Skyscrapers Of The Future

Drawing on the experience of several cities from different parts of the world, this text provides a global perspective on the urbanization phenomenon and tall building development, and examines their underlying logic, design drivers, contextual relationships and pitfalls.

Engines of industry, expressions of ego or will, tall towers are nonetheless, when they pierce the shared skies, intensely public. We may ask of them artistic questions: what do we make of these things we make? What do these forms mean? But also, because architecture is forever tied to real life, we may ask of them questions of a political, economic and technological nature--as well as those, touching on the body and the mind and the soul, that we may simply call human. In this volume, Bruce Sterling describes four possible futures that might shape future towers, presenting a choose-your-own-adventure of potential futures for architecture, some of them terrifying in their nearness. We peer up at skyscrapers old and new, visit their highest floors, turn them this way and that to see them clearly through the psychology (Tom Vanderbilt) and physiology (Emily Badger) of living and working on high, and through the lens of policy in the low-rise counterexample of Washington, DC (Matthew Yglesias). Diana Lind tests the idea of tall against the more sprawling needs of those spatially mundane but transformative new economy industries that may well be the supertall clients of the future. Will Self looks back in literature, film and recent urban history to write forward toward a new understanding of the tower in the popular imagination. Dickson Despommier shares a comprehensive vision of an ecological future, in which towers, perhaps supertalls, would necessarily play a crucial role. Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, a short story collection that helped to define the cyberpunk genre. Tom Vanderbilt is an American journalist whose articles have appeared in Wired, The London Review of Books, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Artforum, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Cabinet, Metropolis and Popular Science. Matthew Yglesias is the Executive Editor of Vox and author of The Rent Is Too Damn High. Diana Lind is the Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief of Next City, a non-profit quarterly magazine with a mission to inspire social, economic and environmental change in cities. Will Self writes a column for The Guardian and appears regularly on BBC radio and television. His ninth and latest novel, Umbrella, was a finalist for this year's Man Booker Prize. Emily Badger is a reporter for the Washington Post; she previously served as a staff writer for the online journal, The Atlantic Cities. Dickson Despommier is emeritus Professor of Microbiology and Public Health at Columbia University and the author of The Vertical Farm. Michael Govan is the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Govan previously served as the director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York. Philip Nobel is a New York-based architecture critic who writes for Metropolis, Artforum, The New York Times and Architectural Digest, and is the author of Sixteen Acres: Architecture and the Outrageous Struggle for the Future of Ground Zero. He also serves as the editorial director for SHoP architects.

No other architectural genre captures our imagination and reflects our cultural and technological achievements like these towers that pierce the sky. We start off with the history and evolution of building high, from the Egyptian pyramids, Gothic cathedrals, and first American skyscrapers to the contemporary reality in Asia and the Middle East. We present two fascinating interviews, the first one with Carol Willis, the founder and director of the Skyscraper Museum in New York City, who explains the true genetics and economics behind the birth and future of the skyscraper. The second one with Italian artist, Giacomo Costa, who shares his vision about the relationship between the natural environment, human activity, and supernatural reality with provocative images of an apocalyptic urban future. Javier Quintana exposes the time gap between new architectural concepts and their built reality like Arne Hosek’s City of the Future designed in 1928 and materialized in 1998 by Cesar Pelli as the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur or Sergei Lopatin’s 1925 idea for the Veshenka Tower in Moscow, later observed as the Willis Tower (former Sears Tower) in Chicago in 1974. Another group of essays explore the global influence of Manhattan as a contemporary Babylon to be replicated across the world, or the role of the Italian Futurists, Japanese Metabolists, and Archigram, who influenced generations of architects and designers to push forward the concept of vertical living. In the Opinion section you will find critiques on some of the latest ideas for skyscraper design by some of the most forward-looking architects like the concept of pixilated tectonics in Le Project Triangle in Paris by Herzog & de Meuron and the Sky Village by MVRDV. On the other hand, Jean Nouvel redefined the Italian loggia towers of the seventeenth century with the Tour Signal in La Defense, Paris; while Morphosis Architects explores new programs for vertical density with The Phare Tower. Lastly, Studio SHIFT masterfully integrates their Miyi Tower in Sichuan, China, with the existing landscape. Central to this book are thirty projects from eVolo’s 2009 Skyscraper Competition which look into the future of the skyscraper with the use of new technologies, programs, and aesthetic expression. Sustainability, globalization, flexibility, and adaptability are just some of the multi-layered elements explored by some the entries. You will find examples of cities in the sky, horizontal skyscrapers that link various cities, or emergency architecture for disaster zones.

