Between Heaven and Earth

between heaven and earth

Words Herbert Wright

For skyscraper experts worldwide, the annual Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats conference is the highlight of the calendar. We report from its 2013 London event and talk to BROAD Group chairman Zhang Yue about Sky City — an astounding proposal for a vertical city for 30,000 people, that would be the tallest tower in the world

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142 Vertical Europe: Iconography resultingwas underit, initsvast Terry galleria. Farrell, long Stirk Building, saidtheonlyLeadenhall placeto off erthepublic ofthe just oneofthem,thepublicrealm.designer Lead large’. huge That raises butthediscussion’s issues, context was at responsibilities asarchitects —to theclientandto society have have themoney can aride.’ He continued: ‘We have two offunfairexperiences aseries becomes where only thosewho skygardens above ‘Ifwe’re thecapital: notcareful,London boomandthearrivalhigh-rise ofviewing platforms and Bow, was votedBest). theAmericas’ new 10Years’ category (Thelatter’s Best. tower, Calgary The Tall asBest Building(Europe)2012) andFoster’s Gherkin inthe would winCTBUHawards for Piano’s Shard 315, (Blueprint June had itsown whole suite andprogrammeLater, oftalks. London which2013), was topped off justa week after theconference, bit isolated’), 325, whileBuilding(Blueprint theLeadenhall April Talkie atFenchurch 20 Street (‘Iknow thebuildinglookstoday a he off ered. Architect Rafael Viñolytalked about the Walkie- beneath it:‘Igotta tell you, hedoesn’t many design busstations,’ The Shard, includingthat Renzo thebusstation designed Piano with London’s new icons.Developer Sellarpresented Irvine fashion show’. That didn’t stop buildingsbeingparaded, starting its executive director Antony Wood nota warnedis that ‘this engineers, developers andothers.At theconference’s opening, about skyscrapers. Itsconference architects, structural attracts become theauthority, house forumfor andclearing information Heighttheme: andHeritage. announcements loomedhighabove theconference’s topical townutopian vertical 828m high(seepage 147). The Broad Group, Yue, Zhang presented SkyCity, anextraordinary conventional steel ropes. Secondly, thechairmanofChina’s the range ofalift—currently limited to 500mwithheavier, Kone announced itscarbon-fi bre-based UltraRope that doubles brought tangiblycloser. that vision Finnishliftmanufacturer Buildings andUrbanannouncements Habitat(CTBUH),two 528 storeys. At conference ofTall theLondon oftheCouncil Tower for 100,000 city —avertical souls SkyCity) in (akaIllinois In 1956 Frank Lloyd Wright revealed a vision of a Mile-High Graham Stirk ofRSHPoff ered a warning about thelocal that organisation has aChicago-based The CTBUHis remodelled KPF, 2011 Stenzel, Dufau & Dacbert, 231m, 50storeys, Paris BFLS, 2010 148m,43storeys London Cesar Pelli, 1991 235m, 50storeys London OMA,2013 150m,44storeys, Rotterdam 4 3 2 1

TOUR FIRST STRATA ONE CANADA DE ROTTERDAM 1974 SQUARE KPF, 2011 230m, 46storeys London Frank Williams, 2013 339m, 70 storeys Moscow Foster +Partners, 2007 125m,26storeys London 259m, 56storeys Frankfurt 6 8 5 7

