UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM SESSION 2006-07

INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE DipArch / MArch

SCHOOL OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT K1D TAB

K1D TAB: Tall Building Design – “BioClimatic Skyscraper”

Module Leader Key Dates
st
David Nicholson-Cole University of Nottingham Introduction: Thursday 1 February
Chris Gaylord Broadway Malyan
Philip Oldfield SBE and Arup Assocs
nd
Review Tutors/Critics (tbc) Site Study Review: Thursday 22 February
th
Michel Rojkind Rojkind arquitectos Interim Review 1: Thursday 15 March
th
Ken Shuttleworth Make Architects Interim Review 2: Thursday 3 May
th
Simon Lay WSP Fire Final Review: Tuesday 24 May
Duration: 13 weeks (term time)

“Saving the environment from continued devastation by

our built environment is the single most important issue
for our tomorrow, feeding into our post-millennial fears
that this third millennium will indeed be our last. Ken
Yeang reconstructs and revisions how and why our
current design approach and perception of architecture
must radically change if we are to ensure a sustainable
future. He argues forcefully that this can only be
achieved by adopting the environmentalist' s view that,
aesthetics apart, regards our built environment simply
as an assembly of materials (mostly transported over
long distances), that are transiently concentrated on to
a single locality and used for living, working and leisure
whose footprints affect that locality's ecology and
whose eventual disposal has to be accommodated
somewhere in the biosphere.”
Synopsis of Ken Yeang’s book ‘EcoDesign’ Sept 2006

1.0 Introduction – the Bioclimatic skyscraper

Too many Tall Buildings seem to have been designed as stand-alone pieces of urban ‘sculpture’. Their only
relationship with the urban setting is a visual one, with the tall building dominating. They appear to be
designed for dramatic effect, gleaming air conditioned glass office towers, a design idea that is readily
transportable anywhere around the world, regardless of climate and neighbouring relationships. Set into a
sea of car parking and separated from the urban transport system, these monocultural ‘gas guzzlers’
represent all that is bad about tall buildings – expensive to build and to occupy, alienating their elite
occupants from their surroundings – and these are sometimes linked to their obverse, a vast hinterland of
low rise suburbs and grey inner city areas, connected by road, with commuters driving huge distances each
day.
However, taking a global long term view of urban settlements, regional culture and climate change, it
is clear that humanity is going to have to cluster, and to improve public transport and raise the density:
society must develop a ‘Totalist’ approach to Sustainability if the human race is to adapt to climate change.
Tall Buildings can be acceptable if the density is high enough.

This design module seeks to find alternative design approaches for tall buildings; to create high-rise buildings
that are inspired by both the urban and environmental aspects, with long term Sustainability at the core of our
thinking. In a nutshell, we are calling this the “Bioclimatic Skyscraper”. This is not a new idea, the concept
The Tall Building has a place in this strategy if:
[1] it can be fully connected to the transport system, and
[2] if it can provide a variety of living and working spaces, with a pleasing environment, and
[3] if it can take advantage of its height and shape to contribute to energy saving and energy generation.
The location for this project will be Canary Wharf / Docklands development of London, where we will work
with a number of vacant sites to create towers that make sense in relation to their neighbouring towers and to
the ground plane. Canary Wharf is the densest cluster of towers in Europe, to such an extent that the early
towers built only 20 years ago look like midgets alongside the newer arrivals. Under the towers is a vast
ground plane that contains urban transport line, pedestrian walkways, shopping malls, carparking and service
accommodation. These towers are truly connected to the infrastructure! They are so closely located that it is
possible to include into your thinking the idea of Skybridges which provide circulation at high level, ensure
greater safety levels for the occupants and can provide another level of recreational services, and enable
services and water sharing. This is recommended as a prime strategy for making buildings safer against
terrorism and fire, and should be considered whenever adjacency makes a skybridge possible.
Your scenario is not for immediate construction for next year… it is a 20-30 year plan, predicting the
kind of buildings and density which should be there if the change in culture occurs. You will work in pairs and
be asked to engage with both the design of a tall building and its bioclimatic design. Ultimately the project will
thus create a new urban vision for Canary Wharf.

