Habitat and the high-rise tradition and innovation: Proceedings of the Fifth World Congress, May 14-19, 1995

Arts & Photography

Lynn S. Beedle

Architecture

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

International Conference, Rio de Janeiro: Proceedings : May 17-19, 1993, Brazil

High technology buildings: International conference, São Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 25-26, 1995

Collected papers of Habitat and the high-rise--tradition and innovation: Fifth World Congress, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 14-19, 1995

Catalyst For Skyscraper Revolution: Lynn S. Beedle: A Legend In His Lifetime

Ali, Mir M. (Editor)

It is widely assumed that the dense vertical city is more sustainable than the dispersed horizontal city. This concept has certainly been a large factor in the unprecedented increase in the construction of tall buildings globally over the last two decades, especially in the developing world. The concentration of people in denser cities sharing space, infrastructure, and facilities is typically thought to offer much greater energy efficiency than the expanded horizontal city, which requires more land use, as well as a higher energy expenditure in infrastructure and mobility. 
Though this belief in the sustainability benefits of dense versus dispersed living is driving the development of cities from Toronto to Tianjin and from Sau Paulo to Shanghai, the principle has rarely been examined at a detailed, quantitative level. Studies to date have been mostly based on large data sets of generalized data regarding whole-urban energy consumption, or large-scale transport patterns. In some cases, seminal studies are still informing policy that is now several decades out of date. For instance, a study of 32 cities by Newman &amp; Kenworthy in 1989 concluded that there was a strong link between urban development densities and petroleum consumption (Newman &amp; Kenworthy, 1989). This study is still commonly cited, despite being 28 years old. Crucially, there are very few studies that also take into account a quality of life aspect to urban vs. suburban living, in addition to differences in energy use patterns. 
Chicago, the city in which this research has taken place, is uniquely positioned for a study exploring density vs. sprawl from a sustainability point of view. The birthplace of the tall building and the main crucible for experimentation in the typology in the century or more since then, Chicago also has an ever-growing suburban area that is typical of most US cities. And yet, again in line with many other cities around the world over the past decade or two, it has seen suburban growth alongside densification of its downtown area and a resurgence of people seeking high-rise urban living. 
This research report offers a quantitative evaluation of long-held assumptions, and with sometimes surprising results. The ground-breaking study quantitatively investigates and compares the sustainability of people s lifestyles in both urban and suburban areas from environmental and social perspectives, using actual energy bills collected from households, as well as other direct research methods. It fills significant research gaps in our knowledge of the sustainability of urban density compared to suburban sprawl, in terms of both environmental and social sustainability. This is an indispensable resource for urban planners, architects, utilities, developers, and anyone else with a stake in shaping the future of the built environment.

Downtown High-Rise vs. Suburban Low-Rise Living: A Pilot Study on Urban Sustainability

Antony Wood

Peng Du

Reference

Since China embarked on its economic reforms nearly four decades ago, Chinese cities have witnessed profound growth in size and scale. As the country transformed its economy, urbanization took root as millions of rural emigrants moved to the city, reflected in the commensurate rise of skylines to house growing urban populations as well as nascent business districts. The resulting cityscapes are littered with immense quantities of skyscrapers, a testament to China's economic might. While China's investment in skyscrapers has been nothing short of spectacular, little, in fact, has been investigated about their construction. Through economic analysis, this report endeavors to test several hypotheses with the goal of investigating the underlying factors driving skyscraper construction. China's unique economic system creates a number of incentives for skyscraper development, potentially complicating matters beyond traditional economic fundamentals of supply and demand. Further complicating factors include the social and political benefits of skyscraper development as well as the symbolic role that skyscrapers can play in building identities for cities. In order to analyze the various factors impacting skyscraper construction, this research utilizes an exhaustive data set of skyscrapers completed from 1980 to 2014 in 74 cities throughout China. Various regression models were implemented to test for the degree to which skyscraper construction patterns are based on economic fundamentals versus the competitive desire to standout or call attention to respective cities. The resulting conclusions offer compelling arguments for China's unprecedented skyscraper construction and provide evidence for a strong economic rationale behind China's skyscraper growth. In doing so, this report lays the groundwork for additional investigations into the necessary role of the skyscraper in China's urbanization.

