Research
22 December 2023
Skyscrapers in Bloom: Evaluating the Artistry of “Painting with Trees”
Katarzyna Wodzisz
Incorporating greenery in skyscrapers prompts sustainability debates. This study questions the assumption that green features ensure sustainability, as designers often adopt them carelessly, leading to...
16 October 2023
Comparing the Performance of Public Housing in New York City and Singapore
Patrick Dilger
Affordable housing is a critical aspect of urban development in cities with high housing demand, with the world population urbanizing at a consistent rate and...
16 October 2023
CTBUH 2023 Conference Special
Liam Wee Sin, Patrick Bellew, Sir Peter Cook, Carol Willis
In this special extended edition of Talking Tall, CTBUH Editor Daniel Safarik talks to four people with significant relevance to the conference theme, “Humanizing High...
16 October 2023
Humanizing High Density
CTBUH Research
The theme “Humanizing High Density—People, Nature & the Urban Realm” for the CTBUH 2023 International Conference comes at a pertinent moment: Today intersecting are a...
16 October 2023
Interactive Study - Green + Growth: Singapore from Above
S. Isaac Work & Shea Anthony, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Over the past two centuries, Singapore’s land area has expanded by 25 percent, reaching 738 square kilometers in 2022. Land reclamation has its limits and,...
16 October 2023
Livability in Cities and Tall Buildings: Global Case Studies
Katrin Förster
Marrying design and function in harmony helps deliver tall buildings that impress the visitor and gather the esteem and loyalty of occupants. Through these essential...
05 July 2023
Tall Buildings and City Development: Comparison of Five Case Studies
Roberta dal Molin, Shenav Ragiv, &Elena Giacomello
Skyscrapers commonly rise in major cities worldwide, but the difference is in how they are integrated into the urban plan. This paper provides a comprehSkyscrapers...
16 May 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,...
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,...
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...
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...
ChenSiYuan.jpg)
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,...
20 April 2017
South Beach Towers, Singapore
Roland Schnizer, Irene Gallou & Adam Davis, Foster + Partners; Chia Wah Kam, Arup; Ho Weng Hin, Studio Lapis
After more than 100 years, an area of Singapore formerly off-limits to the public has been transformed into a new mixed-use development that combines two...
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10 January 2017
Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2016
Jason Gabel, Annan Shehadi, Shawn Ursini & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH
CTBUH has determined that 128 buildings of 200 meters’ height or greater were completed around the world in 2016 – setting a new record for...
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
Garden City, Megacity: Rethinking Cities for the Age of Global Warming
Mun Summ Wong, Richard Hassell & Alina Yeo, WOHA Architects
This paper proposes an alternative to the continuing implementation of unsustainable 20th century urban planning models. By using WOHA’s mini-city projects and proposals as prototypes...
17 October 2016
Garden City, Megacity: Rethinking Cities For the Age of Global Warming
Mun Summ Wong, Richard Hassell & Alina Yeo, WOHA Architects
The 20th-century city developed in response to industrialization and population growth, with a planning vision encoded in regulations that limited evolving with the times. The...
17 October 2016
Humanizing the Giants
Swinal Samant, National University of Singapore
The rise in sustainable skyscrapers and large-scale mixed-use buildings has seen the proliferation of atria and sky-courts worldwide due to their ability to simultaneously contribute...
17 October 2016
Replacing Corridors with Sky-Courts to Create Affordable and Socially Desirable High-Rise Housing
Mazlin Ghazali, Arkitek M Ghazali; Tareef Hayat Khan, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Studies over the last 60 years have consistently concluded that high-rise housing is less suitable for most people compared to low-rise, especially for children. To...
17 October 2016
The Space Between: Urban Spaces Surrounding Tall Buildings
James Parakh, City of Toronto Planning Division
This paper is intended to introduce the upcoming CTBUH technical guide titled “The Space Between,” which investigates the importance of publicly accessible spaces surrounding tall...
