Putting this into historical context, I believe countries have a point where they feel a need to prove themselves to outsiders. This is when they enter their “biggest, longest, tallest” phase.

Eighty years ago, the Empire State Building was built in an America coming to grips with its position in the world. As a major player.

Scroll towards the bottom of this wiki entry, and you will see that western Europe dominated the “tallest building” record for most of a century of emergence, with the zenith coming in the 19th century — when Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Portugal ruled huge chunks of the world.

Now, we have the UAE checking in, with the Burj Khalifa, world’s tallest building. Eclipsing structures in other emerging parts of the world, including Malaysia and Taiwan.

And the news is … that Saudi Arabia is working on the Kingdom Tower, which will be taller than the Burj Khalifa … and now we learn than Azerbaijan plans to build a tower that will beat Saudi’s.

Yes, mine is bigger than yours.

On a broader scale, we learn that Abu Dhabi has vaulted into the 43rd position on the world’s tallest cities list. While Dubai crept up to No. 8.

I’m not sure this is a good thing.

Until recently, Abu Dhabi was pretty much a horizontal city. The average structure in the crowded parts of town (near the water) generally topped out at six floors.

But the city has been building scads of big buildings. Like, 30, 40, 50 stories. Which is fine if you’re looking for a cheap place to live, because the supply of housing coming onto the market, at the moment, is far ahead of demand.

But towers are kinda creepy. I can see why they did it in New York; they don’t have enough space.

But the UAE is essentially empty aside from a handful of cities. We have an entire sprawling area, bigger than France, just south of us named the Empty Quarter. Because it is. Empty.

I happen to live in a ground-level apartment in Abu Dhabi, and I like the idea. (If humans were meant to live in the sky, we would have wings.) I walk out my door, and I see trees and dirt and sand. And cars and streets, but you get my drift.

Dubai, meanwhile, has these enormous buildings … and for no good reason. It reminds you of New York, but why should it? Just go another mile into the desert, and you could construct the same structure horizontally, and eliminate a lot of the design and engineering issues you have with ultra-tall buildings.

Also, these towers in Dubai tend to isolate the people who live there. The city has few neighborhoods … just skyscrapers, each of which is nearly self-contained. You could live for years, looking out your window at another skyscraper and never go inside it and never have any idea who lives 100 yards from you.

I don’t like it, and I think Abu Dhabi now being the 43rd “tallest” city in the world is a step in the wrong direction.

As the story in The National notes, some local architects are wondering about the wisdom of more and more towers.

Said one: “Dubai looks a very modern city competing with the rest of the world and has this image of newness and financial power which comes with the skyline. I agree with this approach. But since this has been done now, I think maybe in the future we will see more development which will really be sensitive to cultural and environmental issues in this part of the world.”

Next? Structures that don’t require so much energy. Perhaps half-sunk into the ground, to limit exposure to the sun.

It would be better for the UAE, I believe, if it has come out the back side of its “showing off to prove we matter” phase.

Look at the U.S.  Did anyone there care in the least when emerging nations built structures taller than the Empire State? No. That was one big shrug. It mattered it 1930. It doesn’t anymore. I suspect it will be the same here, in the not-to-distant future.