Research
16 October 2023
Interactive Study - Sea-Level Rise Susceptibility
S. Isaac Work & Shea Anthony, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
This interactive data study builds off the work conducted by the Université de Montréal, supported by the 2019 CTBUH Student Research Competition, kindly sponsored by...
03 April 2023
Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2022: World Surpasses 2,000 Buildings of 200 Meters or Greater Height
CTBUH Staff
This report shows that 147 buildings of 200 meters’ height or greater were completed in 2022, a 25 percent increase from 2021, when 118 such...
22 August 2022
The World’s Highest Pools: A Deep Dive
S. Isaac Work & Shawn Ursini, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Tall building design has diversified and adapted to accommodate increased demand for distinctive amenities at a range of heights. Swimming pools are a classic feature...
15 August 2022
Measuring the Economic Premium for Height
Grant Mosey & Brian Deal, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In this study, the authors examine the sale and rent prices for units in the 10 tallest for-sale and for-rent residential buildings in Chicago. Statistical...
17 September 2021
Sustainable Tall Building Design Exemplars
Will Miranda & Daniel Safarik, CTBUH
Some 97 cities worldwide, including most of the world’s megacities with a population of 10 million or more, have signed onto the C40 Cities Climate...
30 January 2020
Tall Buildings’ Lower Public Spaces: Impact on Health and Behavior
Yu Ye, Zhendong Wang, Nannan Dong & Xihui Zhou, Tongji University
Tall buildings unquestionably need to improve their impact on the urban habitat. A human-focused approach to measuring the social impact of tall buildings’ ground conditions,...
14 March 2019
Tall Buildings as Urban Habitats: A Quantitative Approach for Measuring Social Impacts of Tall Buildings
Xihui Zhou & Yu Ye & Zhendong Wang, Tongji University
After decades of high-speed development, designing tall buildings as critical components of urban habitat, rather than simply standing aloof from their environments, has become an...
31 January 2019
Green Communal Spaces at Height In a High-Density City
Edwin (Chi Wai) Chan, New World Development Company Ltd.; Janette (Wan Ming) Chan, P&T Architects and Engineers Ltd.
In contrast to the typically generic design of mixed-use developments in Hong Kong, SKYPARK is an exploration of the potential of “com-living” (communal living) in...
IPMSC.jpg)
31 January 2019
Creating Industry-Accepted Criteria for Measuring Tall Building Floor Area
William Miranda & Dario Trabucco, CTBUH
The entire tall building industry relies on floor-area measurements to serve as a precise, unambiguous calculation to guide decisions. This can range from architects using...
01 July 2018
How Much Development Can a Rail Station Lead? A Case Study of Hong Kong
Charlie Qiuli Xue & Cong Sun, City University of Hong Kong
Since the concept was first introduced in the 1970s, transit-oriented-development (TOD) has greatly expanded in East Asian cities such as Hong Kong. Rail stations are...
30 April 2018
Cyclone-Glazing and Façade Resilience for the Asia-Pacific Region: Market and Code Study
Angela Mejorin, Dario Trabucco, CTBUH; Reisuke Nakada, Malvinder Singh Ruprai & Ingo Stelzer, Trosifol World of Interlayers
This paper summarizes the Stage 1 results of the CTBUH Research Division’s project “Cyclone-Glazing and Facade Resilience for the Asia-Pacific Region.” The project was possible...
Gisling.jpg)
05 February 2018
Applying Ancient Structural Principles To a New Prefabricated Steel System
Derry Yu, Ivan Kong & Michael Lu, New World China Land Limited
Numerous ancient timber structures located in high seismic zones of China are still standing today, long after experiencing strong earthquakes over hundreds of years. One...
08 August 2017
Micro-MACRO Living in the Global High-Rise
Mimi Hoang & Ammr Vandal, nARCHITECTS
What housing models should dense urban cities pursue to address population rise, housing shortages, and changes in demographics? As cities seek to address large discrepancies...
02 June 2017
Capturing the Underlying Structure of a ‘Segment-line’ City
Michelle Xiaohong Ling, South China University of Technology
Analyzing morphological evolution over a long period of time is deemed an effective way to identify problems occurring in the process of urban development, in...
02 June 2017
An Analytical Approach to Measuring the Degree of Urbanity of Urban Building Complexes
Shuchen Xu, Yu Ye & Leiqing Xu, Tongji University
The importance of designing urban building complexes so that they obtain ‘urban’ power, rather than become isolated from the surrounding urban context, has been well...
17 October 2016
Shifting Urban Gravity, from “Central to Core” Business Districts
Tim Blackburn, Swire Properties
In the age of the multi-million inhabitant city, the concept of a single, concentrated Central Business District is increasingly becoming unsustainable. As we are seeing...
