Vertical City Research Articles

Architectures of disavowal and enduring acts of refusal

Engaging with scholarship on vertical urbanism, this paper advances an understanding of architectural disavowal to account for the ways that vertical architectures deny their responsibility in causing harm to residential populations. The paper draws on Dionne Brand’s notion of disavowal in the vertical city to examine residents’ experience of and resistant responses to the harmful effects that vertical developments impose on their daily and nightly lives. In Aldgate, east London, the 13-storey high-rise development, Buckle Street Studio, has caused noise levels to rise, light pollution to intensify, the sky to vanish from sight and daylight to disappear from the flats in the neighbouring block Goldpence Apartments. Drawing on interviews with residents in Goldpence Apartments, the paper documents the extent of these changes and brings attention to the mundane strategies that residents deploy in their attempts to resist the overwhelming sensory invasions and affective intrusions of their homes. By showcasing how residents overturn the affective charge of their new high-rise neighbour/s and refuse – disavow – its force, the paper considers how mundane survival strategies might challenge architectural disavowal in the vertical city and beyond.

Implications of latent and sensible building energy loads using natural ventilation

Building decarbonization requires balancing energy efficiency with occupant comfort. Sensible cooling and latent loads, traditionally addressed by air conditioning, are significant contributors to energy use. This study explores an innovative approach to utilize natural ventilation through windows when outdoor conditions are favorable. The novelty of this work lies in its comprehensive consideration of sensible and latent loads, including both humidification and dehumidification, within the context of natural ventilation. When in cooling mode, if the indoor temperature rises above the cooling set point and the outdoor temperature is lower than the indoor temperature, the windows will automatically open to enhance natural ventilation, provided the specific humidity conditions for indoor, outdoor, and set point are met. Simulations using the Vertical City Weather Generator (VCWG v1.4.7) software investigate the energy savings potential in Toronto, Vancouver, and Phoenix for 2020. Results indicate potential for notable annual total cooling load savings of 5–15 kW-hr m−2 Year−1. Additionally, further analyses examine the impact of building air-tightness, envelope thermal resistance, and climate zone on the effectiveness of natural ventilation to reduce the sensible cooling, latent, and total cooling loads.

Maloutas, T. and Karadimitriou, N. (eds.): Vertical Cities. Micro-segregation, Social Mix and Urban Housing Markets

Maloutas, T. and Karadimitriou, N. (eds.): Vertical Cities. Micro-segregation, Social Mix and Urban Housing Markets

(Dis)connecting rent gap and gentrification in verticalizing cities: The cases of Iquique and Antofagasta, Chile

This paper explores the concept of density rent gaps in verticalizing cities, with relation to Peter Marcuse's displacement categories. The study highlights a commonly uncritical relation with the rent gap that both defenders and critics of gentrification usually assume in the literature. Results from a quantitative analysis of a Displacement Index suggest that the largest rent gaps do not always correlate with the highest displacement rates because, in verticalizing cities, the most significant rent gaps come from ‘density rent’ and not necessarily the most expensive new housing. The study focuses on Chile's second-tier towns of Iquique and Antofagasta (seldom seen in the international literature). It uses real estate and population data and fieldwork analysis to fill data voids and caps the rent gap to estimate the amount of land value capture possible to implement to reduce Chile's highly exclusionary housing environment. We believe this analysis helps to conceptually separate the rent gap from gentrification for a more precise urban analysis of vertical cities.

Assessment of Land Capability for Urban Building Height Planning in Bukittinggi, Indonesia

With urban development and rapid growth, the challenge of land capability to accommodate urbanization is becoming increasingly complex. Therefore, the concept of a "vertical city" has surfaced, indicating the importance of integrating sustainable development with spatial and building height restrictions. This study aimed to analyze the land capability of Bukittinggi City in relation to building height control. The methodology adopted adhered to the Ministry of Public Works Regulation Number 20/PRT/M.200 and relevant literature, using the scoring and overlay method with ArcGIS tools. The analysis results showed that the majority of Bukittinggi's area had a relatively high level of land capability, with a significant portion covering 71.3% of the total territory. Moreover, most buildings adhered to the land capability, even though seven unsuitable buildings were identified. These results served as a crucial basis for making informed decisions regarding land use and fostering sustainable urban development.