28 April 2016
3for2: Realizing Spatial, Material, and Energy Savings through Integrated Design
Arno Schlueter & Adam Rysanek, ETH Zürich; Forrest Meggers, Princeton University; et al.
As the world adapts to dual trends of climate change and urbanization, tall office buildings in hot and humid climate zones near the equator are...
SafdieArchitects.jpg)
04 February 2016
Humanizing the Megascale
Jaron Lubin, Safdie Architects
The principles set forth 48 years ago at the Montreal Expo 1967, embodied in the form of Habitat ’67, which proposed an entirely different kind...
sumner.jpg)
04 February 2016
The Other Side of Tall Buildings: The Urban Habitat
Daniel Safarik, CTBUH
A growing number of tall buildings recognized by the CTBUH, through its international awards programs and research, are noteworthy not so much because of their...
28 January 2016
Debating Tall: Modular as Homogenizing Force?
Shonn Mills, Ramboll; Philip Oldfield, University of New South Wales
The persistent interest in prefabricated modular construction has now turned into high-rise reality, though the results have been inconsistent. Earlier experiments with the approach resulted...
26 October 2015
Apartments in Skyscrapers: Innovations and Perspectives of their Typology Development
Elena Generalova & Viktor Generalov, Samara State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
The paper proposes to reflect on the questions: what does the typology of apartments in contemporary high-rise construction mean and whether it is consistent with...
26 October 2015
Breaking The Pre-fabricated Ceiling: Challenging the Limits for Modular High-Rise
Shonn Mills & Dave Grove, Ramboll Group; Matthew Egan, Modularize
Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMa) technologies including Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) have become a viable and sometimes preferred approach in select building sectors....
26 October 2015
Dense Urbanism: The High-Rise Tower as a Building Block for the Public Realm
Moshe Safdie & Jaron Lubin, Safdie Architects
Though the skyscraper has been with us for a century, we are yet to discover how to deploy it as an effective building block for...
26 October 2015
How New Generations, Industries and Workplace Paradigms Are Redefining the Commercial High-Rise
Timothy Johnson, NBBJ
This paper will provide a data-driven analysis of building performance from three eras: the early 1900s, mid-twentieth century, and today. This longitudinal analysis will illustrate...
26 October 2015
The Network of Urban Spaces Surrounding Tall Buildings
James Parakh, City of Toronto Planning Department
This paper investigates the Network of Urban Spaces Surrounding Tall Buildings, the Tall Building as Place Makers how Tall Buildings meet the street. As contributing...
imgur.jpg)
28 July 2015
Debating Tall: Has Tall Social Housing Been a Failure?
Shi-Ming Yu, National University of Singapore; Reinier de Graaf, Office for Metropolitan Architecture
The world’s rapid urbanization and densification of its cities will need to include its legions of economically disadvantaged people. Yet in many countries, the “obvious”...
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...
06 November 2014
Designing High-Rise Housing: The Singapore Experience
Elena Generalova & Viktor Generalov, Samara State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
There is a land shortage in Singapore, compelling the search for different models of high-rise housing. Singapore’s experience breaks with the dual stereotypes that high-rise...
06 November 2014
From Block to Blob and Back Again
Ben van Berkel, UNStudio
United Network Studio (UN Studio) is a Dutch architecture firm founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, which in the 2000s established...
16 September 2014
Green Walls in High-Rise Buildings
CTBUH Research
The latest CTBUH technical guide, Green Walls in High-Rise Buildings, provides a thorough investigation of the methods used around the world for implementation of vertical...
16 September 2014
Space Formations
Ole Scheeren, Büro Ole Scheeren
As architecture keeps expanding vertically – with ever taller buildings to emerge across the world, and with the skyscraper having long become the predominant typology...
16 September 2014
The Tropical Skyscraper: Social Sustainability in High Urban Density
Mun Summ Wong, Richard Hassell & Alina Yeo, WOHA Architects
Asia’s rapidly growing metropolises demand an alternative strategy for city planning and architecture that addresses the need to live appropriately and sustainably with our tropical...
