DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES /// A WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF PUBLICATION CONTENTS 04 THE RENAISSANCE OF TALL Skyscrapers are being completed at a rate of nearly 350 a year. What can we expect from this new WELCOME high-rise generation? WE ARE IN A ngineering is not just about 16 THE SKY AND OTHER LIMITS E science and technology, but The many challenges of planning skyscraper cities GLOBAL AGE experience. We have been designing iconic, efficient tall buildings for 26 FAR WEST SIDE STORY OF TALL AND more than 50 years, and it’s that How a Manhattan railyard became the US’s biggest experience that makes us unique. Around SUPER-TALL ever real-estate development the world, we are combining the latest BUILDINGS. IT’S tools and technologies with an in-depth 32 AN ICON FROM EVERY ANGLE understanding of how tall buildings behave One World Trade Center has rewritten the rulebook on IMPORTANT TO to create the next generation of towers. tall building design CONSIDER ALL OF In this magazine, we discuss many of THE IMPLICATIONS the engineering and architecture 42 THE RISING CONTINENT challenges, but also speak to architects, Ahmad Rahimian The Asian-inspired skyscrapers transforming planners, developers and clients for a more Ahmad Rahimian Australia’s skylines complete overview of the requirements Director of Building Structures, USA and economics of tall buildings and what 48 THE VERTICAL SOCIETY they will mean for cities. Preparing for a future of living, working and playing Many of these discussions took place in at great height the WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff host room at the 2015 Council for Tall Buildings and 56 RETURN TO SLENDER Urban Habitats conference in New York. Structural gymnastics meets Art Deco grace in We would like to thank everyone who Manhattan spoke during the event, and the many attendees who came to join us over the 64 SECRETS OF THE MEGA-TALL two days. We have tried to distill the best China is leading the way on 500m-plus towers – of the content here – we hope you will find and the hidden systems that make them work it interesting. Kamran Moazami Kamran Moazami Head of Building Structures, UK Editor: Julie Guppy, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff Copy: Wordmule Inhouse photography: Nicola Evans, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff Design and production: Supreme Creative Ltd /// /// /// /// AS MORE AND MORE OF THE WORLD’S POPULATIONS MOVE “ WE ARE LIVING AT THE CROSSROADS OF TO CITIES, THOSE CITIES ARE TWO SIGNIFICANT TRENDS: URBANISATION EXPANDING EVER SKYWARDS. BUT THIS GENERATION OF AND CLIMATE CHANGE. CITIES ARE OF TALL THE RENAISSANCE DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER TOWERS WILL BE NOTHING RESPONDING BY REACHING FOR THE SKY.” LIKE THE LAST. WE EXPLORE DAVID COOPER, WSP | PARSONS BRINCKERHOFF FIVE OF THE KEY TRENDS This high-rise boom is intimately related to urbanisation. In 2014, more than half of the world’s population lived in urban areas, but by 2050, this is predicted to rise to two-thirds, with 2.5 billion new city dwellers – the equivalent of constructing five cities the size of Beijing every year until then. And with this growth comes an increasing share of the global economy: according to analyst McKinsey, 60% of global GDP is generated by the top 600 cities. “We are living at the crossroads of two significant trends: urbanisation and climate change,” says David Cooper, president of buildings at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff. “Cities are responding by reaching for the sky, as a more sustainable forward path than continuing horizontal expansion.” With so many new urban dwellers needing space to live and work, cities can either grow outwards or upwards, and they will inevitably have to do both. The advantage of vertical expansion is that it minimises the distances and travelling times between homes, jobs and essential The current boom is not just producing amenities, and maximises the value of taller versions of 20th-century towers, but prime central sites. breaks with the past in several important ways. A striking difference is where But that’s not the whole story. Tall these new towers will be located. While buildings also exert a powerful emotional urbanisation is a global trend, 90% of new force that familiarity seems to do little to urban dwellers will be living in Africa and diminish. Their sheer size in relation to the Asia and more than a third in just three human scale and the views they afford countries: China, India and Nigeria. Since from the top continue to inspire a sense 2000, China has built 43% of all the world’s of awe and wonder. They are a show of new towers. On the other hand, India and strength, demonstrating mastery of the Nigeria have barely started. elements, wealth