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Atower block,high-rise,apartment tower,residential tower,apartment block,block of flats, oroffice tower is a tallbuilding, as opposed to alow-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on thejurisdiction. It is used as aresidential,office building, or other functions includinghotel,retail, or with multiple purposes combined. Residential high-rise buildings are also known in some varieties of English, such asBritish English, astower blocks and may be referred to asMDUs, standing formulti-dwelling units.[1][full citation needed] A very tall high-rise building is referred to as askyscraper.
High-rise buildings became possible to construct with the invention of theelevator (lift) and with less expensive, more abundant building materials. The materials used for thestructural system of high-rise buildings arereinforced concrete andsteel. MostNorth American–styleskyscrapers have asteel frame, while residential blocks are usually constructed of concrete. There is no clear difference between a tower block and a skyscraper, although a building with forty or more stories and taller than 150 metres (490 ft) is generally considered a skyscraper.[2]
High-rise structures pose particular design challenges forstructural andgeotechnical engineers, particularly if situated in aseismically active region or if the underlying soils have geotechnical risk factors such as highcompressibility orbay mud. They also pose serious challenges to firefighters during emergencies in high-rise structures. New and old building design, building systems such as the buildingstandpipe system,HVAC systems (heating, ventilation and air conditioning),fire sprinkler systems, and other things such as stairwell andelevator evacuations pose significant problems. Studies are often required to ensure that pedestrianwind comfort and wind danger concerns are addressed. In order to allow less wind exposure, to transmit more daylight to the ground and to appear more slender, many high-rises have a design withsetbacks.
Apartment buildings have technical and economic advantages in areas of highpopulation density, and have become a distinctive feature of housing accommodation in virtually all densely populatedurban areas around the world. In contrast withlow-rise and single-family houses, apartment blocks accommodate more inhabitants per unit of area of land and decrease the cost ofmunicipal infrastructure.
Various bodies have defined "high-rise":
High-rise apartment buildings had already appeared inantiquity: theinsulae inAncient Rome and several other cities in theRoman Empire, some of which might have reached up to ten or more stories,[6] one reportedly having 200 stairs.[7] Because of the destruction caused by poorly built high-riseinsulae collapsing,[8] severalRoman emperors, beginning withAugustus (r. 30 BC – 14 AD), set limits of 20–25 metres (66–82 ft) for multi-story buildings, but met with limited success,[9][10] as these limits were often ignored despite the likelihood of tallerinsulae collapsing.[11] The lowerfloors were typically occupied by either shops or wealthy families, while the upper stories were rented out to the lower classes.[12] SurvivingOxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-story buildings even existed inprovincial towns, such as in third century ADHermopolis inRoman Egypt.[13]
InArab Egypt, the initial capital city ofFustat housed many high-rise residential buildings, some seven stories tall that could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people.Al-Muqaddasi, in the 10th century, described them as resemblingminarets, whileNasir Khusraw, in the early 11th century, described some of them rising up to 14 stories, withroof gardens on the top story complete with ox-drawnwater wheels forirrigating them.[14][15] By the 16th century,Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them wererented out totenants.[16]
The skyline of many importantmedieval cities was dominated by large numbers of high-rising urban towers, which fulfilled defensive but also representative purposes. The residentialTowers of Bologna numbered between 80 and 100 at a time, the largest of which still rise to 97.2 m. InFlorence, a law of 1251 decreed that all urban buildings should be reduced to a height of less than 26 m, the regulation immediately put into effect.[17] Even medium-sized towns such asSan Gimignano are known to have featured 72 towers up to 51 m in height.[17]
TheHakka people insouthern China have adoptedcommunal living structures designed to be easily defensible in the forms of Weilongwu (围龙屋) andTulou (土楼), the latter are large, enclosed and fortified earth building, between three and five stories high and housing up to 80 families. The oldest still standing tulou dates back from the 14th century.[18]
High-rises were built in theYemeni city ofShibam in the 16th century. The houses of Shibam are all made out ofmud bricks, but about five hundred of them aretower houses, which rise five to sixteen stories high,[19] with each floor having one or twoapartments.[20][21] This technique of building was implemented to protect residents from Bedouin attacks. While Shibam has existed for around two thousand years, most of the city's houses date from the 16th century. The city has the tallest mud buildings in the world, some more than 30meters (100feet) high.[22] Shibam has been called "one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction" or "Manhattan of the desert".[21]
The engineer's definition of high-rise buildings comes from the development offire trucks in the late 19th century.Magirus had shown the firstcogwheel sliding ladder in 1864. The firstturntable ladder drawn by horses was developed in 1892 which had a length of 25 meters. Theextension ladder was motorized by Magirus in 1904. The definition of a maximum of 22 meters for the highest floor was common in the building regulations at the time and it is still so today in Germany. The common height for turntable ladders did later go to 32 meters (100 feet), so that 30 meter is a common limit in some building regulations today, for example in Switzerland. Any building that exceeds the height of the usual turntable ladders in a city must install additional fire safety equipment, so that these high-rise buildings have a different section in the building regulations in the world.