17 October 2016
City Hubs
Keith Griffiths, Aedas
Our lives are adapting to a convenient, vibrant, and connected live-work dynamic, and our cities must change and respond to those new requirements. Much of...
17 October 2016
High Intensity Urban Order
Patrik Schumacher, Zaha Hadid Architects
Density via high-rise structures remains a primary agenda in our era of urban concentration. It is crucial to understand the societal forces that drive concentration:...
17 October 2016
The Roots of Tall Buildings: Connecting the City
Peter Brannan, Arquitectonica
This paper investigates the integration of tall tower, mixed-use developments and how they connect with the city and the public when they meet the ground....
17 October 2016
The Largest Megalopolis in the World: Assessing the Urbanization of the Pearl River Delta
Peter Kindel, Ellen Lou & Lingyue Anne Chen, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
With the world’s urban population expected to increase by roughly 2.5 billion people by 2050, developing an understanding of megalopolises is critical to understanding and...
17 October 2016
Density Our Strength: The Linear City in Practice
Stefan Krummeck & Ben MacLeod, Farrells
Hong Kong is unique as a linear city. More than 7 million people reside, mainly in high-rise buildings, in a series of highly dense coastal...
17 October 2016
Integrated Transport Networks, Communities and the Design of Mixed-Use Developments
David Zaballero, Arquitectonica
The paper examines the importance of integrated public and private transportation in mixed-use developments within the city and how this affects and improves our lives....
17 October 2016
From Meadows to Megacities: Creating Urban Density in the Pearl River Region
Travis Soberg, Goettsch Partners
The Greater Pearl River Delta region emerged as a result of China’s 1979 reform policies. Within the last 20 years, the GPRD has grown from...
17 October 2016
Do We Need 700 Meter High-Rise Buildings?
Jovi Chu, Shum Yip Land Company Limited
Through analysis of dense urban high-rise building complexes as well as research on the relationship of those structures to a city’s social organization, this paper...
17 October 2016
Superdensity: A New Model for Vertical Urbanism
David Tickle, HASSELL; Richard Palmer, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff
Hong Kong has been, for decades, one of the world’s most fascinating urban experiments. In one year alone (following the 2nd world war) the city...
17 October 2016
ICC – Rising High for the Future of Hong Kong
Tony Tang, Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited
Standing at 484 meters, Sun Hung Kai’s ICC is the tallest building in Hong Kong and currently the 7th tallest in the world. ICC does...
17 October 2016
New World Centre Remodeling – Sustainable Building Design and Next-Generation Mixed-Use Developments
Jeff Tung, New World Development Company Limited
As one of the most concentrated metropolises in the world, Hong Kong developers and architects face some unique challenges on sustainable building design. The Hong...
17 October 2016
Extending the Public Realm Into the Sky
Claude Bøjer Godefroy & Julian Chen, Henning Larsen Architects
The design of tall buildings in our megacities is going through an exciting paradigm shift: globally, we are observing new trends towards greater numbers of...
17 October 2016
Singularly Slender: Sky Living in New York, Hong Kong, and Elsewhere
Carol Willis, The Skyscraper Museum
This paper highlights a new 21st-century skyscraper typology – the very tall and slender residential tower – and analyzes the economic, engineering, and urbanistic forces...
17 October 2016
21st Century Vertical Lifestyles - Intergenerational, Integrated Communities
Stephan Reinke, Stephan Reinke Architects Limited
How does the 21st Century youth culture of social media integrate and merge with an ever increasing tech savvy senior population? As our cities and...
17 October 2016
Affordable Housing Under Shaping Dense Vertical Urbanism
Elena Generalova, Viktor Generalov & Natalia Potienko, Samara State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
Rapid urbanization causes major problems of urban sprawl and social stratification, and at the same time it opens up new opportunities of shaping dense vertical...
NasirKhanSaikat.jpg)
17 October 2016
Megacities: Setting the Scene
Daniel Safarik, Shawn Ursini & Antony Wood; Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The rise of the megacity presents unprecedented opportunities to understand the human urbanization phenomenon, and to observe the effects of multicore, polycentric cities growing together...
17 October 2016
Shifting Urban Gravity, from “Central” To “Core” Business Districts
Tim Balckburn, Swire Properties
In the age of the multi-million inhabitant city, the traditional concept of a single Central Business District (CBD) is becoming increasingly unrealistic. As we are...
17 October 2016
Cities to Megacities: Perspectives
CTBUH 2016 Conference Speakers
The CTBUH 2016 International Conference is being held in the three cities of the Pearl River Delta, the world’s largest “megacity,” projected to have 120...