16 September 2014
Vertical Public Realms: Creating Urban Spaces in the Sky
Dr. Yuri Hadi, Leicester School of Architecture; Professor Tim Heath & Dr. Philip Oldfield, University of Nottingham
The resurgence of the ‘Streets in the Sky’ concept is driving the recent transformation of social and public spaces in vertical cities, with Asia leading...
14 September 2014
Towards Sustainable Vertical Urbanism
Daniel Safarik, CTBUH
The survival of humanity on this planet relies on a radical repositioning of our cities. In the face of unprecedented global population growth, urbanization, pollution...
21 September 2012
For Everyone a Sky Garden
Jaron Lubin, Safdie Architects
A key principle of Moshe Safdie’s work over the last four decades has been to develop livable collective spaces within dense urban environments. This paper...
19 September 2012
Capital Cost Drivers in Tall Buildings
Hsui-Min Eugene Seah, Langdon & Seah Singapore Pte Ltd
In land-scarce nations, one of the solutions for land use intensification is to go upwards and downwards in construction. However, how does this affect sustainability...
19 September 2012
Singapore: A High-Rise Utopia?
Peng Beng Khoo & Belinda Huang, Arc Studio Architecture + Urbanism
Singapore has already implemented many urban-scale sustainable strategies that other cities only dream of – true integrated transport networks, 60-storey high green walls, subsidized government-built...
01 February 2012
Greening the Urban Habitat: Singapore
Jason Pomeroy, Broadway Malyan
The continued depletion of open spaces as a result of urbanization has also seen a subsequent reduction in greenery and gradual rise in urban temperatures...
10 October 2011
Beyond Skyrise Gardens: The Potential of Urban Roof-Top Farming in Singapore
Wai Wing Tai Donald, Alexandra Health
The younger generation of Singaporeans, particularly those born from the 1980s onwards, might not have the opportunity to visit local farms as most of them...
11 September 2011
The Global Impact of 9/11
Leader Interviews by Jan Klerks, CTBUH
Just as many Americans still remember exactly where they were when they heard the news that US president John F. Kennedy had been shot, most...
13 April 2011
Tall and Urban: An Analysis of Global Population and Tall Buildings
CTBUH Research
Tall buildings are spreading across the globe at an ever-increasing rate. This study demonstrates the relationship between population and tall buildings across those countries and...
22 January 2011
Case Study: Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Moshe Safdie, Safdie Architects
Marina Bay Sands is a high-density and mixed-use integrated resort complex which was conceived as a city microcosm rooted in Singapore’s culture, climate, and contemporary...
01 August 2009
Tall Buildings in Southeast Asia - A Humanist Approach to Tropical High-Rise
Mun Summ Wong & Richard Hassell, WOHA
High-rise, high-density living has been embraced as a positive accommodation solution for many millions of people living in Asia's growing urban metropolis. This paper outlines...
01 February 2009
The Skycourt - A Comparison of Four Case Studies
Jason Pomeroy, Broadway Malyan
The effects of industrial capitalism and secularism have not only seen the fall of public man (Sennett 1976) but the slow disintegration of the public...
05 March 2008
Ecoskyscrapers and Ecomimesis: New tall building typologies
Ken Yeang, Llewelyn Davies Yeang
Designing the ecoskyscraper involves configuring its built form and operational systems so that they integrate with nature in a benign and seamless way over its...
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
Estate Renewal Through Development of Prefabricated Super High-Rise Buildings
Chor Cheong Fong, Housing and Development Board of Singapore
This paper presents Housing & Development Board (HDB) of Singapore’s solution in the development of prefabricated super high-rise residential buildings to solve Singapore’s land scarce...
20 October 2003
To Live High or Low: Case Study of Singapore Public Housing Residents
Belinda Yuen, Steve Appold & Kwee Lanny Kurnianingrum, The National University of Singapore; Anthony Yeh, University of Hong Kong; George Earl, University of Queensland; John Ting, Private Architect
The intent of this paper is to discuss the empirically derived research on Singapore residents’ perceptions of building height and their reactions to supertall living....