The residential tower block with its typicalconcrete construction is a familiar feature ofModernist architecture. Influential examples includeLe Corbusier's "housing unit", hisUnité d'Habitation, repeated in various European cities starting with hisCité radieuse in Marseille (1947–52), constructed ofbéton brut, rough-castconcrete, as steel for framework was unavailable in post-war France. Residential tower blocks became standard in housing urban populations displaced byslum clearances and "urban renewal".[23] High-rise projects afterWorld War II typically rejected the classical designs of theearly skyscrapers, instead embracing the uniforminternational style; many older skyscrapers were redesigned to suit contemporary tastes or even got demolished - such as New York'sSinger Building, once the world's tallest skyscraper. However, with the movements ofPostmodernism,New Urbanism, andNew Classical Architecture, that established since the 1980s, a more classical approach came back to global skyscraper design, that is popular today.
Other contemporary styles and movements in high-rise design includeorganic,sustainable,neo-futurist,structuralist,high-tech,deconstructivist,blob,digital,streamline,novelty,critical regionalist,vernacular,Art Deco (orArt Deco Nouveau), andneohistorist, also known asrevivalist.
Currently, the tallest high-rise apartment building in the world is theCentral Park Tower onBillionaires' Row inMidtown Manhattan, towering at 1,550 feet (470 m).
Streets in the sky is a style ofarchitecture that emerged in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.[24] Generally built to replace run-downterraced housing, the new designs included not only modern improvements such as insidetoilets, but also shops and other community facilities within high-rise blocks.[25] Examples of the buildings and developments areTrellick Tower,Balfron Tower,Broadwater Farm,Robin Hood Gardens andKeeling House in London,Hunslet Grange inLeeds andPark Hill, Sheffield, and Castlefields andSouthgate Estate,Runcorn. These were an attempt to develop a new architecture, differentiated from earlier large housing estates, such asQuarry Hill flats in Leeds.[26][27]Alison and Peter Smithson were the architects ofRobin Hood Gardens.[28] As another large example, in 2005 it was decided to carry out a 20-year process of demolition and replacement of dwellings with modern houses in theAylesbury Estate in south London, built in 1970.[29][30] TheHulme Crescents inManchester were the largest social housing scheme in Europe when built in 1972 but lasted just 22 years. The Crescents had one of the worst reputations of any British social housing schemes and were marred by numerous design and practical problems.[31]
The ideal of Streets in the Sky often did not work in practice. Unlike an actual city street, these walkways were not thoroughfares, and often came to a dead end multiple storeys above the ground. They lacked a regular flow of passers-by, and the walkways and especially the stairwells could not be seen by anyone elsewhere, so there was no deterrent to crime and disorder. There were no "eyes on the street" as advocated byJane Jacobs in her bookThe Death and Life of Great American Cities. TheUnité d'Habitation inMarseille provides a more successful example of the concept, with the fifth floor walkway including a shop and café.[32]
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Towers in the park is amorphology ofmodernist[33] high-rise apartment buildings characterized by a high-rise building surrounded by a swath of landscaped land; e.g., the tower does not directly front the street.