01 June 2016
Pedestrian Distribution in High-Rise Commercial Complexes
Leiqing Xu, Tongji University; Zhengwei Xia, Changzhou Institute of Technology
One of the key problems in the design of high-rise commercial complex is how to guide reasonable pedestrian distribution in commercial space. In this study,...
01 December 2015
Deep Foundations for High-Rise Buildings in Hong Kong
James Sze, Arup
Hong Kong is a renowned small city with densely placed skyscrapers. It is no surprise that heavy duty or even mega foundations are built over...
26 October 2015
Integrated and Intelligent Buildings: An Imperative to People, the Planet and the Bottom Line
Kelly Romano, Mead Rusert & Hayden Reeve, United Technologies Corporation
With the impact of urbanization, larger cities, operating pressures and the rise of megatall skyscrapers, today’s new and existing buildings are increasingly being engineered as...
26 October 2015
ICC Hong Kong: Exemplary Performance
Patrick Leung & Howard Yeung, Sun Hung Kai Properties
The International Commerce Centre (ICC) is a landmark skyscraper located in Hong Kong. It is the tallest building in Hong Kong, with office spaces, fine...
26 October 2015
Global Cyclical Resurgence and Clustering of Office Skyscrapers
Sofia Dermisi, University of Washington
Skyscraper development has been linked with financial extremes; this paper explores this relationship by analyzing global construction trends for office skyscrapers with a height of...
26 October 2015
It’s Not About the Skyline, It’s About the Base Condition
Terri Boake, University of Waterloo
The rapid densification of cities is a fairly recent phenomenon and seems in many cases to be progressing without regard to important already established urban...
24 August 2015
Climate Change in Hong Kong: Mitigation Through Sustainable Retrofitting
Kevin Wan, Gary Cheung & Vincent Cheng, Arup
Recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have raised public awareness of energy use and its environmental implications. There are more than...
01 June 2015
Genesis of a Vertical City in Hong Kong
Stephen S. Y. Lau and Qianning Zhang, National University of Singapore and Tongji University
A vertical city with multifunctional land use turns out to be the most viable solution for an urban condition characterized by increasing density due to...
01 June 2015
Townscape in a High-rise: Imageability and Accessibility of Vertical Malls in Hong Kong
Zheng Tan, Tongji University
The increasing integration of public space and consumerism in Hong Kong has yielded new urban forms. The emergent vertical malls in Hong Kong and other...
31 December 2014
Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2014
Daniel Safarik, Antony Wood, Marty Carver & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH
An All-Time Record 97 Buildings of 200 Meters or Higher Completed in 2014 and 2014 showed further shifts towards Asia, and also surprising developments in...
HI.jpg)
16 September 2014
Learning From 50 Years of Hong Kong Skybridges
James Robinson, Hongkong Land
Hongkong Land was instrumental in developing Hong Kong’s famous network of skybridges between buildings. CTBUH Editor Daniel Safarik spoke to James Robinson, Executive Director of...
16 September 2014
Learning from Hong Kong: Why High Density TODs Spell the Future for Asia’s Most Populous Cities
Bryant H.Y. Lu, Andy K.M. Leung & Anthony M.C. Cheung, Ronald Lu & Partners
The paper utilizes examples in Hong Kong and Shanghai to demonstrate why high- density Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) spell the future for Asia’s most populous cities....
16 September 2014
Beyond Icons: Developing Horizontally in the Vertical Realm
James Robinson, Hongkong Land Limited; Antony Wood, CTBUH
If the horizontal growth of cities is considered unsustainable in terms of land use, infrastructure, energy use and pollution creation, then cities need to grow...
01 February 2013
Fire Safety Strategies for Supertall Buildings in Hong Kong
Wan-ki Chow, Nai-kong Fong, Che-heng Lui, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; et al.
In the course of updating fire safety standards in Hong Kong, an array of fire safety issues in supertall buildings were found, raising concerns about...
13 January 2013
International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong
As the tallest building in Hong Kong, the International Commerce Centre is an icon, not only for its scale, but also for its iconic ‘dragon...
23 September 2012
The Tallest 15 Cities in China
CTBUH Research
With over 1.3 billion citizens and a rapidly urbanizing population, China is developing tall buildings more than any other country globally. Currently it has 239...
21 September 2012
Considering Place in an Integrated Approach to Tall Building Design
Brian Lee, William Baker & Luke Leung, SOM
The rapid development of modern Chinese cities has provided designers and developers with unique opportunities to create architecture that either responds to its existing context...