The basis of the concept of vertical dynamic urbanism

The article presents the concept of vertical urbanism, which ensures the constant transformation of the vertical city through the application of the most modern building theories and technologies. The interrelationship of concept and technology forms the basis of dynamic vertical urbanism: robot-based design, open building concepts, modular construction and industrial assembly, on-site automation and building information modeling. A new structure of the vertical city, or dynamic vertical urbanism, is proposed, covering the entire life cycle of a building object and characterized by constant vertical transformation through the use of the latest building technologies.

Evaluation of multi-layer urban canopy model (MLUCM) for urban microclimate predictions at different urban contexts

Modeling tools are often used to obtain a better understanding of the characteristics of urban microclimates. Among the different approaches to physics-based modeling, urban canopy models tend to be computationally faster than computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. However, the evaluation of current urban canopy models for different urban characteristics is still limited, especially for wind speed. This study aims to evaluate the potential usability of the existing urban canopy model for microclimate variable prediction in different urban contexts, specifically the vertical city weather generator (VCWG) v1.4.5, which can predict microclimate variables at different vertical heights. The measurement data used in model evaluation were obtained from 248 weather stations in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The results showed that among the input parameters, a few variables had significant impact on the wind speed prediction results, namely, the turbulent coefficient during unstable conditions, the pressure gradient coefficient, and the aerodynamic roughness length. The discrepancy in wind-speed prediction tended to be lower during the summer season, with lower wind speeds at the rural weather station. Further investigations also addressed the significant parameters of wind speed prediction related to the calculation of the turbulent diffusion coefficient and pressure gradient.

A Vertical City Park Model for Promoting Physical Activity and Sports Practice in People of All Ages

(1) Background: Modern society is characterized by urbanization and an increase in noncommunicable diseases. Governments frequently adopt policies to intervene in this regard; however, they are not always successful. Parks are an easy and feasible health intervention, but they are not always present in cities due to a lack of space. Considering the above aspects, the present study aims to analyze the scientific literature on this topic to provide a city park model versatile in different urban contexts. (2) Methods: A review of the scientific literature on this topic is performed to discover building models designed to replace/flank urban parks. (3) Results: No such articles are found in the scientific literature. The proposed model is a vertical city park. It is a modular structure designed to be adaptable to the urban context. It includes parks, sports fields, and fitness centers in a green and healthy environment. (4) Conclusions: In the scientific literature, there are no mentions of city park models. Consequently, a design model is proposed. This model for a vertical city park can be an instrument for a population-based health program. This solution has the potential to be feasible and economical, thereby giving the community a more easy-to-adopt instrument.

The linguistic landscape of Lamma Island

Lamma Island, while only a short 30-minute ferry ride from the intensely metropolitan centre of Hong Kong Island, the ‘most vertical city’ in the world, represents a rural diametric as an ‘outlying island’: lightly populated with both a long-standing local population and a transient ‘expatriate’ population. We argue that the main village Yung Shue Wan represents a ‘border nexus’ between the urban and the rural. This becomes evident through our autoethnographic linguistic landscape (LL) approach, where the four authors use four different positionalities towards understanding how displayed discourse is oriented to multiple centres of authority – that is, the municipal, regional, communal, and touristic – creating Lamma’s unique polycentric sense of place. We show that polycentricity is not only intrinsic to signs but is also contingent on those who read them. We foreground the role of autoethnographic reflexivity in LL analysis, as collaboratively studied via video conferencing tools in light of the pandemic.