It is based on an ideology popularised byLe Corbusier with thePlan Voisin, an expansion of theGarden city movement aimed at reducing the problem of urban congestion. It was introduced in several large cities across the world, notably inNorth America,[33]Europe[34] andAustralia[35] as a solution for housing, especially forpublic housing, reaching a peak of popularity in the 1960s with the introduction ofprefabrication technology.
By the early 1970s, opposition to this style of towers mounted, with many, including urban planners, now referring to them as "ghettos".[36] Neighbourhoods likeSt. James Town were originally designed to house young "swinging single" middle class residents, but the apartments lacked appeal and the area quickly became much poorer. From its early days of implementation the concept was criticised for making residents feel unsafe, including large empty common areas dominated bygang culture and crime. The layout was criticised for normalising anti-social behaviour and hampering the efforts of essential services, particularly forlaw enforcement.[37]
The history ofmicrodistricts as an urban planning concept dates back to the 1920s, when the Soviet Union underwent rapidurbanization. Under theSoviet urban planning ideologies of the 1920s, residential complexes—compact territories with residential dwellings, schools, shops, entertainment facilities, andgreen spaces—started to prevail in urban planning practice, as they allowed for more careful and efficient planning of the rapid urban expansion. These complexes were seen as an opportunity to build a collective society,[38] an environment suitable and necessary for the new way of life.[39]
Residential tower complexes are common in Asian countries such as China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Pakistan, Iran and South Korea, as urban densities are very high. InSingapore and urbanHong Kong, land prices are so high that a large portion of the population lives in high-rise apartments. In fact, over 60% of Hong Kong residents live in apartments, many of themcondominiums. Of them in 2020, 2,112,138 were identified residents of public housing,[40] which is 28% of the total population.
Sarah Williams Goldhagen (2012) celebrated the work of innovative architecture firms such as WOHA (based in Singapore), Mass Studies (based in Seoul), Amateur Architecture Studio (based inHangzhou, China), and the New York City-based Steven Holl in the transformation of residential towers into "vertical communities" or "vertical cities in the sky" providing aesthetic, unusually designed silhouettes on the skyline, comfortable private spaces and attractive public spaces. None of these "functional, handsome, and humane high-rise residential buildings" areaffordable housing.[41][42]
The 2012 Pritzker Prize was awarded to Chinese architect Wang Shu. Among his winning designs is the Vertical Courtyard Apartments, six 26-story towers by his architectural firm Amateur Architecture Studio built in Hangzhou.[42] "These towers were designed to house two-story apartments, in which every inhabitant would enjoy "the illusion of living on the second floor", accomplished by folding concrete floor planes (like "bamboo mats," claims the firm), so that every third story opens into a private courtyard. In the larger towers, the two-story units are stacked slightly askew, adding to the visual interest of the variegated façades (Goldhagen 2012)."[41]
Housing in Japan includes various traits coming from different eras. The worddanchi now either means an employer-provided housing or has a meaning similar to "projects". For modern hi-rises, there are twoborrowed words to make a distinction:
In South Korea, the tower blocks are called Apartment Complex (아파트 단지). The first residential towers began to be built after theKorean War. The South Korean government needed to build many apartment complexes in the cities to be able to accommodate the citizens. In the 60 years since, as the population increased considerably, tower blocks have become more common. This time, however, the new tower blocks integrated shopping malls, parking systems, and other convenient facilities.
Samsung Tower Palace inSeoul, South Korea, is the tallest apartment complex in Asia.
In Seoul, approximately 80 percent of its residents live in apartment complexes which comprise 98 percent of recent residential construction.[43] Seoul proper is noted for itspopulation density, eight times greater thanRome, though less thanManhattan and Paris. Its metropolitan area is the densest in theOECD.[44]
Although someCentral andEastern European countries during theinterwar period, such as theSecond Polish Republic, already started building housing estates that were considered to be of a high standard for their time, many of these structures perished during the Second World War.