This fascinating narrative gets under the skin of the world’s tallest buildings! How many people are involved in creating a skyscraper? What environmental factors come into play? What does it take for a skyscraper to function? All these questions and more will be answered as we visit the skyscrapers from New York to Malaysia to China. Students will gain a deeper understanding of skyscrapers and how they shape our world.

The Manhattan skyline is one of the great wonders of the modern world. But how and why did it form? Much has been written about the city's architecture and its general history, but little work has explored the economic forces that created the skyline. In Building the Skyline, Jason Barr chronicles the economic history of the Manhattan skyline. In the process, he debunks some widely held misconceptions about the city's history. Starting with Manhattan's natural and geological history, Barr moves on to how these formations influenced early land use and the development of neighborhoods, including the dense tenement neighborhoods of Five Points and the Lower East Side, and how these early decisions eventually impacted the location of skyscrapers built during the Skyscraper Revolution at the end of the 19th century. Barr then explores the economic history of skyscrapers and the skyline, investigating the reasons for their heights, frequencies, locations, and shapes. He discusses why skyscrapers emerged downtown and why they appeared three miles to the north in midtown-but not in between the two areas. Contrary to popular belief, this was not due to the depths of Manhattan's bedrock, nor the presence of Grand Central Station. Rather, midtown's emergence was a response to the economic and demographic forces that were taking place north of 14th Street after the Civil War. Building the Skyline also presents the first rigorous investigation of the causes of the building boom during the Roaring Twenties. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the boom was largely a rational response to the economic growth of the nation and city. The last chapter investigates the value of Manhattan Island and the relationship between skyscrapers and land prices. Finally, an Epilogue offers policy recommendations for a resilient and robust future skyline.

No other building type captures the imagination like the skyscraper, yet following the World Trade Centre tragedy, its future has been called into question. In Skyscraper, Eric Höweler presents convincing evidence that the future of tall buildings is as secure today as it was over one hundred years ago. Described and accompanied by striking full-colour photography are over fifty new constructions that punctuate the skylines of the major cities around the world. Incisive essays delve into cutting-edge skyscraper design and building, as well as offering a brief history of the skyscraper, the evolution of the ‘green’ or sustainable skyscraper, their symbolism and design, and the meteoric rise of the skyscraper in Asia. A special section is devoted to the designs for Ground Zero, including never-before-published drawings and plans. Far from being a dying form, the skyscraper continues to exert a huge influence on the international landscape, and a continued reinvention of the form awaits us in the next decade.

No building type captures the imagination as powerfully as the skyscraper. Since its unveiling in New York and Chicago over 100 years ago, the skyscraper has transformed the skyline of every major city. Eric Höweler has collected and organized over seventy skyscraper designs from the world's leading architects. The author's penetrating essays on the cultural, technological, and social factors governing skyscraper design serve as general introductions to thematic groupings of the best contemporary skyscrapers from the last decade. The skyscraper as an icon, monument, urban instrument, and workplace continues to emerge as a powerful site and symbol for collective aspirations and imaginings. This richly illustrated volume (over 200 color photographs) explores skyscraper designs of the recent past and near future, and examines how this dominant structure shapes our existence. -- From publisher's description.