Take for example the Taipei 101 Tower:
– 508.2 meters high
– Weighs 700,000 tons
– Ground floor is 57×63.5 meters, which is 3619.5 m²
– That means an area of 3619.5m² has to hold up 700.000 tons, which is ~193 tons per m² which is 193.000 kilograms per m²
I don’t know but 193.000 kilograms feels like an unbearable crushing all-pulverizing weight to me.
Obviously it works since the Taipei 101 tower and other huge buildings exist, but intuitively I don’t understand how the bases of large and tall buildings don’t instantly pulverize under the weight of everything above it.
In: 1790
Many good answers.
I am a geotechnical engineer. Buildings transfer their weight (load) to the ground with a foundation. The type of foundation depends on how strong the ground is and how heavy the building is. Tall skyscrapers (and bridges) typically use some kind of deep foundation. These can either transfer the weight past weak stuff down to strong stuff (this is like Manhattan as another comment stated) or use friction on the sides to transfer the weight to the material (think about holding a rope in your hand).
A great EILI5 is the Practical Engineering YouTube channel.
Lots of videos which are easy to understand.
[Why buildings need foundation](https://youtu.be/0_KhihMIOG8?si=qfogeeRL9gy0WB4o)
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