19 September 2012
Comparative Study of the Urban Complex in Shanghai and Hong Kong
Zhendong Wang & Jianduan Chen, Tongji University
The paper analyzes the financial value, space value and urban value of the urban building complex in Shanghai and Hong Kong through three levels: direct...
19 September 2012
Urban Models for the 21st Century
Stefan Krummeck, TFP Farrells Limited
Recently, Asia has witnessed an astonishing proliferation of high-rise buildings. Towers are growing in numbers and in height which presents enormous opportunities and great challenges....
01 November 2011
Humanizing High-rise Urbanism: Design Strategies and Planning Tools
Vinayak Bharne, Moule & Polyzoides
From a global standpoint, the high-rise city remains a negotiated territory, a juggling act between private interests, political processes and public good. But while private...
01 February 2011
The Culture of Compactness: Dimensions of Density in Hong Kong
Peter Cookson Smith, Urbis Limited
Compact cities are, by their nature, relatively sustainable, and Hong Kong is eminently so on many counts. Peter Cookson Smith from Urbis Limited writes on...
31 December 2010
Tallest Buildings Completed in 2010
CTBUH Research
In a year dominated by news coverage of the new “World’s Tallest Building” – Burj Khalifa, Dubai – one may be surprised to learn that,...
01 December 2010
Case Study: Hong Kong International Commerce Centre
David Malott, KPF
Soaring 484 meters (1,588 feet) above Victoria Harbor, the International Commerce Centre (ICC) is the essence of Hong Kong in one destination: high-powered finance, global...
31 December 2008
Tallest Buildings Completed in 2008
CTBUH Research
Against the backdrop of global economic crisis, 2008 witnessed the most successful year of skyscraper construction to date, with more skyscrapers constructed globally within a...
31 December 2007
Tallest Buildings Completed in 2007
333 meters high with 72 stories and 480 suites, Rose Rotana Tower in Dubai leads the list of the 10 tallest buildings completed in 2007....
31 December 2006
Tallest Buildings Completed in 2006
Nina Tower 1 in Hong Kong, at 319 meters high, leads the list of the ten tallest buildings completed in 2006. The Sports City Tower/Aspire...
16 October 2005
Three Mega-Tall Buildings in Hong Kong: Central Plaza, Two International Finance Centre, and International Commerce Centre
John W. K. Luk, Julia M.K. Lau & Tim M.T. Mak; Lau Sun Hung Kai Properties
The paper goes over Sun Hung Kai Properties Group as the developer/co-developer of three major tall building commercial complexes in Hong Kong: the Central Plaza,...
10 October 2004
Learning from the Past - Tall Buildings and the Evolution of Old Cities
Dennis Lau Wing-Kwong & Alexander Lush, Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers
The paper draws attention to the similarities of the impact of high-rise structures upon historical cities with past new development and re-development, particularly with respect...
10 October 2004
A General Survey on Lift Ride Quality at Public Buildings of the Hong Kong Special Adminstrative Region
K. K. Li, Andy M. T. Suen & Eddie W. K. Wu, Architectural Services Department of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (ArchSD of HKSAR)
This paper summarizes the measurement results and analyses of a quantitative research undertaken by the Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative...
10 October 2004
Two International Finance Centre
Andrew Luong, Craig Gibbons, Alexis Lee & John MacArthur, Ove Arup & Partners
This paper describes the some of the geotechnical design considerations, the structural design development and construction of the 420m tower, Two International Finance Centre in...
10 October 2004
The Foundation Design for Two Super High-Rise Buildings in Hong Kong
John Davies, James Lui, Jack Pappin, et al., Ove Arup & Partners
This paper examines the foundation design for the IFC Tower II and Union Square, 420 meters tall and 480 meters tall, respectively.
20 October 2003
Assessment of the Life Safety Aspects and Structural Robustness of High Rise Buildings in Hong Kong
Craig Gibbons & Mingchun Luo, ARUP; David Dumigan, Central Waterfront Property Project Management
At the time of the events in New York of September 11, 2001, a 420m high 88 storey office building in Hong Kong was constructed...
26 February 2001
New Towns in Hong Kong: Planning for the Next Generation
Pun Chung Chan
Hong Kong is perhaps the city in this planet that is subject to the most intense development pressures.The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to...
26 February 2001
Recent Infrastructure Developments in Hong Kong – the Background, Current and Future Developments
Raymond W. M. Wong, City University of Hong Kong
To accommodate somewhat 7 million people in a piece of land of size slightly bigger than 1050 sq km like Hong Kong is not an...
11 February 2000
Asian Urban Futures
Chris Abel, University of Sydney
Chris Abel writes on the development of the future Asian megacities and their urban landscapes.
