of architecture said buildings with heights over 300 metres actually showed no real benefit in terms of saving space or money.

The daily cost of running Malaysia's Petronas Twin Towers, in Kuala Lumpur, is US$196,000, while for the Jinmao Tower, the highest building in Shanghai today, the figure is 1 million yuan (US$121,000).

Halting the construction of such a skyscraper can be very difficult. Because of the huge up-front investment, no one is willing to abandon the project, preferring to invest yet more money to keep the plans alive.

Among the 10 highest buildings existing today, six are located in Asia. The trend to ever higher towers has shifted from the US, the birthplace of the skyscraper, to Asia.

"The once popular idea that 'the higher the better' is now out of date. Today, most countries command the technology to build high towers. But real life has proved that excessively high building are not suitable for people to live in. They are definitely uncomfortable," Cai said. "Even in the US, there is increasing control over the height of construction."