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.
22 December 2023
Skyscrapers in Bloom: Evaluating the Artistry of “Painting with Trees”
Katarzyna Wodzisz
Incorporating greenery in skyscrapers prompts sustainability debates. This study questions the assumption that green features ensure sustainability, as designers often adopt them carelessly, leading to...
16 October 2023
Comparing the Performance of Public Housing in New York City and Singapore
Patrick Dilger
Affordable housing is a critical aspect of urban development in cities with high housing demand, with the world population urbanizing at a consistent rate and...
16 October 2023
CTBUH 2023 Conference Special
Liam Wee Sin, Patrick Bellew, Sir Peter Cook, Carol Willis
In this special extended edition of Talking Tall, CTBUH Editor Daniel Safarik talks to four people with significant relevance to the conference theme, “Humanizing High...
16 October 2023
Humanizing High Density
CTBUH Research
The theme “Humanizing High Density—People, Nature & the Urban Realm” for the CTBUH 2023 International Conference comes at a pertinent moment: Today intersecting are a...
16 October 2023
Interactive Study - Green + Growth: Singapore from Above
S. Isaac Work & Shea Anthony, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Over the past two centuries, Singapore’s land area has expanded by 25 percent, reaching 738 square kilometers in 2022. Land reclamation has its limits and,...
16 October 2023
Livability in Cities and Tall Buildings: Global Case Studies
Katrin Förster
Marrying design and function in harmony helps deliver tall buildings that impress the visitor and gather the esteem and loyalty of occupants. Through these essential...
05 July 2023
Tall Buildings and City Development: Comparison of Five Case Studies
Roberta dal Molin, Shenav Ragiv, &Elena Giacomello
Skyscrapers commonly rise in major cities worldwide, but the difference is in how they are integrated into the urban plan. This paper provides a comprehSkyscrapers...
16 May 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,...
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,...
20 April 2017
South Beach Towers, Singapore
Roland Schnizer, Irene Gallou & Adam Davis, Foster + Partners; Chia Wah Kam, Arup; Ho Weng Hin, Studio Lapis
After more than 100 years, an area of Singapore formerly off-limits to the public has been transformed into a new mixed-use development that combines two...
10 January 2017
Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2016
Jason Gabel, Annan Shehadi, Shawn Ursini & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH
CTBUH has determined that 128 buildings of 200 meters’ height or greater were completed around the world in 2016 – setting a new record for...
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
Garden City, Megacity: Rethinking Cities for the Age of Global Warming
Mun Summ Wong, Richard Hassell & Alina Yeo, WOHA Architects
This paper proposes an alternative to the continuing implementation of unsustainable 20th century urban planning models. By using WOHA’s mini-city projects and proposals as prototypes...
17 October 2016
Garden City, Megacity: Rethinking Cities For the Age of Global Warming
Mun Summ Wong, Richard Hassell & Alina Yeo, WOHA Architects
The 20th-century city developed in response to industrialization and population growth, with a planning vision encoded in regulations that limited evolving with the times. The...
17 October 2016
Humanizing the Giants
Swinal Samant, National University of Singapore
The rise in sustainable skyscrapers and large-scale mixed-use buildings has seen the proliferation of atria and sky-courts worldwide due to their ability to simultaneously contribute...
17 October 2016
Replacing Corridors with Sky-Courts to Create Affordable and Socially Desirable High-Rise Housing
Mazlin Ghazali, Arkitek M Ghazali; Tareef Hayat Khan, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Studies over the last 60 years have consistently concluded that high-rise housing is less suitable for most people compared to low-rise, especially for children. To...
17 October 2016
The Space Between: Urban Spaces Surrounding Tall Buildings
James Parakh, City of Toronto Planning Division
This paper is intended to introduce the upcoming CTBUH technical guide titled “The Space Between,” which investigates the importance of publicly accessible spaces surrounding tall...