In theEastern Bloc, tower blocks were constructed in great numbers to produce plenty of cheap accommodation for the growing postwar populations of theUSSR andits satellite states. This took place mostly in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, though in thePeople's Republic of Poland this process startedeven earlier due to the severe damages that Polish cities sustained during World War II. Throughout the former Eastern Bloc countries, tower blocks built during the Soviet years make up much of the current housing estates and most of them were built in the specificsocialist realist style of architecture that was dominant in the territories east of theIron Curtain: blocky buildings of that era are colloquially known asKhrushchyovka. However, there were also larger and more ambitious projects built in Eastern Europe at the time, which have since become recognisable examples of post-warmodernism; such as the largestfalowiec building in thePrzymorze Wielkie district ofGdańsk, with a length of 860 m (2,821.52 ft) and 1,792 flats, it is the second longest housing block in Europe.[45]
InRomania, the mass construction of standardised housing blocks began in the 1950s and 1960s with the outskirts of the cities, some of which were made up of slums.[46] Construction continued in the 1970s and 1980s, under thesystematisation programme ofNicolae Ceaușescu, which consisted largely of the demolition and reconstruction of existing villages, towns, and cities, in whole or in part, in order to build blocks of flats (blocuri), as a result of increasing urbanisation following an accelerated industrialisation process.[47][48] InCzechoslovakia (now theCzech Republic andSlovakia),panelák building underMarxism–Leninism resulted from two main factors: the postwar housing shortage and the ideology of theruling party.
In Eastern European countries, opinions about these buildings vary greatly, with some deeming them as eyesores on their city's landscape while others glorify them as relics of a bygone age and historical examples of unique architectural styles (such as socialist realism,brutalism, etc.).[45] Since thedissolution of the Soviet Union, and especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of the former Eastern Bloc countries have begun construction of new, more expensive and modern housing. TheŚródmieście borough ofWarsaw, the capital of Poland, has seen the development of an array of skyscrapers. Russia is also currently undergoing a dramatic buildout, growing a commercially shaped skyline. Moreover, the ongoing changes made to postwar housing estates since the 2000s in former communist countries vary – ranging from simply applying a new coat of paint to the previously grey exterior to thorough modernisation of entire buildings.[45]
In theEuropean Union, among formerWarsaw Pact states, a majority of the population lives in flats in Latvia (65.1%), Estonia (63.8%), Lithuania (58.4%), the Czech Republic (52.8%), and Slovakia (50.3%) (as of 2014[update], data fromEurostat).[49] However, not all flat dwellers in Eastern Europe live in Cold War-era blocks of flats; many live in buildings constructed after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and some in buildings that survived World War II.
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In Western Europe, there are fewer high-rise buildings because of the historic city centres. In the 1960s, developers began demolishing older buildings to replace them with modern high-rise buildings.
InBrussels there are numerous modern high-rise buildings in theNorthern Quarter business district. The government of Belgium wants to recreateWashington, D.C., on a small scale.
There are some tall residential buildings inLa Défense district, such asTour Défense 2000, even though the district is mainly "commercial". This allows the residents to walk to the nearby office buildings without using vehicles.
Tower blocks were first built in the United Kingdom after theSecond World War, and were seen as a cheap way to replace 19th-century urban slums and war-damaged buildings. They were originally seen as desirable, but quickly fell out of favour as tower blocks attracted rising crime and social disorder, particularly after the collapse ofRonan Point in 1968.[50]
Although Tower blocks are controversial and numerous examples have been demolished, many still remain in large cities. Due to lack of proper regulation, some tower blocks present a significant fire risk and even though there have been efforts to make them more safe,[51] modern safety precautions can be prohibitively expensive to retrofit. TheGrenfell Tower fire in 2017 was partly caused by council ignorance, as a local action group complained to the council about the fire hazards of the tower several years before the incident, yet remedial work had not been carried out.[52] This fire further made tower blocks less desirable to British residents.
