Rethinking Skyscrapers: Vertical cities -

A stacking of urbanity that becomes a continuously active

vertical multi-use neighborhood.

The Skyscraper is a building type that has begun to define our cities and creates the urbanity of

the modern cities all over the world.(New York, Dubai, Mumbai,etc).The numbers of tall and

super tall towers being constructed is exponential, fulfilling a rapidly increasing need for space

for the world's fast growing urban clusters.

The rise of the skyscraper was driven by economic conditions along with groundbreaking

technological innovations post industrialisation. Till date, skyscrapers are designed with

efficiency and profitability as their primary driving forces with little consideration of other

parameters like context, environmental value, social and urban impact,etc. But this model does

not represent the potential of this building type- as it does not address the various possibilities of

building vertically that can be achieved.

With global increases in population, urbanity and density, an optimistic outlook towards

verticality is required. Compounding these issues, dense mega cities have high proportion of tall

towers stacking people vertically and relying on the streets for any community functions while

simultaneously distancing people from street life creating environments that are over saturated

and neglect the human scale.  

Hence the question arises "Can verticality be enriched far beyond the repetitive stacking of

monotonous spaces?''

With a jump in scales and a novel approach towards function and architectural programming, a

new typology of vertical structures can be imagined, one which can serve as a city itself, a micro

vertical city. Such architecture can serve as a ground breaking solution to the dreadful effects of

urban sprawl.  Combining the varied experiences in a city into one structure can be a possible

solution for future metropolitan cities.

This research is aimed at exploring the possibilities that this new typology presents. Such an

approach shall legitimize the feasibility of mega structures and their potential in saving our

cities.

Through this research: (possible sub areas of research)

1.The concept of a "residential skyscraper" : Housing diversity in a building type that is

notoriously homogenous. A dynamic network of communities in the sky.

2. Creating a dialogue that raises questions and aspirations about the social validity and potential

of the skyscraper as it exists today.

3. The Orchestrated City : Exploring issues of flexibility, scale and context. Challenging the

general preconception that vertical cities are un-contextual by establishing new forms of

contextual relation and building synergies within the existing urban fabric.

4. Livability and Vertical cities: All of cities nowadays, are developing towards the sky. In

parallel to that, a strong view is developing that an unsatisfactory city life is being grown within

a concrete jungle. Is it the vertical development that makes us miserable within a city? or is the

inappropriate composition of it that shuttled whole of the city life?

Reference Texts:

Vertical City: A solution to sustainable living , King and Wong

Designing High Density Cities: For Social and Environmental Sustainability, Edited by Edward Ng

The Vertical Farm: Feeding the world in the 21st century, Dickson Despommier

The Future of the City: Tall Buildings and Urban Design, Kheir Al-Kodmany, Mir M. Ali