HERON TOWER MERCURY CITY WILLIS BUILDING COMMERZBANK Foster +Partners, 1997 TOWER TOWER Seville andWestminster because ofplannedskyscrapers sullying Heritage from Status sitesinLiverpool, historic Prague, Cologne, adjusted tohasthreatened 37m. UNESCO to remove World heightlimitshaveHaussmann-set 19th-century sincebeen torn about proper,is allowing skyscrapers inthecity where particularly Paris ofskyscrapers cityscapes. impact onhistoric and there’s acommunal swimmingpoolontheroof. Accra, Ghana.Traditional Kente local weave informs facades, which buildingin may thetallest inheightbutis bemodest refreshing projectshown Villagio wasII, theAHMM-designed biomassthesitecalculated would have had asjungle.Another along withgardens at numerous otherlevels, they replace the itas‘aninthemiddleoffour oasis skyscrapers’,described and Marina OneinSingapore, which willcomplete in2016. He presented themostunusual skygarden practice’s inhis design paddling poolandtheaspiration inclusion. ofsocial d’Habitation (1952), which includedachidren’s school, art are from descended Corbusier’s Le communal rooftop onUnité moreset tohigh.Today’s rise than200m residential skygardens oneofthree Itis residential239m. towers around Wharf Canary time for CTBUH,willhave skygarden thehighest at inLondon tower,Pride which had notbeencleared for announcement in which are fastbecomingderigueur. Squire andPartner’s City 42-storey towera spectacular for Stratford withskygardens, presented Stratford theSOM-designed Gardens, ManhattanLoft property. Handelsman, Harry CEOofManhattanLofts, nowhere more sothanwiththeglobaldemandfor London fabric’. social to thecity’s with nocontribution ‘most future developments are entirely aprofi t-makingprocess of towers suchAalyalamented asthat city’s apartments, residential basedinMumbai architects StudioC, anddesigner Jasleenabsent. Changani,CTBUHdelegateandproprietor of around any new tower (more from Farrell in20/20, page 180). it’. He proposed a‘programme ofreview ofseveral streets’ around building changes it; a high-rise the whole around ecolo�y a proponent declared: of‘place-making’, ‘A bigtree aff all ects London’s skyline Simpson, isdueto join Boomerang’ by Ian Blackfriars, aka ‘the 1 (previous page) –One What oftheheritage issue? agonise European over cities the Düsseldorf-based Ingenhoven architect Christoph may have Residential developers seelucrative returns from high-rise, Worldwide, considerations like publicrealm are often 225m,50storeys London SantiagoCalatrava, 2001 190m,54storeys, Malmo FXFOWLE, 2014 186m,40storeys, Istanbul Jaspers-Eyers, 2012 119m,24 storeys Ghent 10 12 11 9

THE LEADENHALL TURNING TORSO RÖNESANS TOWER MG TOWER RSHP, 2014 BUILDING Rafael ViñolyArchitects, 160m,37 storeys London NBBJ, 2010 302m &257m, Moscow 180m,40storeys London RPBW, 2012 306m, 72 storeys London TOWERS 14 16 15 13

THE SHARD 20 FENCHURCHST CAPITAL CITY 30 ST MARY AXE 2014 75 &65storeys Foster +Partners, 2004