There are old high-rise buildings built in the 1960s and 1970s in areas ofLondon such asTower Hamlets,Newham,Hackney, and virtually any area in London withcouncil housing. Some new high-rises are being built in areas such asCentral London,Southwark, andNine Elms. In east London, some old high-rises are being gentrified, in addition to new high-rises being built in areas such asStratford andCanary Wharf.[citation needed]
The majority of residential high-rise buildings in the Republic of Ireland were concentrated in the suburb ofBallymun,Dublin. TheBallymun Flats were built between 1966 and 1969: seven 15-story towers, nineteen 8-story blocks and ten 4-story blocks.[53] These were the "seven towers" referred to in theU2 song "Running to Stand Still".[citation needed] They have since been demolished.
Inner Dublin flat complexes, typically of four to five storeys include Sheriff Street (demolished),Fatima Mansions (demolished and redeveloped), St Joseph's Gardens (demolished; replaced by Killarney Court flat complex), St Teresa's Gardens, Dolphin House, Liberty House, St Michael's Estate (eight storeys) and O'Devaney Gardens and a lot more mainly throughout the north and south inner city of Dublin. Suburban flat complexes were built exclusively on the northside of the city inBallymun,Coolock andKilbarrack. These flats were badly affected by a heroin epidemic that hit working-class areas of Dublin in the 1980s and early 1990s.[citation needed]
Residential tower blocks were previously uncommon outside of Dublin, but during the era of theCeltic Tiger the largest cities such as Dublin,Cork,Limerick andGalway witnessed new large apartment building, although their heights have generally been restricted. Some large towns such asNavan,Drogheda,Dundalk andMullingar have also witnessed the construction of many modern apartment blocks.
Tower blocks in Northern Ireland were never built to the frequency as in cities on the island ofGreat Britain, but taller high-rises are generally more common than in the Republic of Ireland. Most tower blocks and flat complexes are found inBelfast, although many of these have been demolished since the 1990s and replaced with traditionalpublic housing units. The mid-rise Divis flats complex in west Belfast was built between 1968 and 1972. It was demolished in the early 1990s after the residents demanded new houses due to mounting problems with their flats.Divis Tower, built separately in 1966, still stands, however; and in 2007 work began to convert the former British Army base at the top two floors into new dwellings. Divis Tower was for several decades Ireland's tallest residential building, having since being surpassed by the privately ownedObel Tower in the city centre. In the north of the city, the iconic seven-tower complex in theNew Lodge remains, although so too the problems that residents face, such as poor piping and limited sanitation. Farther north, the four tower blocks inRathcoole dominate the local skyline, while in south Belfast, the tower blocks in Seymour Hill, Belvoir andFinaghy remain standing.
Most of the aforementioned high-rise flats in the city were built by theNorthern Ireland Housing Trust (NIHT) as part of overspill housing schemes, the first such development being the pair of point blocks in East Belfast'sCregagh estate. These eleven-story towers were completed in 1961 and were the first tall council housing blocks on the island of Ireland.[54] The NIHT also designed the inner city Divis Flats complex. The six-to-eight-storey deck-access flats that comprised most of the Divis estate were of poor build quality and were all demolished by the early 1990s.[55] Similar slab blocks were built by the NIHT in East Belfast (Tullycarnet) and Derry'sBogside area, all four of which have been demolished.
Belfast Corporation constructed seven tower blocks on the former Victoria Barracks site in the New Lodge district. While the Corporation built somemid-rise flats as part ofslum clearance schemes (most notably the now demolished Unity Flats and the Weetabix Flats in the Shankill area), New Lodge was its only high-rise project in the inner city; there were three more in outlying areas of the city during the 1960s, two being in Mount Vernon in North Belfast and one being in theClarawood estate, East Belfast. TheRoyal Hospital built three thirteen-story towers for use as staff accommodation, prominently located adjacent to the M2 Motorway at Broadway. Belfast City Hospital also constructed a high-rise slab block which since privatisation has been named Bradbury Court, formerly known as Erskine House. Queens University Belfast built several eleven storey towers at its Queens Elms student accommodation. Of the three sixteen-story point blocks ofLarne Borough Council in the late 1960s, only one remains.[56]
In Canada, largemulti-family buildings are usually known asapartment buildings orapartment blocks if they are rented from one common landowner, orcondominiums orcondo towers if each dwelling unit is individually owned; they may be calledlow-rise (orwalk-up),mid-rise,high-rise, orskyscraper depending on their height. Tall residential towers are a staple building type in all large cities. Their relative prominence in Canadian cities varies substantially, however. In general, more populated cities have more high-rises than smaller cities, due to a relative scarcity of land and a greater demand for housing.