Fear and Awe in the Vertical City: the Affective Space of "Going High"

Vertical cities are the hallmark of modern urbanization, and since their origin have represented the global places of progress, power and affluency. As skyscrapers and towers soar around the world, in an ever-increasing quest for height, the space of cities changes, affording its inhabitants with new, powerful affects. Yet not all emotions produced by the verticality of buildings are positive: together with the awe and wonder of the challenge to the sky, fear and anxiety also make their way into the urban subjects’ embodied experiences. In this paper, I enucleate some of the spatial dynamics of verticality, and discuss the pros and cons of this model of urbanization, together with some of its further implications, such as the repercussions on density and sustainability

Thoughts on Urban Verticalization. Going Up and Building High for the Future City

Urban verticalization has shaped most cities around the world in the 20th century, playing a big part in the conception, creation and expansion of the Metropolis and the new cityscape that continuously aims for the sky. The vertical city as a concept has been provoking the creativity of architects and planners for over a century, mainly as the solution to the urban challenges that emerged after the industrial revolution, a time when the city was being rapidly transformed, and a new socioeconomic model appeared together with the new era. The intense vertical growth of our cities in the 20th century has formed the way our cities look and function, ultimately it has shaped what we consider as the modern city and urbanity, as well as the way we imagine the city of the future. Aesthetics aside, vertical building agglomeration has been a widespread solution to the growing demand for various different spaces in many cities of various scales all around the world. The evolution of the high-rise has had a huge impact on the image and experience of the city, shaping both the cities’ skylines, but also ground level neighborhoods and public spaces, impacting how people move and interact within the urban setting.

Retrofit optimization of building systems for future climates using an urban physics model

To guide building system retrofits for reducing building’s operational carbon footprint, a micro-genetic optimization algorithm has been applied. The algorithm is integrated into the Vertical City Weather Generator (VCWG) urban physics model. The model is applied to low-rise residential houses of Toronto, a cold Canadian city, for annual estimations and reductions of electricity/gas consumption and retrofit cost from 2020 to 2100, every decade, under two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) climate change scenarios. The building system configuration utilizes a solar thermal collector, photovoltaic collector, wind turbine, building thermal energy storage, and heat pump. Fifteen building variables have been optimized. Compared to a base building, the proposed retrofitted system reduces the electricity consumption by up to 61.71 [%] and the gas consumption by up to 82.67 [%]. The annualized retrofit cost for a 20-year time horizon is about 10-15 thousand Dollars. Some optimized variables are sensitive to the climate change scenario over a long time horizon until 2100, which relate to the thermal energy storage system, phase change material, solar thermal collectors (and the associated working fluid flow rates), solar heat gain coefficient, and roof albedo. Other variables, relating to the ventilation/infiltration rates, building envelop thermal resistance, glazing ratio, wind turbine size, and photovoltaic collectors, do not show such sensitivity. The optimization process is computationally fast, and the solution obtained provides evidence for successful building system retrofits toward energy and cost savings for the climate of Toronto.

Vertical Cities: Emergent Patterns of Movement and Space Use in Dense Vertically Integrated Urban Built Environments

In high-density, land-scarce cities like Singapore, the successful translation of ground-level urban qualities and benefits into vertical living is crucial for social, economic, environmental, and ecological sustainability. This research introduces a Network science-based spatial analysis framework to evaluate the connectivity and relationships of vertically integrated urban open spaces. Kampung Admiralty (KA), a unique development integrating housing for the elderly with various facilities, serves as a case study. The methodology combines static spatial network measures and real-world movement data to predict movement flows, accessibility, and connectivity. Lift lobbies and elevated garden connectors emerged as critical paths, effectively distributing pedestrian flows. Landscape spaces played a key role in visual and physical connectivity, offering high recreational and social value. Strategic placement of “social attractors” improved space utilization. The study highlights the importance of spatial design parameters in user-space interactions and provides insights into socio-spatial networks at both ground and elevated levels. It identifies key connectors that facilitate effective planning and design of vertically integrated public space networks, promoting social and spatial effectiveness.

