Abstract
Since their inauguration in 2005, supertall residential skyscrapers have established themselves as a truly new, 21st century phenomenon. Their uniqueness spans the spectrum of critically important issues, ranging from discrete ways of conceptualization, production, and delivery, introduction of latest technologies, strict organizational and spatial rules and practices, all the way to various socio-cultural impacts, which include the peculiar, often invisible ways of cultural accommodation. This paper presents parts of a larger research project into this urbo-architectural type, focusing on the capacity of these skyscrapers to address numerous issues related to residential density, especially in fast-growing megacities. While a substantial number of research projects explore economic, architectural, engineering, and environmental attributes of these buildings by focusing on measurable aspects of their production and use, the holistic comparisons and qualitative elaboration of the significance of the residential supertall phenomenon are still lacking. This paper attempts to fill that gap and open a new approach into investigations of supertall residential skyscrapers. The starting position is that these are not simply bigger and taller, but fundamentally different urban artefacts, which have an untapped capacity to reach another kind of quality. Definition and recognition of that difference will enable us to better capitalize upon the qualities which it brings and help avoid the problems which it generates.
Highlights
Cities have experienced the pressures of population growth globally, in a variety of ways
Urban compactness is a form of density which requires more than simple aggregation of a large number of objects within a limited area
If we apply that fundamental logic to urban analysis, we can define compactness as the density of objects within a defined area of the urban realm
Summary
Cities have experienced the pressures of population growth globally, in a variety of ways. In his book Skyscrapers and the Men that Built Them [17], goes further and gives us a technical starting point on what attributes a building must exhibit in order to be considered a skyscraper, which somewhat mirrors that of the Encyclopedia Britannica earlier in the chapter: “For the skyscraper, to be a skyscraper, must be constructed on a skeleton frame, almost universally of steel, but with the signal characteristic of having columns in the outside walls, rendering the exterior we see a continuous curtain of masonry penetrated by windows; we call it a curtain wall This seemingly continuous exterior is supported at each floor by the beams or girders of that floor, with the loads carried to the columns embedded in that same masonry curtain, unseen but absolutely essential to the towering heights upon which we gaze with such admiration and awe and pride, our everlasting pride in our completely American creation.” [17]. The sub-continent expects the construction of six towers in Mumbai, which is, according to the Index, yet another on the list of emerging Global Cities (see Table 2)
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