However, some cities such asQuebec City andHalifax have fewer high-rise buildings due to several factors: a focus onhistoric preservation, height restrictions, and lower growth rates. In middle-sized cities with a relatively low population density, such asCalgary,Edmonton,Winnipeg, orHamilton there are more apartment towers but they are greatly outnumbered bysingle-family houses. Most of the largest residential towers in Canada are found inMontreal,Toronto, andVancouver; the country's most densely populated cities.
Toronto contains the second largest concentration of high-rise apartment buildings in North America (after New York). In Canada, like in other New World countries, but unlike Western Europe, most high-rise towers are located in the city centre (or "downtown"), where smaller, older buildings were demolished to make way inredevelopment schemes.
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In the United States, tower blocks are commonly referred to as "midrise" or "highrise apartment buildings", depending on their height, while buildings that house fewer flats (apartments), or are not as tall as the tower blocks, are called "lowrise apartment buildings". Specifically, "midrise" buildings are as tall as the streets are wide, allowing five hours of sunlight on the street.[57]
Some of the first residential towers were theCastle Village towers in Manhattan, New York City, completed in 1939. Their cross-shaped design was copied in towers inParkchester andStuyvesant Town residential developments.
The government's experiments in the 1960s and 1970s to use high-rise apartments as a means of providing the housing solution for the poor broadly resulted in failure. Made in thetower in the park style, all but a few high-risehousing projects in the nation's largestcities, such asCabrini–Green andRobert Taylor Homes in Chicago,Penn South in Manhattan, and theDesire Projects inNew Orleans, fell victim to the "ghettofication" and are now being torn down, renovated, or replaced. Another example is the formerPruitt–Igoe complex inSt. Louis, torn down in the 1970s.
In contrast to theirpublic housing counterparts, commercially developed high-rise apartment buildings continue to flourish in cities around the country largely due to high land prices and the housing boom of the 2000s. TheUpper East Side in New York City, featuring high-rise apartments, is the wealthiest urban neighborhood in the United States.
Currently, the tallest residential building in the world isCentral Park Tower located inMidtown Manhattan, having a height of 1,550 feet (470 m) with the highest occupied floor at 1,417 feet (432 m).[58]
High-rise living in Australia was limited to theSydney CBD until the 1960s, when a short-lived fashion saw public housing tenants located in new high-rise developments, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. The buildings pictured along with four other 16-story blocks were constructed on behalf of theRoyal Australian Navy and were available to sailors and their families for accommodation. Due to social problems within these blocks the Navy left and theDepartment of Housing took charge and flats were let to low income and immigrant families. During the 1980s many people escaping communism in Eastern bloc countries were housed in these buildings. Developers have enthusiastically adopted the term "apartment" for these new high-rise blocks, perhaps to avoid the stigma still attached to housing commission flats.
Deck access is a type of flat that is accessed from a walkway that is open to the elements, as opposed to flats that are accessed from fully enclosed internal corridors. Deck-access blocks of flats are usually fairly low-rise structures. The decks can vary from simple walkways, which may be covered or uncovered, to decks wide enough for small vehicles. The best-known example of deck-access flats in the UK isPark Hill, Sheffield, where the decks are wide enough to allow electric vehicles; however, the design is inspired by French Modernist architectLe Corbusier, particularly hisUnité d'habitation inMarseille.[59]
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Green tower blocks have some scheme of living plants orgreen roofs[60] orsolar panels[61] on their roofs or incorporate otherenvironmentally friendly design features.[62]
Media related toHigh-rises at Wikimedia Commons
