Love a bit of internet lint (Interlint, possibly? Or Linternet) - stuff that catches in the corner of your eye - and an article in The Atlantic on ‘supertalls’, the category name for rocketing-towards-the-skyline type of buildings pushing 300m and over which are spiking city skylines across the world.

Amazing as it is to marvel at the engineering chutzpah and building-daring, gawking up from the ground is all I’d be doing. I get shaky stepping more that eight rungs up a ladder, but the kinds of prospects that a flat on floor seventy-odd would afford (ha! Or rather not afford) wouldn’t be the only thing stopping me getting in the lift.

The 21st century built-equivalent of ancient towers to mammon come with a range of ‘benefits’ that often don’t appear on the sales blurb or inventory - wobbling, lift breakdowns, leaks, cracks. And the extra frisson of discovering every supertall is, well, let me use the architect’s coinage - a prototype. Which in my world means something you make in the hope you can make it work… 

The result of reaching sky-high is that the few ‘owners’ (actually often shell-companies or investors), who actually live in them some of the time, can also look forward to “nausea, distractibility, difficulty working, and fatigue” brought on by the thing that wind wants to do to buildings. Not that they sway, mind you; to use the sector’s parlance, building’s don’t sway. They dance. I know.

But clearly none of this actual real-life stuff makes any difference, as these places are often not for living in. As one realtor explained:

“I don’t really see us as selling real estate… I sell a transfer of enthusiasm and excitement and brand.”

Which is an interesting take on the business of shifting space. I thought our trade were the champions of flogging the intangible. Seem like we’ve been letting the grass grow under our feet - while we’re banging on about clear blue water, everyone else has their sights (and sites) set on the stars instead. 

It made me wonder if all the (brand and marketing) talk of being ‘grounded’ (as in getting back down to earth and keeping it real) and clamour to ‘make it authentic ‘ is over-earthing us. Making us too cautious, less experimental. Prototype averse. Perhaps it’s time to think about seizing back some of that reach as well. It’s not stopping some thinking the sky’s not the limit.