As urban populations grow, cities have experienced a boom in megadevelopments.

In Chongqing, China, one of the city's latest and largest megaprojects is Raffles City, an under-construction development with eight skyscrapers, plus a horizontal ninth tower that Curbed has dubbed a "sidescraper."

Resembling a tube, the roughly 1,000-foot-long building includes a swimming pool, an observatory deck, and retail space lying across four other skyscrapers. The complex is set to be complete by 2020.

The development is part of a larger trend. In the past several years, cities across the world have built fancy megaprojects, mainly aimed at the wealthy. But these types of luxury developments can take the place of affordable housing, especially in overcrowded cities. As the Urban Institute notes, developers see big returns from large, high-priced projects, giving them little incentive to build more equitable, lower-priced housing.

Take a look below.