1 (PReviouS Page) ian SiMPSon THIS ILLUSTRATION CtbuH ‘the deathofbling’.He reports that withthe54-storey Morello beforebuildings designed economiccrash the2008 delivered butasShuttleworthin London, pointedthey out, characterise to beprotected. for viewlines oftheGherkin (which heworked onunderFoster) graciously labelledTheShard ‘a fabulous building’andcalled been anor�yofglass.It’s allout ofdate!’ Nevertheless, he He reiterated message his at theclosingpresentations: ‘There’s growing.glass is Make’s Ken Shuttleworth haslongbeenvocal. sun, sowe have fullglazing,’ heexplained. against Butdissent ThereEkaterinaburg, Siberia. ‘people are reaching at abitof architect WernerGerman Sobekeven revealed aglasstower for ‘smart combination’ oflow-tech withhigh-tech design, elements, buildings, especiallystatementtowers. Anevangelist for the tower enclosedinasculptural outer glassskin. amainlyit ‘theBoomerang’), residential, 170m-high, 50-storey (somealready projects,includingOneBlackfriars London call accommodation at themoment.’ Luckily for Simpsonhehas depressed economy, and...that there novalue inresidential is to forthree attwo the regionalleast cities years.dueto the Itis told ‘Idon’t Blueprint: believe any buildingswillbebuiltin tall more.but theresultingalso10times he is Later value inLondon more, be10times the timefrom to completioncan commission asmuchhighlighted howand to buildinLondon itcoststwice presentation His chasm dividesandtheregional cities’. London Circus Tower, to spell out that‘a when to itcomes high-rise, Manchester’s Tower Beetham andBirmingham’s Holloway developers. Itwas down to architect Ian of Simpson,designer lots ofskyscrapers, heritagearchitects andnotleast unanimously infavour ofkeeping them. shouldthe corridors bescrapped, theroom was almost asked thediscussion, chairing for ashow ofhandsonwhether a lostcause’. Nevertheless, when RIBA president Angela Brady, that ‘we’ve Haussmannised thesky. To preserve allviews is ofStPaul’scorridors andWestminster. Terry Farrell declared only signifiLondon’s was cant discussion protected viewing views received ofthem,butallthis attention. About scant the 1 Big Glassandsculptural forms may stillbeonthemarch Big Glassremains thefashionabletreatment for facade big clearlyLondon dominated theconference because ithas 2 3 4 5 6 7 heights ofitsown. ever The than conferenceLondon taller set can. for yet is greater Next year theconference inShanghai,which is buildsmore and andCTBUHprovides vital, professional forum is it. high-rise increasingly defihigh-rise Aglobal theurbanhabitat. nes ground as‘ductile’. active Mexico City. from rising soft itsmegaframe He described Ricardo Legorreta) for BBVA Bancomer, being built in seismically Legorreta+Legorreta founded (thepractice by thelate legendary One example hegave was the50-storey tower by RSHPand hasshiftedbecause earthquake-prone high-rise to hot, places. hesaid, willbemorebut temperatureimportant, andseismicity inskyscraper factor structures, Wind-load hasbeenthecritical as skyscrapers proliferate. seen asanatural fit, and even are cities Gulfbuildingmetros That may idea travel, butalready rail hubsare andhigh-rise suchIn places asHong Kong, skyscrapers have fi nancedstations. mentioned question ofpublicrealm, are now ontheagenda. whether sociallyexclusive or inclusive, andthepreviously now tickboxes How plugs into thecity, onthechecklist. high-rise drive, are andembeddedener�yrecyclability sustainability increasingly more mean thanjustahotel ontheupper fl oors. willbecomethenorm,andmixedmodular structures usewill PrefabricatedArchitecture underconstruction). ofChicago is Jeddah’s Kingdom Towerreached 1000m( by Smith+Gill increase ofafitwo fthinjustand years, 2019 heightwillhaveby 2014, there willbemore than900towers over high,an 200m skyscrapers are getting andmushrooming taller innumbers —in That may sound mad, butthere are architects working onit. fi rstplace. building towersWe need to start out of vegetation!’ etceteratechnologies —to cover theproblems we created inthe we’re —vented low-E doing�ymnastics facades, glass should have beenover years 20 ago. What’s that ridiculous is AntonyBlueprint, Wood was even more vocalabout glass:‘It concentrated onmaterials, notshape’. Later, chatting with Tower, next construction year starting inCroydon, ‘we 8 As humanity’sAs inexorable defi urbanisation century, this nes of Arup naturally Lang Bob took an perspective.engineering A building’s ener�yperformance haslongsetthe So, what are theglobaltrends inhigh-rise?Obviously, 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 143 2 5 6 d r tuttga s Sobek, r ne r We 8

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2 – The 50-storey BBVA ll Bancomer Tower i by RSHP and Legorreta G + +

+Legorreta in earthquake- h prone Mexico City it m S 5

3 – Mumbai is the location s

for the 170m-high Aalya t tower by Studio C c ite 4 – Marina One in Singapore

by Christoph Ingenhoven Arch is termed ‘an oasis’ amid tower blocks oven oven h 5 – An aerial view of the Kingdom Tower, Jeddah, ngen I

which is due to top a height 4 of 1,000m bai bai

6 – The 42-storey Manhattan m Loft Gardens is underway in Stratford, London

7 – Relatively modest in

size, the Villagio by AHMM MuStudio C is nonetheless the tallest 3 building in Accra, Ghana etta etta 8 – The Iset Tower by Werner r Sobek in Ekaterinaburg, Siberia, is due to complete next year etta + Lego + etta r RSHP and LegoRSHPand 2

144 145 838m Sky City 830m

A SKY TOWER A Elevator reaches 830m Coﬀ ee house at 830m Restaurant at 770m

B HOTEL Floor 202 Floors 171 to 202 727m 250 suite hotel rooms In Plan Swimming pool at ﬂ oor 202

C LUXURY APARTMENTS Floors 121 to 170 14 suites 520 sq m rooms 356 suites 240 sq m rooms B

D TOP CLASS APARTMENTS ChaIrMan ZhanG’S Floors 61 to 120 Floors 171 to 202 812 suites 140 sq m rooms 31.2m brave new wOrLd 928 suites 90 sq m rooms Floor 170 612m E MEDIUM CLASS APARTMENTS Floors 31 to 60 710 suites 140 sq m rooms 470 suites 90 sq m rooms

