03 April 2023

How to Design Tall for the Tropics

Yanko Apostolov

Cities located along the equator are growing rapidly, but their hot, humid and rainy climates present a challenge for designers. How can we deliver high-quality,...

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 December 2021

Overcoming Carbon, Climate, and Societal Challenges in Cities

Daniel Safarik, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)

The tall building, the city, and by extension, urban life, are all facing unprecedented challenges, in multiple aspects—carbon, climate, and societal. The planet’s rapid urbanization...

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,...

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...

28 July 2018

Oasia Hotel Downtown, Singapore: A Tall Prototype for the Tropics

Mun Summ Wong, Richard Hassell & Hong Wei Phua, WOHA Architects

Oasia Hotel Downtown is a prototype of land use intensification in the tropics. Unlike the sleek and sealed skyscrapers that evolved in the temperate West,...

01 July 2018

Exploring New Paradigms in High-Density Vertical Hybrids

Swinal Samant & Srilakshmi Menon, National University of Singapore

By the year 2050, the world population is set to increase to 9 billion people, of which 66% will be living in cities. It is...

05 February 2018

Nation-Building, Singapore-Style: Better Living Through Density

Dr. Cheong Koon Hean, Singapore Housing & Development Board (HDB)

Dr. Cheong Koon Hean was the first woman to receive the Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award from CTBUH, in 2016. As the CTBUH Awards...

08 August 2017

A Tale of Two Singapore Sky Gardens

Swinal Samant & Na Hsi-En, National University of Singapore

This paper examines the effectiveness of the design strategies used in two HDB developments for encouraging active usage and social interaction. The study was conducted...

08 August 2017

Ten Significant Tall Buildings, and the Significant Women Behind Them

Leading Women in Tall Buildings

Recently, there has been a growing and overdue recognition in the architecture discipline that women are under-represented, not just in terms of leadership positions held,...