28 April 2016
3for2: Realizing Spatial, Material, and Energy Savings through Integrated Design
Arno Schlueter & Adam Rysanek, ETH Zürich; Forrest Meggers, Princeton University; et al.
As the world adapts to dual trends of climate change and urbanization, tall office buildings in hot and humid climate zones near the equator are...
04 February 2016
Humanizing the Megascale
Jaron Lubin, Safdie Architects
The principles set forth 48 years ago at the Montreal Expo 1967, embodied in the form of Habitat ’67, which proposed an entirely different kind...
04 February 2016
The Other Side of Tall Buildings: The Urban Habitat
Daniel Safarik, CTBUH
A growing number of tall buildings recognized by the CTBUH, through its international awards programs and research, are noteworthy not so much because of their...
28 January 2016
Debating Tall: Modular as Homogenizing Force?
Shonn Mills, Ramboll; Philip Oldfield, University of New South Wales
The persistent interest in prefabricated modular construction has now turned into high-rise reality, though the results have been inconsistent. Earlier experiments with the approach resulted...
26 October 2015
Apartments in Skyscrapers: Innovations and Perspectives of their Typology Development
Elena Generalova & Viktor Generalov, Samara State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
The paper proposes to reflect on the questions: what does the typology of apartments in contemporary high-rise construction mean and whether it is consistent with...
26 October 2015
Breaking The Pre-fabricated Ceiling: Challenging the Limits for Modular High-Rise
Shonn Mills & Dave Grove, Ramboll Group; Matthew Egan, Modularize
Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMa) technologies including Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) have become a viable and sometimes preferred approach in select building sectors....
26 October 2015
Dense Urbanism: The High-Rise Tower as a Building Block for the Public Realm
Moshe Safdie & Jaron Lubin, Safdie Architects
Though the skyscraper has been with us for a century, we are yet to discover how to deploy it as an effective building block for...
26 October 2015
How New Generations, Industries and Workplace Paradigms Are Redefining the Commercial High-Rise
Timothy Johnson, NBBJ
This paper will provide a data-driven analysis of building performance from three eras: the early 1900s, mid-twentieth century, and today. This longitudinal analysis will illustrate...
26 October 2015
The Network of Urban Spaces Surrounding Tall Buildings
James Parakh, City of Toronto Planning Department
This paper investigates the Network of Urban Spaces Surrounding Tall Buildings, the Tall Building as Place Makers how Tall Buildings meet the street. As contributing...
28 July 2015
Debating Tall: Has Tall Social Housing Been a Failure?
Shi-Ming Yu, National University of Singapore; Reinier de Graaf, Office for Metropolitan Architecture
The world’s rapid urbanization and densification of its cities will need to include its legions of economically disadvantaged people. Yet in many countries, the “obvious”...
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...
06 November 2014
Designing High-Rise Housing: The Singapore Experience
Elena Generalova & Viktor Generalov, Samara State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
There is a land shortage in Singapore, compelling the search for different models of high-rise housing. Singapore’s experience breaks with the dual stereotypes that high-rise...
06 November 2014
From Block to Blob and Back Again
Ben van Berkel, UNStudio
United Network Studio (UN Studio) is a Dutch architecture firm founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, which in the 2000s established...
16 September 2014
Green Walls in High-Rise Buildings
CTBUH Research
The latest CTBUH technical guide, Green Walls in High-Rise Buildings, provides a thorough investigation of the methods used around the world for implementation of vertical...
16 September 2014
Space Formations
Ole Scheeren, Büro Ole Scheeren
As architecture keeps expanding vertically – with ever taller buildings to emerge across the world, and with the skyscraper having long become the predominant typology...
16 September 2014
The Tropical Skyscraper: Social Sustainability in High Urban Density
Mun Summ Wong, Richard Hassell & Alina Yeo, WOHA Architects
Asia’s rapidly growing metropolises demand an alternative strategy for city planning and architecture that addresses the need to live appropriately and sustainably with our tropical...