16 October 2023
Interactive Study - Sea-Level Rise Susceptibility
S. Isaac Work & Shea Anthony, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
This interactive data study builds off the work conducted by the Université de Montréal, supported by the 2019 CTBUH Student Research Competition, kindly sponsored by...
03 April 2023
Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2022: World Surpasses 2,000 Buildings of 200 Meters or Greater Height
CTBUH Staff
This report shows that 147 buildings of 200 meters’ height or greater were completed in 2022, a 25 percent increase from 2021, when 118 such...
22 August 2022
The World’s Highest Pools: A Deep Dive
S. Isaac Work & Shawn Ursini, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Tall building design has diversified and adapted to accommodate increased demand for distinctive amenities at a range of heights. Swimming pools are a classic feature...
15 August 2022
Measuring the Economic Premium for Height
Grant Mosey & Brian Deal, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In this study, the authors examine the sale and rent prices for units in the 10 tallest for-sale and for-rent residential buildings in Chicago. Statistical...
17 September 2021
Sustainable Tall Building Design Exemplars
Will Miranda & Daniel Safarik, CTBUH
Some 97 cities worldwide, including most of the world’s megacities with a population of 10 million or more, have signed onto the C40 Cities Climate...
30 January 2020
Tall Buildings’ Lower Public Spaces: Impact on Health and Behavior
Yu Ye, Zhendong Wang, Nannan Dong & Xihui Zhou, Tongji University
Tall buildings unquestionably need to improve their impact on the urban habitat. A human-focused approach to measuring the social impact of tall buildings’ ground conditions,...
14 March 2019
Tall Buildings as Urban Habitats: A Quantitative Approach for Measuring Social Impacts of Tall Buildings
Xihui Zhou & Yu Ye & Zhendong Wang, Tongji University
After decades of high-speed development, designing tall buildings as critical components of urban habitat, rather than simply standing aloof from their environments, has become an...
31 January 2019
Green Communal Spaces at Height In a High-Density City
Edwin (Chi Wai) Chan, New World Development Company Ltd.; Janette (Wan Ming) Chan, P&T Architects and Engineers Ltd.
In contrast to the typically generic design of mixed-use developments in Hong Kong, SKYPARK is an exploration of the potential of “com-living” (communal living) in...
31 January 2019
Creating Industry-Accepted Criteria for Measuring Tall Building Floor Area
William Miranda & Dario Trabucco, CTBUH
The entire tall building industry relies on floor-area measurements to serve as a precise, unambiguous calculation to guide decisions. This can range from architects using...
01 July 2018
How Much Development Can a Rail Station Lead? A Case Study of Hong Kong
Charlie Qiuli Xue & Cong Sun, City University of Hong Kong
Since the concept was first introduced in the 1970s, transit-oriented-development (TOD) has greatly expanded in East Asian cities such as Hong Kong. Rail stations are...
30 April 2018
Cyclone-Glazing and Façade Resilience for the Asia-Pacific Region: Market and Code Study
Angela Mejorin, Dario Trabucco, CTBUH; Reisuke Nakada, Malvinder Singh Ruprai & Ingo Stelzer, Trosifol World of Interlayers
This paper summarizes the Stage 1 results of the CTBUH Research Division’s project “Cyclone-Glazing and Facade Resilience for the Asia-Pacific Region.” The project was possible...
05 February 2018
Applying Ancient Structural Principles To a New Prefabricated Steel System
Derry Yu, Ivan Kong & Michael Lu, New World China Land Limited
Numerous ancient timber structures located in high seismic zones of China are still standing today, long after experiencing strong earthquakes over hundreds of years. One...
08 August 2017
Micro-MACRO Living in the Global High-Rise
Mimi Hoang & Ammr Vandal, nARCHITECTS
What housing models should dense urban cities pursue to address population rise, housing shortages, and changes in demographics? As cities seek to address large discrepancies...
02 June 2017
Capturing the Underlying Structure of a ‘Segment-line’ City
Michelle Xiaohong Ling, South China University of Technology
Analyzing morphological evolution over a long period of time is deemed an effective way to identify problems occurring in the process of urban development, in...
02 June 2017
An Analytical Approach to Measuring the Degree of Urbanity of Urban Building Complexes
Shuchen Xu, Yu Ye & Leiqing Xu, Tongji University
The importance of designing urban building complexes so that they obtain ‘urban’ power, rather than become isolated from the surrounding urban context, has been well...
17 October 2016
Shifting Urban Gravity, from “Central to Core” Business Districts
Tim Blackburn, Swire Properties
In the age of the multi-million inhabitant city, the concept of a single, concentrated Central Business District is increasingly becoming unsustainable. As we are seeing...