F SMALL APARTMENTS Floors 16 to 30 The urbanisation of China is the single biggest transformation construction is the basis of BSB’s methods, and Sky City’s 1,160 suites 60 sq m rooms G of any society, anywhere, ever. In 1980, a fi fth of the population 3,000-plus construction crew are like industrial assemblers. C was urban. Now more than half is, and by 2025 another 300 Zhang says that ‘it’s 14 hours to build one car. It should be like OFFICE Floors 6 to 15 million will migrate to cities. Planners grapple with the issue. that’. Ninety per cent of Sky City will be factory made — slightly H Enter Zhang Yue, chairman of China’s BROAD Group. His urban more than the West’s most advanced modular high-rise, The MIXED-USE AREA proposition is extraordinary: Sky City, a genuinely vertical town Leadenhall Building (Blueprint 325, April 2013). There, safety put a Floors 1 to 5 on 202 levels in which everything from schools to parks would limit on speed, but Zhang brushes that aside. Although some in the Middle and primary school 17,000 sq m Floors 121 to 170 Kindergaten 4,000 sq m 62.4m provide a life for 30,000 souls. construction industry have questioned BSB’s safety record, Zhang Home for the aged 4,000 sq m Hospital 9,000 sq m At 838m high, Sky City will exceed the world’s tallest says that at T30 there were ‘zero injuries’, not even ‘where Floor 120 skyscraper, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, by 10m. Many have visions, but someone broke their nail ‘. In the West ‘90 per cent of people I 432m BASEMENT Zhang personally broke ground at Changsha, Hunan Province, in probably don’t know each other when they come together to build Floors -1 to -6 July. Then work stopped in a dispute about local building permits. a building’ and that leads to safety problems, among others, he says. J J Whether this setback is temporary or not is still unclear. Zhang Sky City is essentially an earthquake-resistant steel cage SKY STREET had earlier told Blueprint, ‘We’re not building one building, we’re matrix, served by 92 lifts and triple-glazed. From six storeys of Floors 1 to 170 10km going to build many of them in the coming days.’ basement, the structure, with a footprint of less than a hectare, Zhang was in the capital for the CTBUH London conference, rises to a roof at 727m, above which is a ‘sky tower’ mast. In plan, K ONE IN EVERY THREE FLOORS staying in a 18th-century, converted brewery. The room’s curtains four symmetric, orthogonal wings contain almost everything, ARE EQUIPPED WITH: were drawn, and from the shadows falling across the sofa he with three stepbacks on which are skygardens. Health and school Basketball court, badminton court, tennis court, hand-ball court, squash described his ‘three visions’ for the million square metre Sky City: facilities are in the lowest fl oors, then offi ces, then apartments to court, cinema, concert hall, D ‘The fi rst one is to conserve land. The second, to conserve ener�y. the fi rst stepback at level 60. ‘Top class’ apartments reach to level music room, vertical farm, fl ower garden, shop, coff ee house, And the third, to allow people who live inside to have a very high 120’s stepback, then ‘luxury’ apartments to the third at level 170. ping-pong court, gym, climbing wall, quality of life.’ The central area is split: one side a continuous fi ve-mile sloping library, pool room, training room, fi sh pond, The Burj Khalifa took fi ve years to build, but Sky City’s public path 3.9m wide — Zhang says that residents’ ‘centre of small forest, restaurant K structure should take just seven months. BROAD Group’s Broad living revolves around this road’. Beside it is a stack of 56 Floors 61 to 120 Sustainable Building (BSB) division has already demonstrated 10m-high, column-free internal spaces, each of 240 sq m, whose 93.6m previously unfeasible construction speeds. The 30-storey T30 use will vary from a bewildering variety of sports to shops, Hotel at Dongting Lake, in China’s Hunan province was built catering, entertainment, libraries, parks and two acres of organic Floor 60 in just 15 days (and people who’ve stayed like it). Modular farms. Between this and the sky tower is a 32-storey hotel with a 216m swimming pool on level 202. Lifts will rise further, into the mast to access a restaurant, then at 830m, a coff ee house. The BROAD Group logo tops it all. Sky City aims for maximum sustainability. Zhang says ‘the air quality inside is the cleanest on Earth’, yet Sky City’s HVAC E will use just 70kWh per square metre a year, a fi fth the normal Chinese level and less than a tenth of other supertalls. Zhang knows his stuff — the BROAD Group started in the ener�y-guzzling air-conditioning fi eld. Driven by an environmental passion, he spent 20 years improving technologies, and the UN honoured him as 2011 Champion of the Earth. He will apply ‘all possible, practical methods for ener�y conservation’ and lists insulation, F China is changing far CHP, ventilation recovery, LED lighting, regenerative lift braking, and grey water systems. China has the world’s biggest carbon quicker than the West did, gRouPCHina bRoad footprint and Zhang knows one building will make scant and it may not take long G diff erence, but it will demonstrate his ‘ideals, ideolo�y and Floors 1 to 60 124.8m to see if the more socially technolo�y’. If they are followed, the impact will be massive. H mixed Sky City works ‘Buildings beyond 100 storeys tall are going to become a IMAGES BOTH

