October 30, 2026  | By Katrin Bennhold |
Good morning, world. When we moved to Cardiff and renovated the ground floor of an old Victorian house, one thing I knew I wanted was lots of glass in my kitchen. I liked the idea of lots of daylight, of seeing the trees outside.
Our builder advised against it. Even in Wales, hardly famous for tropical temperatures, it could become uncomfortably hot without air-conditioning, he warned. After last summer’s heat wave, I’m glad I followed his advice.
I’m not the only one susceptible to the allure of glass. Around the world, glass skyscrapers — those glittering symbols of modernity — are flying up at a rapid rate, often in places much hotter than Cardiff. But the air-conditioning required to make these spaces usable is extremely energy intensive. Today, my colleague Chico Harlan, our global climate correspondent, writes on why some argue it’s time to rethink the glass skyscraper.
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| The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times |
Shiny, modern and hot
By Chico Harlan
More than any other form of architecture, glass skyscrapers testify to the human desire for sweeping views and a sense of rising above the fray. In some of the world’s fastest developing places — Dubai, Mumbai, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur — they have become city-defining showpieces, signaling sophistication and rising financial clout.
Those places also all happen to get very hot.
Glass tends to be ill-suited for keeping out heat. Its overuse often makes buildings more energy intensive to cool. One woman I talked to, who lives on the 74th floor of an apartment in Kuala Lumpur, talked about the “wall of heat” she felt emanating from her windows on sunny days.
That relationship between glass and heat is now fueling a debate about whether these symbols of modernity make sense in a world growing hotter because of climate change.
Some argue that the ambition and innovation that spawned the high-rise era can also develop technology to help modern skyscrapers fend off rising temperatures while maintaining the million-dollar views.
Others say these shiny behemoths are at odds with the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. They say it is time to rethink city skylines.
Natural light, equatorial heat
In the spaces where we live and work, few amenities are more desirable than natural light.
But glass can make rooms hotter in two ways. It lets in more heat from the air outside than solid walls. It can also admit more than half of the energy from sunlight as heat inside.
That means wrapping skyscrapers in glass can significantly increase the need for air-conditioning when it’s warm or sunny out. And some parts of the world are warmer and sunnier than others.
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| The Gherkin in London. Joseph Horton for The New York Times |
In cities like New York and London that have pioneered this style of architecture, glass can reduce heating costs in the winter months. But the form has now spread across China, the Middle East and Southeast Asia — sometimes in cities close to the Equator that experience direct sunlight and intense heat year round.
Over the past decade, the world has constructed 25 times the number of buildings 200 meters or taller that it did in the 1980s. The “vast majority” have facades largely of glass, one expert told me.
Malaysia, in particular, has gone on a building spree.
The country started in 1996 by completing the Petronas Towers, the tallest buildings in the world at the time. Then it kept going, constructing hundreds more skyscrapers. Malaysia now has more buildings 200 meters or higher than any country but China, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
Some of these buildings have good energy efficiency numbers. Proponents of glass-dominant design say these buildings can be environmentally responsible, with the right choices: fins or undulations to prevent sunlight hitting glass directly, for example, or metal coatings on the glass to reflect away radiation.
But the overall quality of Malaysia’s towers is “still not so good,” said Sarly Adre Sarkum, an architect and the chief executive of Malaysia’s Green Building Index. He said that in Malaysia’s climate, extensive glass facades carry “significant energy consequences.”
The air-conditioning trap
The glass skyscraper became viable only with the advent of air-conditioning. Today, critics of the approach say that technology effectively led architects to ignore other design lessons about contending with heat, including techniques honed over centuries, such as the white, sun-reflective facades of Greece or the open, traditional homes of Southeast Asia.
In Malaysia, the first modestly tall buildings looked as if they were in an almost defensive stance against the sun. The country’s 18-story Parliament building, built in the 1960s, came wrapped in a honeycomb-like lattice. Another early skyscraper, the Dayabumi Complex, built in the 1980s, had its windows shrouded behind an ornate white veil inspired by Islamic motifs.
I also visited a neighborhood called Kampung Baru, in the center of Kuala Lumpur. Surrounded by high rises, it is an island of one- and two-story homes, preserved almost by accident because of colonial-era laws.
Today it is an architectural time capsule. People hang out in open-air restaurants under ceiling fans, and many homes have large overhangs that ward off the sun. Small windows are covered by horizontal louvers.
One of the oldest homes in the neighborhood belongs to Jamiyah Kesot, 71. Constructed of dark timber with a high-pitched roof, it relies on the cooling features from a different time. It’s built on stilts, allowing airflow from below. Kesot uses two floor fans and no air-conditioning.
Most days last summer, the outdoor temperature rose above 32 degrees Celsius. And Kesot’s home, at least to me, an unacclimated visitor, still felt punishingly humid. But one afternoon, a thunderstorm rolled in. Wind rippled through the louvers, flapping the curtains, and the home filled with fresh air.
To fully appreciate Chico’s piece, read it online.
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| A sample ballot showing candidates for next week’s U.S. Senate race in Alaska. Haven Daley/Associated Press |
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