17 October 2016
City Hubs
Keith Griffiths, Aedas
Our lives are adapting to a convenient, vibrant, and connected live-work dynamic, and our cities must change and respond to those new requirements. Much of...
17 October 2016
High Intensity Urban Order
Patrik Schumacher, Zaha Hadid Architects
Density via high-rise structures remains a primary agenda in our era of urban concentration. It is crucial to understand the societal forces that drive concentration:...
17 October 2016
The Roots of Tall Buildings: Connecting the City
Peter Brannan, Arquitectonica
This paper investigates the integration of tall tower, mixed-use developments and how they connect with the city and the public when they meet the ground....
17 October 2016
The Largest Megalopolis in the World: Assessing the Urbanization of the Pearl River Delta
Peter Kindel, Ellen Lou & Lingyue Anne Chen, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
With the world’s urban population expected to increase by roughly 2.5 billion people by 2050, developing an understanding of megalopolises is critical to understanding and...
17 October 2016
Density Our Strength: The Linear City in Practice
Stefan Krummeck & Ben MacLeod, Farrells
Hong Kong is unique as a linear city. More than 7 million people reside, mainly in high-rise buildings, in a series of highly dense coastal...
17 October 2016
Integrated Transport Networks, Communities and the Design of Mixed-Use Developments
David Zaballero, Arquitectonica
The paper examines the importance of integrated public and private transportation in mixed-use developments within the city and how this affects and improves our lives....
17 October 2016
From Meadows to Megacities: Creating Urban Density in the Pearl River Region
Travis Soberg, Goettsch Partners
The Greater Pearl River Delta region emerged as a result of China’s 1979 reform policies. Within the last 20 years, the GPRD has grown from...
17 October 2016
Do We Need 700 Meter High-Rise Buildings?
Jovi Chu, Shum Yip Land Company Limited
Through analysis of dense urban high-rise building complexes as well as research on the relationship of those structures to a city’s social organization, this paper...
17 October 2016
Superdensity: A New Model for Vertical Urbanism
David Tickle, HASSELL; Richard Palmer, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff
Hong Kong has been, for decades, one of the world’s most fascinating urban experiments. In one year alone (following the 2nd world war) the city...
17 October 2016
ICC – Rising High for the Future of Hong Kong
Tony Tang, Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited
Standing at 484 meters, Sun Hung Kai’s ICC is the tallest building in Hong Kong and currently the 7th tallest in the world. ICC does...
17 October 2016
New World Centre Remodeling – Sustainable Building Design and Next-Generation Mixed-Use Developments
Jeff Tung, New World Development Company Limited
As one of the most concentrated metropolises in the world, Hong Kong developers and architects face some unique challenges on sustainable building design. The Hong...
17 October 2016
Extending the Public Realm Into the Sky
Claude Bøjer Godefroy & Julian Chen, Henning Larsen Architects
The design of tall buildings in our megacities is going through an exciting paradigm shift: globally, we are observing new trends towards greater numbers of...
17 October 2016
Singularly Slender: Sky Living in New York, Hong Kong, and Elsewhere
Carol Willis, The Skyscraper Museum
This paper highlights a new 21st-century skyscraper typology – the very tall and slender residential tower – and analyzes the economic, engineering, and urbanistic forces...
17 October 2016
21st Century Vertical Lifestyles - Intergenerational, Integrated Communities
Stephan Reinke, Stephan Reinke Architects Limited
How does the 21st Century youth culture of social media integrate and merge with an ever increasing tech savvy senior population? As our cities and...
17 October 2016
Affordable Housing Under Shaping Dense Vertical Urbanism
Elena Generalova, Viktor Generalov & Natalia Potienko, Samara State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
Rapid urbanization causes major problems of urban sprawl and social stratification, and at the same time it opens up new opportunities of shaping dense vertical...
17 October 2016
Megacities: Setting the Scene
Daniel Safarik, Shawn Ursini & Antony Wood; Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The rise of the megacity presents unprecedented opportunities to understand the human urbanization phenomenon, and to observe the effects of multicore, polycentric cities growing together...
17 October 2016
Shifting Urban Gravity, from “Central” To “Core” Business Districts
Tim Balckburn, Swire Properties
In the age of the multi-million inhabitant city, the traditional concept of a single Central Business District (CBD) is becoming increasingly unrealistic. As we are...
17 October 2016
Cities to Megacities: Perspectives
CTBUH 2016 Conference Speakers
The CTBUH 2016 International Conference is being held in the three cities of the Pearl River Delta, the world’s largest “megacity,” projected to have 120...