16 September 2014
Vertical Public Realms: Creating Urban Spaces in the Sky
Dr. Yuri Hadi, Leicester School of Architecture; Professor Tim Heath & Dr. Philip Oldfield, University of Nottingham
The resurgence of the ‘Streets in the Sky’ concept is driving the recent transformation of social and public spaces in vertical cities, with Asia leading...
14 September 2014
Towards Sustainable Vertical Urbanism
Daniel Safarik, CTBUH
The survival of humanity on this planet relies on a radical repositioning of our cities. In the face of unprecedented global population growth, urbanization, pollution...
21 September 2012
For Everyone a Sky Garden
Jaron Lubin, Safdie Architects
A key principle of Moshe Safdie’s work over the last four decades has been to develop livable collective spaces within dense urban environments. This paper...
19 September 2012
Capital Cost Drivers in Tall Buildings
Hsui-Min Eugene Seah, Langdon & Seah Singapore Pte Ltd
In land-scarce nations, one of the solutions for land use intensification is to go upwards and downwards in construction. However, how does this affect sustainability...
19 September 2012
Singapore: A High-Rise Utopia?
Peng Beng Khoo & Belinda Huang, Arc Studio Architecture + Urbanism
Singapore has already implemented many urban-scale sustainable strategies that other cities only dream of – true integrated transport networks, 60-storey high green walls, subsidized government-built...
01 February 2012
Greening the Urban Habitat: Singapore
Jason Pomeroy, Broadway Malyan
The continued depletion of open spaces as a result of urbanization has also seen a subsequent reduction in greenery and gradual rise in urban temperatures...
10 October 2011
Beyond Skyrise Gardens: The Potential of Urban Roof-Top Farming in Singapore
Wai Wing Tai Donald, Alexandra Health
The younger generation of Singaporeans, particularly those born from the 1980s onwards, might not have the opportunity to visit local farms as most of them...
11 September 2011
The Global Impact of 9/11
Leader Interviews by Jan Klerks, CTBUH
Just as many Americans still remember exactly where they were when they heard the news that US president John F. Kennedy had been shot, most...
13 April 2011
Tall and Urban: An Analysis of Global Population and Tall Buildings
CTBUH Research
Tall buildings are spreading across the globe at an ever-increasing rate. This study demonstrates the relationship between population and tall buildings across those countries and...
22 January 2011
Case Study: Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Moshe Safdie, Safdie Architects
Marina Bay Sands is a high-density and mixed-use integrated resort complex which was conceived as a city microcosm rooted in Singapore’s culture, climate, and contemporary...
01 August 2009
Tall Buildings in Southeast Asia - A Humanist Approach to Tropical High-Rise
Mun Summ Wong & Richard Hassell, WOHA
High-rise, high-density living has been embraced as a positive accommodation solution for many millions of people living in Asia's growing urban metropolis. This paper outlines...
01 February 2009
The Skycourt - A Comparison of Four Case Studies
Jason Pomeroy, Broadway Malyan
The effects of industrial capitalism and secularism have not only seen the fall of public man (Sennett 1976) but the slow disintegration of the public...
05 March 2008
Ecoskyscrapers and Ecomimesis: New tall building typologies
Ken Yeang, Llewelyn Davies Yeang
Designing the ecoskyscraper involves configuring its built form and operational systems so that they integrate with nature in a benign and seamless way over its...
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
Estate Renewal Through Development of Prefabricated Super High-Rise Buildings
Chor Cheong Fong, Housing and Development Board of Singapore
This paper presents Housing & Development Board (HDB) of Singapore’s solution in the development of prefabricated super high-rise residential buildings to solve Singapore’s land scarce...
20 October 2003
To Live High or Low: Case Study of Singapore Public Housing Residents
Belinda Yuen, Steve Appold & Kwee Lanny Kurnianingrum, The National University of Singapore; Anthony Yeh, University of Hong Kong; George Earl, University of Queensland; John Ting, Private Architect
The intent of this paper is to discuss the empirically derived research on Singapore residents’ perceptions of building height and their reactions to supertall living....
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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