and power. Expanding cities build landmarks to signal their Then there’s the kind of towers being ambition and communicate their arrival built. Before 2000, two-thirds were on the world stage. Established cities build purely commercial. Since the turn of the he next golden age of them not to be outdone. millennium, just under half have been T skyscrapers is upon us. 2015 apartments or hotels, and a further 19% was a record-breaking year The symbolic role of high-rise buildings mixed-use. Iconic architecture, high- for high-rise completions, with 338 new was demonstrated in the hours after the quality construction, pioneering structural buildings over 150m, but this will quickly terrorist attacks on Paris in November systems and state-of-the-art mechanical be beaten by the 342 expected in 2016. 2015. As the lights of the Eiffel Tower were and electrical services are revolutionising The race is on to build high, with a frenzy extinguished in mourning for the dead, the concept of high-rise living. From equalling that of northern American cities world cities lit up their own landmarks with our homes to the public services we in the 1920s. Except that, this time, it’s on the colours of the Tricolore. The Auckland use, to where we spend our leisure time, a global scale. Between 1924 and 1934, Sky Tower, One World Trade Center in life is shifting from a predominantly 49 buildings over 150m in height were New York, the Oriental Pearl Tower in horizontal plane to a much more vertical completed, all in the US. Between 2006 Shanghai and Calgary Tower in Canada one. Over the following pages, we look and 2016, there will be a total of 2296, with were among those glowing blue, white at the features that will define the next new towers on every continent. and red. generation of high-rise buildings. THE RENAISSANCE OF TALL 04 05 /// /// /// “ MILLENNIALS INCREASINGLY WANT THE RENAISSANCE OF TALL OF TALL THE RENAISSANCE DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER CITIES DESIGNING SKYSCRAPER A DENSE URBAN QUARTER WITH A REAL MIX OF USES – AREAS THAT ARE BUZZING AND ACTIVE AT ALL TIMES” ANDREW CANTOR, RELATED A city’s skyline is its signature. But it’s This blurring won’t just be a lifestyle what happens at street level that defines choice, it will be a necessity, he adds. its soul. Previous generations of towers “As space becomes more and more were predominantly places to work. They precious, shared amenities that have a were hives of activity by day, and dark and higher utilisation will be more important, silent by night, set in downtown areas that compared to lots of individual amenity became ghost towns after working hours spaces or private spaces. Strategies and at weekends. The new tower is a far that increase the utilisation of space more sociable place, buzzing well into the will be important, whether that’s shared night, if not 24/7. It plays a more active atrium spaces, hotel lobbies that serve as role in the local community, and perhaps restaurants or office lobbies that serve as even functions as a community itself. meeting areas.” High-rise buildings are increasingly Older towers provided little at ground combining a mix of different kinds level beyond hostile, high-security of space, at least some of it publicly entrances and high winds. Today, accessible. The taller a building is, the more planners are demanding much more, likely this is. According to the database of and developers are increasingly aware the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban of the value of a high-quality experience Habitats, 17% of buildings over 150m are at ground level. Even pure commercial mixed-use. But this rises to nearly half of all towers are likely to include some food super-tall towers over 300m, and three- and beverage or retail space at their base. quarters over 500m. Or they may be just one component of a Mixed-use makes sense for economic more varied development, as at Hudson reasons – there’s a lot of space to fill in a Yards, linked by a shared plaza or publicly mega-tall tower and selling residential units accessible podium. can help to finance the rentable elements “In our rekindled love affair with – and also practical ones, because higher skyscrapers and the city, we need to floorplates tend to be smaller and so less think about the spaces and communities suited to commercial use. we’re creating at ground level,” says But it also makes sense because life in Ken McBryde, principal at HASSELL cities is changing. The new generation in Sydney. “The skyline of a city is of workers are returning to urban areas, predominantly an abstract thing – it exists rejecting suburban lifestyles in favour in the digital or photographic realm but of vibrant neighbourhoods with a range you never actually experience it unless of amenities. Millennials already make you’re in a helicopter.