2.0 Project Aims & Objectives

The aims of the project are:

a) To explore and resolve the issues associated with the placing of a tall building in an urban setting.
b) To explore how that tall building can be inspired by the physical and environmental characteristics of
site.
c) To determine the programmatic brief for that building, based on micro and macro site studies
(considering need, availability and appropriateness).
d) To understand the issues involved with designing a multi-level building containing possibly differing
functions.
e) To investigate and design bioclimatic ideas and solutions, not only in the inherent design and
materials and distribution of volumes and voids, but in usable systems, and green technology.
f) To investigate the potential for the attachment of systems for building management and electricity
microgeneration, taking advantage of the unique attribute of Tall Buildings – Altitude! A suitable Tall
Building could generate electricity on an industrial scale.
g) To understand how considerations of structure, environment, servicing etc are as vital to the success
of the building as form, materials, aesthetics etc.
h) To explore appropriate oral and graphic presentation skills through the duration of the project so as
to communicate ideas to their maximum potential.

3.0 Site Studies – refer to Canary Wharf plan attached

This 3-week project is a research, information-gathering period in order to determine the context for
design, the programmatic brief for the building, and to inform the design process to follow. Site studies need
to thus embrace the ‘local’ (the direct site context of the building), the ‘intermediate’ (since a tall building has
a physical relationship with places far and wide in a city) and the ‘global’ (the city as a whole).

The studies will be conducted in the same pairs of students as anticipated for the design studies. You are
free to form your own pairs. Each pair will study the context of their site, plus the existing tall building(s)
related to it. The over-riding intention of this part of the project is focused on learning for the group as a
whole. Thus the site study crit reviews will be concerned with a pooling of resources, for everybody’s
benefit.

Sites for design (see Canary Wharf plan) will be allocated accordingly. Please note that the exact boundaries
of your site may change from that shown currently on plan – depending on your site strategy and an appraisal
of existing buildings and conditions on the site.

The final submission of the site study work will be a group submission to be reviewed at a crit, but this
submission should also include a site strategy and programmatic brief for each pair of students. This
strategy / brief should be borne out of your site studies, and clearly state your intentions for both the site, the
function / accommodation requirements of the building and the strategy for connections to other buildings.
This statement / strategy will obviously be the starting point for the building design.

Note: As part of the submission requirements for this stage of the project, the whole group will work together
to produce a physical site model of the Canary Wharf estate at 1:500 scale. This was started in 2006, but
needs updating to reflect the present situation in Canary Wharf. Each part of the site model fits together to
make up the entire Canary Wharf estate. This massive site model is the testing platform for design
development throughout the project, for use by all students in the unit. If skills within the unit allow, it would
also be useful to create a shared compatible 3-D computer site model of the area, using Sketchup.

You will be provided with a plan to enable the model, but it is important that relevant photographic records etc
are taken during the London site visit, to enable accurate depictions of mass and scale. Obviously, sites to be
designed by students should be left vacant on your model. An agreed common modelling technique and
material across the unit is necessary, so that the model reads as one. Photography is strictly controlled in
Canary Wharf area and you must avoid intrusive behaviour : photography of security personnel could result
in your camera or memory card being confiscated!