01 June 2016
Pedestrian Distribution in High-Rise Commercial Complexes
Leiqing Xu, Tongji University; Zhengwei Xia, Changzhou Institute of Technology
One of the key problems in the design of high-rise commercial complex is how to guide reasonable pedestrian distribution in commercial space. In this study,...
01 December 2015
Deep Foundations for High-Rise Buildings in Hong Kong
James Sze, Arup
Hong Kong is a renowned small city with densely placed skyscrapers. It is no surprise that heavy duty or even mega foundations are built over...
26 October 2015
Integrated and Intelligent Buildings: An Imperative to People, the Planet and the Bottom Line
Kelly Romano, Mead Rusert & Hayden Reeve, United Technologies Corporation
With the impact of urbanization, larger cities, operating pressures and the rise of megatall skyscrapers, today’s new and existing buildings are increasingly being engineered as...
26 October 2015
ICC Hong Kong: Exemplary Performance
Patrick Leung & Howard Yeung, Sun Hung Kai Properties
The International Commerce Centre (ICC) is a landmark skyscraper located in Hong Kong. It is the tallest building in Hong Kong, with office spaces, fine...
26 October 2015
Global Cyclical Resurgence and Clustering of Office Skyscrapers
Sofia Dermisi, University of Washington
Skyscraper development has been linked with financial extremes; this paper explores this relationship by analyzing global construction trends for office skyscrapers with a height of...
26 October 2015
It’s Not About the Skyline, It’s About the Base Condition
Terri Boake, University of Waterloo
The rapid densification of cities is a fairly recent phenomenon and seems in many cases to be progressing without regard to important already established urban...
24 August 2015
Climate Change in Hong Kong: Mitigation Through Sustainable Retrofitting
Kevin Wan, Gary Cheung & Vincent Cheng, Arup
Recent reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have raised public awareness of energy use and its environmental implications. There are more than...
01 June 2015
Genesis of a Vertical City in Hong Kong
Stephen S. Y. Lau and Qianning Zhang, National University of Singapore and Tongji University
A vertical city with multifunctional land use turns out to be the most viable solution for an urban condition characterized by increasing density due to...
01 June 2015
Townscape in a High-rise: Imageability and Accessibility of Vertical Malls in Hong Kong
Zheng Tan, Tongji University
The increasing integration of public space and consumerism in Hong Kong has yielded new urban forms. The emergent vertical malls in Hong Kong and other...
31 December 2014
Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2014
Daniel Safarik, Antony Wood, Marty Carver & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH
An All-Time Record 97 Buildings of 200 Meters or Higher Completed in 2014 and 2014 showed further shifts towards Asia, and also surprising developments in...
16 September 2014
Learning From 50 Years of Hong Kong Skybridges
James Robinson, Hongkong Land
Hongkong Land was instrumental in developing Hong Kong’s famous network of skybridges between buildings. CTBUH Editor Daniel Safarik spoke to James Robinson, Executive Director of...
16 September 2014
Learning from Hong Kong: Why High Density TODs Spell the Future for Asia’s Most Populous Cities
Bryant H.Y. Lu, Andy K.M. Leung & Anthony M.C. Cheung, Ronald Lu & Partners
The paper utilizes examples in Hong Kong and Shanghai to demonstrate why high- density Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) spell the future for Asia’s most populous cities....
16 September 2014
Beyond Icons: Developing Horizontally in the Vertical Realm
James Robinson, Hongkong Land Limited; Antony Wood, CTBUH
If the horizontal growth of cities is considered unsustainable in terms of land use, infrastructure, energy use and pollution creation, then cities need to grow...
01 February 2013
Fire Safety Strategies for Supertall Buildings in Hong Kong
Wan-ki Chow, Nai-kong Fong, Che-heng Lui, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; et al.
In the course of updating fire safety standards in Hong Kong, an array of fire safety issues in supertall buildings were found, raising concerns about...
13 January 2013
International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong
As the tallest building in Hong Kong, the International Commerce Centre is an icon, not only for its scale, but also for its iconic ‘dragon...
23 September 2012
The Tallest 15 Cities in China
CTBUH Research
With over 1.3 billion citizens and a rapidly urbanizing population, China is developing tall buildings more than any other country globally. Currently it has 239...
21 September 2012
Considering Place in an Integrated Approach to Tall Building Design
Brian Lee, William Baker & Luke Leung, SOM
The rapid development of modern Chinese cities has provided designers and developers with unique opportunities to create architecture that either responds to its existing context...