I Floor -6 -27m

146 147 standardised tall-building form,’ declares Zhang, but he disagrees that they will have no sense of local identity. He contends that architects have ‘made buildings look too strange... If we depart from functionality to design our buildings, then naturally different places will arrive at different designs of buildings. So, the less design there is, the more character there is. This is my view.’ It seems an odd logic, but China’s hutongs, the embodiment of local community, were after all not designed by architects, for whom Zhang seems to hold little regard. He contends that OMA’s CCTV building has no connection with Beijing, nor The Shard (‘the really pointy building’) or the Gherkin with London: ‘We’re being influenced by the architect’s words.’ Instead he offers a resident’s viewpoint. ‘They see buildings just like shoes and clothes. As long as you wear it and it fits, it should be enough,’ he explains. ‘Gilded or silver-plated things or strange forms are actually things residents don’t need, but architects need, or people who sell the buildings.’ Sky City shares its functional design spirit with modernism, but when asked, Zhang says ‘I haven’t heard of Le Corbusier. I like Lewis Mumford.’ The 20th-century American theorist challenged matters like obsolescence and ‘monotechnics’ such as the car. Zhang’s ethos incorporates Mumford’s stress on the human with new ecological concerns. He says that ‘in the times of hutong, China only had a 100 million people’, whereas now China has almost 1.4 bn. There’s simply not the land for everyone to live low-rise, which leads to ever more cars and roads. Zhang contends that daily destinations — work, school, shopping and so on — ‘should be within a 2km radius. That’s the best. A 5km radius I would say is the maximum. The reality in China is the daily activity radius is beyond 20km. This is huge’. Sky City eliminates activity radius. Blueprint put it to Zhang that while mass high-rise, high- density living works in the East, it has generated crime, drug abuse and social breakdown elsewhere. Could Sky City do the same? ‘No’, he says. ‘Maybe you are too pessimistic about Westerners. I don’t think there will be this problem. When you open your door, you have community. This is a very ideal model.’ But in this utopian environment, where everything’s provided, what about individual expression? ‘Of course there is room for individualisation’, he replies. ‘In one city, there are many different types of characters. We will not restrain these characters. Other than anything criminal, you can do anything.’ Indeed, he even says never leaving the building ‘is very possible, because there are hospitals. You can be born inside and die inside’. But step outside, and Sky City is surrounded by forest. It conserves 200ha for green land, ‘so actually, you’re closest to nature’. Zhang himself is no fan of established cities. ‘I like very few places but I’ve seen some places in Germany where you walk maybe a few steps and you can see the farmland’. Zhang’s presentation of Sky City at CTBUH left a packed hall stunned. Arup’s Bob Lang saw no infrastructure ‘to empty the building in one go’, but Make’s Ken Shuttleworth declared: ‘I think it’s amazing. There’s real lessons to be learned.’ It’s the vision of Sky City’s ‘very high quality of life’ that may baffle the West most. Tim Johnson, chair of CTBUH, let slip: ‘If our life gets that programmed, we’ll probably be brain-dead’. The West took decades to overcome the disaster of Corbusian social housing and only now is building residential towers again. ‘If we rely on our own instincts, we shouldn’t have these kind of problems,’ says Zhang. China is changing far quicker than the

West did, and it may not take long to see if the more socially H

mixed Sky City works. Let’s wish this brave new world well. TBU 9

9 – Night vision: Sky City should be home to 30,000 who need never leave due the facilities that will be provided ntony Wood via C via Wood ntony A

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