4.0 Deriving the Building Brief

You are free to determine the size, height, function and accommodation of the building, according to your site
studies & research. Possible influential factors (in no particular hierarchy) may be: site area, urban grain,
function/purpose and shading from neighbouring buildings; city requirements, community requirements, the
commercial market, social responsibility, sustainability, aesthetics, proportions, plot ratios etc. Your building
may contain a single function e.g. ‘office’, ‘residential’ or ‘hotel’, but in the spirit of this project, it is most likely
to be a mixed-use tower. Please note, however, that you will be expected to have a strong rationale and
justification for strategic decisions made at the brief-derivation stage and, once made, you will be expected to
adhere to them. A dim view will be taken of buildings that do not correspond to the starting brief because it
was convenient for the building to get twice as large or change function during the design process. Your initial
site / urban studies should inform exactly what the building should be and the programmatic brief clearly
states a size for the building, and a schedule of accommodation to be contained.

5.0 Link to seminar course K1D HRI, High Rise Issues.

Irrespective of the function of the building, all high rise buildings have certain elements in common –
entrance lobbies, vertical circulation, M&E provision, security, servicing etc. You will be expected to conduct
research to enable this, but will be assisted through the linked seminar course, K1D HRI. Although this
seminar course is focused on the relationship between architecture and culture in an international context
generally, it will encompass tall buildings as a typology. Also, the assessment for this compulsory seminar
module requires you to conduct significant research into a specific aspect of tall buildings, which will assist
with this studio design module. See K1D HRI documentation for more information.

6.0 Submission Requirements

Assessment Contribution (total = 30 credits)

Site / Precedent Research Studies 3 weeks (in pairs) 20%
Project Design 10 weeks (in pairs) 80%
th
Further Guidance will be given nearer the time on the final submission requirements for Tuesday 24 May but
the idea is that the work of the unit will be able to be read as a whole i.e. as a future urban vision for Canary
Wharf. Thus your design will, on one level, be like a part of a ‘jigsaw’, with all parts fitting together to make a
whole. This ‘whole’ will be viewed in 2 media; (i) in physical model format on the global site model, (ii) in
computer 3-D renders superimposed on a computer model of London and / or recognised views of the area.
Thus, whilst you will be expected to produce the necessary plans, sections, elevations etc to explain your tower
design in detail, you will also be expected to produce a final physical model at 1:500 scale and JPEG renders
to fit into the whole. (Note: It is possible to take photographs from a well-made physical model to produce the
JPEG renders, if you elect to not work with a 3-D computer model of your building).

As part of the final submission, you will be expected to represent a technical study of an aspect of the building /
skybridge / bioclimatic system / microgeneration system in detail. This study should embrace the structural,
environmental, material and constructional and may typically involve a representation of the large-scale global
systems in the building (e.g. the overall structural and environmental strategy etc) down to a detailed sectional
study of the building horizon. This is a research module, so your work may be published to a wider audience.

As well as the completed Graphic Presentation of your design, for review at the final crit, you will also be
expected to submit a CD with all digital work. This digital work should be clearly organised, with each individual
piece of information (e.g. ground floor plan, view from Tower Bridge, night render etc) saved as a separate
JPEG. These JPEGS should be saved using the title-ing system as shown below:

Student Initials_Information Name. JPEG e.g. BM_Render6.JPEG or BM_GroundPlan.JPEG

7.0 ARB / RIBA Criteria - Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of the module students will demonstrate:

Design
1 Coherent and well-resolved architectural designs that integrate knowledge of the social, political,
economic and professional context that guides building construction.
2 An understanding of briefs and how to critically appraise them to ensure that the design response is
appropriate to site and context, and for reasons such as sustainability and budget.
3 An understanding of the regulatory requirements, including the needs of the disabled, health & safety
legislation and building regulations and development control, that guide building construction.
4 An understanding of an appropriate philosophical approach which reveals an understanding of theory
in a cultural context.
5 An ability to generate and systematically test, analyse and appraise design options, and draw
conclusions which display methodological and theoretical rigour.
6 An ability to work as part of a team.