19 September 2012
Comparative Study of the Urban Complex in Shanghai and Hong Kong
Zhendong Wang & Jianduan Chen, Tongji University
The paper analyzes the financial value, space value and urban value of the urban building complex in Shanghai and Hong Kong through three levels: direct...
19 September 2012
Urban Models for the 21st Century
Stefan Krummeck, TFP Farrells Limited
Recently, Asia has witnessed an astonishing proliferation of high-rise buildings. Towers are growing in numbers and in height which presents enormous opportunities and great challenges....
01 November 2011
Humanizing High-rise Urbanism: Design Strategies and Planning Tools
Vinayak Bharne, Moule & Polyzoides
From a global standpoint, the high-rise city remains a negotiated territory, a juggling act between private interests, political processes and public good. But while private...
01 February 2011
The Culture of Compactness: Dimensions of Density in Hong Kong
Peter Cookson Smith, Urbis Limited
Compact cities are, by their nature, relatively sustainable, and Hong Kong is eminently so on many counts. Peter Cookson Smith from Urbis Limited writes on...
31 December 2010
Tallest Buildings Completed in 2010
CTBUH Research
In a year dominated by news coverage of the new “World’s Tallest Building” – Burj Khalifa, Dubai – one may be surprised to learn that,...
01 December 2010
Case Study: Hong Kong International Commerce Centre
David Malott, KPF
Soaring 484 meters (1,588 feet) above Victoria Harbor, the International Commerce Centre (ICC) is the essence of Hong Kong in one destination: high-powered finance, global...
31 December 2008
Tallest Buildings Completed in 2008
CTBUH Research
Against the backdrop of global economic crisis, 2008 witnessed the most successful year of skyscraper construction to date, with more skyscrapers constructed globally within a...
31 December 2007
Tallest Buildings Completed in 2007
333 meters high with 72 stories and 480 suites, Rose Rotana Tower in Dubai leads the list of the 10 tallest buildings completed in 2007....
31 December 2006
Tallest Buildings Completed in 2006
Nina Tower 1 in Hong Kong, at 319 meters high, leads the list of the ten tallest buildings completed in 2006. The Sports City Tower/Aspire...
16 October 2005
Three Mega-Tall Buildings in Hong Kong: Central Plaza, Two International Finance Centre, and International Commerce Centre
John W. K. Luk, Julia M.K. Lau & Tim M.T. Mak; Lau Sun Hung Kai Properties
The paper goes over Sun Hung Kai Properties Group as the developer/co-developer of three major tall building commercial complexes in Hong Kong: the Central Plaza,...
10 October 2004
Learning from the Past - Tall Buildings and the Evolution of Old Cities
Dennis Lau Wing-Kwong & Alexander Lush, Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers
The paper draws attention to the similarities of the impact of high-rise structures upon historical cities with past new development and re-development, particularly with respect...
10 October 2004
A General Survey on Lift Ride Quality at Public Buildings of the Hong Kong Special Adminstrative Region
K. K. Li, Andy M. T. Suen & Eddie W. K. Wu, Architectural Services Department of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (ArchSD of HKSAR)
This paper summarizes the measurement results and analyses of a quantitative research undertaken by the Architectural Services Department (ArchSD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative...
10 October 2004
Two International Finance Centre
Andrew Luong, Craig Gibbons, Alexis Lee & John MacArthur, Ove Arup & Partners
This paper describes the some of the geotechnical design considerations, the structural design development and construction of the 420m tower, Two International Finance Centre in...
10 October 2004
The Foundation Design for Two Super High-Rise Buildings in Hong Kong
John Davies, James Lui, Jack Pappin, et al., Ove Arup & Partners
This paper examines the foundation design for the IFC Tower II and Union Square, 420 meters tall and 480 meters tall, respectively.
20 October 2003
Assessment of the Life Safety Aspects and Structural Robustness of High Rise Buildings in Hong Kong
Craig Gibbons & Mingchun Luo, ARUP; David Dumigan, Central Waterfront Property Project Management
At the time of the events in New York of September 11, 2001, a 420m high 88 storey office building in Hong Kong was constructed...
26 February 2001
New Towns in Hong Kong: Planning for the Next Generation
Pun Chung Chan
Hong Kong is perhaps the city in this planet that is subject to the most intense development pressures.The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to...
26 February 2001
Recent Infrastructure Developments in Hong Kong – the Background, Current and Future Developments
Raymond W. M. Wong, City University of Hong Kong
To accommodate somewhat 7 million people in a piece of land of size slightly bigger than 1050 sq km like Hong Kong is not an...
11 February 2000
Asian Urban Futures
Chris Abel, University of Sydney
Chris Abel writes on the development of the future Asian megacities and their urban landscapes.
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