Economic Drivers: Skyscrapers in China

Jason Barr

Jingshu Luo

Performance-Based Seismic Design (PBSD) is a structural design methodology that has become more common in urban centers around the world, particularly for the design of high-rise buildings. The primary benefit of PBSD is that it substantiates exceptions to prescribed code requirements, such as height limits applied to specific structural systems, and allows project teams to demonstrate higher performance levels for structures during a seismic event. However, the methodology also involves significantly more effort in the analysis and design stages, with verification of building performance required at multiple seismic demand levels using Nonlinear Response History Analysis (NRHA). The design process also requires substantial knowledge of overall building performance and analytical modeling, in order to proportion and detail structural systems to meet specific performance objectives. This CTBUH Technical Guide provides structural engineers, developers, and contractors with a general understanding of the PBSD process by presenting case studies that demonstrate the issues commonly encountered when using the methodology, along with their corresponding solutions. The guide also provides references to the latest industry guidelines, as applied in the western United States, with the goal of disseminating these methods to an international audience for the advancement and expansion of PBSD principles worldwide.

Performance-Based Seismic Design for Tall Buildings

Ramin Golesorkhi

Leonard Joseph

Ron Klemencic

David Shook

John Viise

It is becoming increasingly accepted that greater urban density is required to achieve more sustainable patterns of life, in order to reduce energy consumption and thus combat climate change. The concentration of people in denser cities sharing space, infrastructure, and facilities offers much greater energy efficiency than the expanded horizontal city, which requires more land usage as well as higher energy expenditure to facilitate infrastructure and mobility. However, the full implications of this push to greater density, especially vertical density, are not fully understood, and cities around the world including both emerging and established skyscraper cities are grappling with the question of how to move towards greater height and density while still maintaining a high quality of life.
As the world population continues to densify, the need for urban amenities becomes amplified; cities must increasingly buffer or compensate for an expanding urban population. The development of open spaces of various scales will help offset the effects of neighborhoods increasingly filled with tall buildings. This CTBUH Technical Guide analyzes how to approach urban habitat adjoining tall buildings, highlighting case studies of open spaces at varying scales to help readers understand the ingredients that make them successful or the lack of ingredients that holds them back from their full potential. In addition, public spaces across cities are analyzed holistically to determine how cities as an organic whole approach the concept of urban habitat. 
This Technical Guide is the product of years of research by the CTBUH Urban Habitat / Urban Design Committee, which was formed to study the role of tall buildings within a city and how those tall buildings affect the quality of life for those that live or work within them. It is part of a series of Technical Guides that provides practical state-of-the-art technical details on specific areas of skyscraper research, offering a wealth of knowledge essential for industry professionals, academic researchers, and all others interested in the relationship between skyscrapers and urban habitat.

The Space Between: Urban Places, Public Spaces & Tall Buildings

James Parakh

Jason Gabel

Daniel Safarik

With the majority of Earth's population now residing in urban areas, city-makers have an obligation to forge a more viable, sustainable urban habitat, with increased urban density playing an important role. Tall buildings need to be seen as integrated pieces of urban infrastructure, dedicated to improving quality of life in the city as a whole. This requires a cohesive, multi-disciplinary response.Providing a global overview of dense urban development, this book explores the projects, technologies, and approaches currently reshaping skylines and urban spaces worldwide. In this edition, innovations in the constituent disciplines that bring tall buildings to life, and even extend their lives-construction, the engineering of façades, fire & risk, geotechnical engineering, interior space, MEP, renovation, and structural engineering-are all explored. The Tall Buildings + Urban Habitat book is produced annually by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), the global authority on the inception, design, construction, and operation of tall buildings and future cities.

Tall Buildings + Urban Habitat, Volume 2

Jason Gabel & Daniel Safarik

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