Generating Natural Cities Using 3D Road Network to Explore Living Structure: A Case Study in Hong Kong

Compared with administrative cities, natural cities can be generally referred to as the areas generated based on the density of different urban facilities (e.g., point of interest, road network, etc.). To some extent, natural cities are outperformed in some related urban studies, such as urban living structure analysis. Nevertheless, traditional ways of generating natural cities are mostly limited to the planar space. Modern cities such as Hong Kong are vertical cities with high buildings, 3D road networks and land uses. Therefore, traditional nature cities could be biased when applied to 3D cities. In this work, a 3D road network in Hong Kong is adopted to extract true road intersections and generate modified natural cities to explore urban living structures. Numerous living structure units are classified into two parts: tiny and serried ones representing natural cities and vast ones representing rural areas. The classification method applies head/tail breaks, and a clustering algorithm was fitted for heavy-tailed distribution. According to the living structure theory, the living structures of the proposed natural cities and traditional natural cities based on the same road network in Hong Kong are compared. The findings show that the distribution of modified natural city regions is more reasonable compared with typical ones. The improved model will more clearly show the inherent living structure of the city and will allow an analysis of the relationship between the part and wholeness of the city.

Seismic Analysis of High-Rise Buildings Considering Aerodynamic Effect

High-rise buildings with irregular shapes are gaining popularity in creating vertical cities around the world. A high-rise building is a wind-sensitive structure and its shape plays a major role in determining wind loads, which usually govern the design of its lateral resisting system. Therefore, aerodynamic treatments on high-rise buildings must also be considered, because even a small amount of geometrical shaping modifications can provide considerable damping against wind loads which in turn disturbs the mechanism of the vortex shedding phenomenon. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations are currently an effective tool for the aerodynamic study of buildings in conjunction with wind tunnel investigations. This paper presents the analysis of a 50-storey and 100-storey building considering aerodynamic modifications, which is firstly achieved by creating a digital system of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis of buildings with the different minor and major aerodynamic shape modifications and hence evaluating aerodynamic forces on the buildings, subsequently, the seismic assessment of a 50-storey regular and irregular building by response spectrum and time history analysis is also studied.

A Review of Conceptual Design and Self Health Monitoring Program in a Vertical City: A Case of Burj Khalifa, U.A.E.

Burj Khalifa, a notable landmark in a growing landscape of skyscrapers, along with other tall structures, has dramatically transformed the morphology of Dubai and elevated it to global prominence. This masterpiece was designed to attract international interest, as it diversifies the economy from an oil-based one towards one that is tourist-and servicebased. However, the foremost design input and major challenges of the super-tall building are associated with the increase in height, which put them at risk of wind- and earthquake-induced lateral loads and user satisfaction. Consequently, it was essential to study both the design and construction phases of the tallest towers in the context of the wind and earthquake impact. This study aims to revalidate the three structural design phases; conceptual, schematic, and detailed design of this vertical city to confirm that the requirements are achieved. The methodology is a theoretical and analytical elaboration of the case study that obtains and confirms the basic requirements through a review of the existing survey, drawings, literature, and archived documents. Finally, the study validates the presumed structural behaviour and the insitu determined response, which are outstanding. The study further unveils the development of the structural health monitoring programme that gives an instant and direct response to the real structural performance of the building from the commencement of the construction and throughout its lifespan.

The Vatic Weather File Generator (VWFG v1.0.0)