Technology & Environment

1 Within a coherent architectural design the ability to integrate knowledge of the principles and theories
associated with visual and thermal environments.
2 Within a coherent architectural design the ability to integrate knowledge of climatic design and the
relationship between climate, built form construction, life style, energy consumption and human well-being.
3 An understanding of building technologies, environmental design and construction methods in
relation to (3a) human well-being, (3b) the welfare of future generations, (3c) the natural world and (3d) the
consideration of a sustainable environment.
4 An understanding of the impact on design of legislation, codes of practice and health & safety both
during the construction and occupation of a project.
5 An ability to devise structural and constructional strategies for a complex building or group of
buildings, employing integrative knowledge of (5a) structural theories, (5b) construction techniques and
processes, (5c) the physical properties and characteristics of building materials and components and the
environmental impact of specification choices, and (5d) the provision of building services.

Cultural Context
1 Within a coherent architectural design, an understanding of the influences on the contemporary built
environment of individual buildings, the design of cities, past and present societies and wider global issues.
2 Within a coherent architectural design, an understanding of the histories and theories of architecture
and urban design, the history of ideas, and the related disciplines of art, cultural studies and landscape
studies and its application in critical debate.
3 Within a coherent architectural design, an understanding of the inter-relationship between people,
buildings and the environment and an understanding of the need to relate buildings and the spaces between
them to human needs and scale.
4 An ability to critically appraise and form considered judgements about the spatial, aesthetic, technical
and social qualities of a design within the scope and scale of a wider environment.
5 An ability to independently define, and critically appraise, their ideas in relation to a design and to the
work of others.

Communication

1 Within a coherent architectural design, an understanding of the contribution of other professionals in

the design process showing an appropriate use of team working skills, recognising the importance of current
methods in the construction industry.
2 An ability to use visual, verbal and written communication methods and appropriate media (including
sketching, modelling, digital and electronic techniques) to represent the testing, analysis and critical appraisal
of complex design proposals and their resolution to a range of professional and lay audiences.
3 An ability to use architectural representations having critically appraised the most appropriate
techniques available.

8.0 Useful Skyscraper Book References (by no means an exhaustive list!!!)

Recommended Purchase:
EISELE, Johann High Rise Manual: Typology & Design, Construction & Technology
Birkhauser. Germany. 2002. ISBN: 3-7643-0274-7
 An excellent book, perhaps more useful for the technology, materiality and
construction of high rise towers. Very thorough.

STELITZ, Z.. (ed) Tall Buildings: A strategic design guide. British Council for Offices &
RIBA Publishing. Uk. 2005. ISBN: 1859461689.
An excellent recent guide, focussed on tall buildings in the London context.

YEANG , Ken The skyscraper bioclimatically considered; a design primer

Wiley-Academy. UK. 1996. ISBN: 0-471-97764-0
An excellent book for both research and design – all aspects of high rise
design, not just bioclimatic towers.

Others:

ABALOS, Inaki & Tower and Office, from Modernist Theory to Contemporary Practice.
HERREOS, Juan MIT Press. 2004.ISBN: 0262011913.
Historical / Technical on High Rise Office buildings.

ABEL, Chris Sky High

Royal Academy Publications. London. 2003. ISBN: 1-903973-33-3
An excellent book accompanying the Norman Foster-curated 2003 Royal
Academy High Rise Exhibition which explores the design themes behind
recent high rise buildings.

CABE Guidance on tall buildings.

English Heritage Consultation Paper. London. 2003.

CAMPI, Mario Skyscrapers: An Architectural Type of Modern Urbanism

Birkhauser. Basel. 2000. ISBN: 3-7643-6130-1
Good choice of skyscrapers around the world. Well documented. Poorly
illustrated. Black & White.

CERVER, Francisco Ascensio The Architecture of Skyscrapers

Hearst Books International. New York. 1999. ISBN: 0-688-15415-8
Eclectic choice of buildings – good SE Asia examples though. Only 23
number bldgs, but a bit more detail. Okay images and graphics (plans etc)
but not assembled well.

CONDIT, Carl. The Rise of the Skyscraper,

University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1952. Seminal book on the early
history of the Tall Building, especially the Chicago school.

