Global trends in super-tall buildings

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Tall buildings are no longer designed in isolation, but are conceptualised in relation to cities as a whole, said Woods Bagot director Jeffrey Holmes during a speech in Shanghai last week.

Holmes told attendees at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) conference that tall buildings are increasingly contextual in design and have started to replace the homogenous, ‘placeless’ skyscraper.

Holmes, who was in Shanghai to present his paper ‘All things are not equal: Responsive Facades for Tall Buildings’, says he came away from the conference with insights from the world’s leading experts on buildings and trends relating to the 2014 conference theme, ‘Future Cities’.

“The resounding message of this year’s International CTBUH conference is that the era of homogenous and placeless tall towers is over,” said Holmes. “There is a renewed global enthusiasm and commitment in a sustainable vertical urbanism that is highly responsive to local climates, cultures and contexts.”

Holmes’s presentation focused on how technology is transforming the way building facades manage competing requirements so as to attain optimal performance. Buildings must not only consider openness and privacy, transparency and energy efficiency, provide maximum views with minimum glare, and consider materiality and cost-effectiveness, they must also forge a unique identity while being responsiveness to the character of a specific place.

Holmes put forward examples of buildings pushing the boundaries of innovative design, such as 1 William Street (pictured left), a 220m-plus tall tower rising along Brisbane’s riverfront, which relied on extensive physical and energy modelling analysis to refine the building form. It’s expected that 1 William Street will receive a 5 Star Green Star rating on its completion in 2016.

 

In India, the Delhi One (pictured top left) project demonstrates the potential of responding directly to an urban context when designing tall building facades. The Four Seasons Residences, part of the project, occupies three towers that range in height from 28 to 39 storeys. It’s situated within a dense urban development with four other high-rises.

In China, the Chongqing 101 (pictured right) tower, a 431-metre-tall, mixed-use project, has a silhouette that shifts continuously as one moves around the building, responding to the way the building is used – for retail, commercial office, residential or hotel space – and maximising efficiency, effectiveness, flexibility and ‘daylighting’.

 

In addition to these projects, Woods Bagot has designed numerous tall buildings under construction around the world, including Greenland Centre in Bathurst Street, Sydney, which is set to become Sydney’s tallest residential tower (and was designed in conjunction with BVN Donovan Hill); 100 Bishopsgate in London; and Farpoint Mega Kuningan (pictured left) in Jakarta.

 

Woods Bagot is a global supporter of CTBUH, with leaders acting as committee members and city representatives for the Council. The firm was a Silver+ sponsor of the Shanghai conference.

For more on Woods Bagot’s architectural projects, go to: http://www.woodsbagot.com/category/architecture