To combat climate change caused by cities, it is necessary to perform urban physics modeling to assess mitigation solutions suitable for future climates. A challenge is availability of reliable future weather files for investigation of future climate scenarios. This research aims to develop the Vatic Weather File Generator (VWFG) using the statistical downscaling approach to fill this gap. VWFG is novel by using a history of weather files over multiple years to downscale future climate model data utilizing (1) quantile–quantile bias corrections, (2) record matching by the Finkelstein–Schafer method, and (3) shifting–stretching corrections. This implementation of VWFG uses the CanRCM4 climate model (1980–2100) and the ERA5 reanalysis data product as weather files (1980–2020) for two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. VWFG outputs are consistent with findings in other studies. Further, to investigate the performance of VWFG for a case in Toronto, Canada, the Vertical City Weather Generator (VCWG) is forced by VWFG to predict the building sensible heating and cooling energy demands for a two-story single-family residential house. It is found that the building sensible heating demand is reduced over time (∼ 15%–30% for RCP 4.5–8.5 W m−2) and the building sensible cooling demand is increased over time (∼ 20%–50% for RCP 4.5–8.5 W m−2). The amount of change is greater for RCP 8.5 than RCP 4.5 W m−2. VWFG is a simple, practical, and widely applicable tool for urban physics simulations of future climates, particularly in cases where reliable forcing data is lacking otherwise.

Design and construction of multifunctional high-rise complexes as a stage to creation of vertical cities

The article raises the question of comfortable living environment in modern megacities, by building high-rise multifunctional complexes, which are an effective and rational means of increasing the density of urban development and the environment as a whole, while creating its multi-level per unit area of urban territory. The article presents examples of foreign and Russian experience in the construction of multi-level urban complexes. Attention is drawn to the fact that the design and construction of skyscrapers inevitably leads to the improvement and development of relevant technologies and competencies. The improving of building technologies in future cities will be able to produce a wider range of services both above the surface and in the urbanized underground without large losses of the resources of the cities themselves and for the benefit of future generations. It is noted that there are two opposite directions of the vertical development of the city (horizontal and vertical).

Techno-economic assessment of a very small modular reactor (vSMR): A case study for the LINE city in Saudi Arabia

Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) announced the development of first-of-a-kind(FOAK) and most advanced futuristic vertical city and named as ‘The LINE’. The project will have zero carbon dioxide emissions and will be powered by clean energy sources. Therefore, a study was designed to understand which clean energy sources might be a better choice. Because of its nearly carbon-free footprint, nuclear energy may be a good choice. Nowadays, the development of very small modular reactors (vSMRs) is gaining attention due to many salient features such as cost efficiency and zero carbon emissions. These reactors are one step down to actual small modular reactors (SMRs) in terms of power and size. SMRs typically have a power range of 20 MWe to 300 MWe, while vSMRs have a power range of 1–20 MWe. Therefore, a study was conducted to discuss different vSMRs in terms of design, technology types, safety features, capabilities, potential, and economics. After conducting the comparative test and analysis, the fuel cycle modeling of optimal and suitable reactor was calculated. Furthermore, the levelized unit cost of electricity for each reactor was compared to determine the most suitable vSMR, which is then compared other generation SMRs to evaluate the cost variations per MWe in terms of size and operation. The main objective of the research was to identify the most cost effective and simple vSMR that can be easily installed and deployed.

Local Climate Zones, Sky View Factor and Magnitude of Daytime/Nighttime Urban Heat Islands in Balneário Camboriú, SC, Brazil

For this study on urban climatology, the study area is the city of Balneário Camboriú, belonging to the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina (SC), located at 26°59′42″ south latitude and 48°37′46″ west longitude. As it is the most vertical city in the entire Southern Hemisphere, Balneário Camboriú was selected as the study area for the development of this climate analysis. Then, this study was concerned with analyzing the formation of urban heat islands throughout the daytime and nighttime in the city of Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina, Brazil, on some days in October 2020, from the perspective of the local climatic zones. Seven fixed sampling points and one official weather station were selected for this research. These points were selected in order to facilitate analysis of the climatic behaviour of the urban area throughout the day, comparing it with the other points, and also to verify possible changes in the local climate in the most diverse types of LCZ. At these same points, the Sky View Factor (SVF) measurements were taken. to elaborate the map of LCZ of Balneário Camboriú, the WUDAPT method was used. There was a great variation of the SVF between the collection points, and different LCZs were mapped, which contributed to the formation of urban heat islands whose maximum magnitude was 10.8 °C and islands with freshnesses of magnitudes of −4.5 °C.