CTBUH CTBUH Sixth World Congress – Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat:
Cities in the Third Millennium. Melbourne. 2001. Spon Press. London.
ISBN: 0415232414
Copy in Halward Library + CD – see what Tall Buildings issues are
discussed at conferences.

DUPRE, Judith Skyscrapers

Konemann. Germany. 1998. ISBN: 3-89508-545-6
Vertical Format. Concentrating mostly historical. Black & White.

GARRETTA, Ariadna (ed.) Skyscrapers.

Atrium International. Mexico. 2002. ISBN: 84-95692-25-2
Many many recent high rise examples! Not much depth though.
st
GISSEN, David Big & Green: Towards Sustainable Architecture in the 21 Century.
Princeton Architectural Press. New York. 2003.
ISBN: 1568983611. Book to accompany exhibition at National Building
Museum, Washington 2003. Not strictly on high rise, but some good
environmental high rise examples e.g. Conde Nast, Times Square
GLA. Interim strategic planning guidance on tall buildings, strategic views
and the skyline of London.
Greater London Authority. Mayor of London. 2001. ISBN:1852613408
Report on relationship of Tall Buildings to London.

HOWELER, Eric Skyscraper: designs for the recent past and for the near future.
Thames & Hudson. London. 2003. ISBN: 0-500-28446-6
A very good, very up to date book. Better than the Garretta Book.

HUXTABLE, A.L. The Tall Building Artistically Reconsidered: The Search for a
Skyscraper Style.
University of California Press Berkley. LA 1984.ISBN: 0520080289. Seminal
book on the modern history of the American skyscraper, especially 19080’s
Post-Modern etc. Lots of attitude.

LANDAU, S.B. Rise of the New York skyscraper, 1865 – 1913.

CONDIT, Carl. W. Yale University Press. New Haven. 1996. ISBN: 0-300-06444-6.
Seminal book on the history of New York skyscrapers. Black & White.

MURRAY, Peter Architecture & Commerce: New Office Design in London. Wordsearch.
London. 2004
IBSN: 0953215865. Book to accompany ‘New City Architecture’ exhibition,
Broadgate 21 May – 2 July 2004. Good book for this project, portraying very
recent (and envisaged) high rise buildings in London.

PANK, W. Tall buildings and sustainability.

GIRADET, H. Faber Maunsell for the Corporation of London. 2002
COX, G. Report.

PROTECH, Max A new world trade centre

HarperCollins. New York. 2002. ISBN: 0-06-052016-7
A good book on the Competition entries for the new World Trade Centre

RILEY, Terence Tall Buildings

NORDENSON, G. Museum of Modern Art. New York. 2003. ISBN: 0870700952.
Book to accompany MOMA Exhibition 2004. Very good, up to date projects.
One of the best ‘modern high rise examples’ books.

TOY, Maggie (ed) Reaching for the Skies. Architectural Design Profile No. 116.
Academy Group Ltd. London. 1995. ISBN: 1-85490-250-4
Excellent Architectural Design feature on High Rise design thinking.

WILLIS, Carol Form Follows Finance.

New York. Princeton Architectural Press. 1995
Seminal historical book on the relationship between high rise and
commerce.

ZAKNIC, Ivan 100 of the World’s Tallest Buildings

SMITH, Matthew Hazar Publishing. London. 1998.
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. ISBN: 1-874371-40-7
Particularly American bias with some Australian / Singapore. Factual, not
inspiring. Okay images, limited plans etc.

ZUKOWSKY, John (ed) The New Millennium Skyscrapers

THORNE, Martha (ed) Prestel Verlag. Munich. 2000. ISBN: 3-7913-2343-1
Fairly good book. In depth on approx. 50 bldgs – many not yet built / relies
on design dwgs etc. Good passages on race for tallest bldg etc.

David Nicholson-Cole Jan 2007