22 August 2022

The World’s Highest Pools: A Deep Dive

S. Isaac Work & Shawn Ursini, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

Tall building design has diversified and adapted to accommodate increased demand for distinctive amenities at a range of heights. Swimming pools are a classic feature...

04 April 2022

Making Tall Timber Financially Viable: the Design-Build Approach

Lisa Thom, Lendlease

As the tall building industry increasingly becomes interested in using engineered mass timber to construct high-rise buildings, the economical and construction-efficiency advantages need to be...

15 December 2021

Megacities vs. Urban Sprawl; Densifying vs. Social Distancing

Astrid Piber, UNStudio

Decentralization and the “15-minute city” are ideas that are currently being put forward to tackle urban challenges, but how will these issues be tackled in...

11 October 2021

Tall Excellence

CTBUH Journal 2022 Issue III

As the first in-person CTBUH International Conference after the Covid-19 shutdowns in 2020, the 2022 program contains an exuberant and exciting roster of presenters and...

17 September 2021

Sustainable Tall Building Design Exemplars

Will Miranda & Daniel Safarik, CTBUH

Some 97 cities worldwide, including most of the world’s megacities with a population of 10 million or more, have signed onto the C40 Cities Climate...

23 September 2020

Preparing Adelaide for the Next Crisis

Sandy Verschoor, City of Adelaide

Cities across the world are grappling with multiple crises at once, with the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change affecting virtually every place on earth. In...

01 March 2020

Modern Skyscrapers in the Late 19th Century

Gerard Peet, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences Nederlands

Skyscrapers are often seen as a typically American phenomenon. This paper aims at demonstrating that in terms of technology major developments are European and that,...

30 January 2020

Implications of Flat-Pack Plumbing Systems For High-Rise Construction Efficiency

Paulo Vaz Serra & Giorgio Marfella, Melbourne School of Design; Shannon Egglestone, Richstone Group

The concept of design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) is gathering momentum in the high-rise construction industry. The construction of tall buildings is well-suited for...

28 October 2019

Transport to Vertical Schools

Rebecca Lehman, Frank Turquoise Group

New South Wales (NSW), Australia is experiencing population growth and rising property values. To meet the community’s educational needs, this means vertical public schools— intensifying...

31 January 2019

Creating Industry-Accepted Criteria for Measuring Tall Building Floor Area

William Miranda & Dario Trabucco, CTBUH

The entire tall building industry relies on floor-area measurements to serve as a precise, unambiguous calculation to guide decisions. This can range from architects using...

01 July 2018

A Human-Scaled Future for Dense Development

Ivan Harbour, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Critics of height argue that it de-humanizes our cities. Yet a critical mass is a necessity for vibrant city life, and height is a key...

01 July 2018

The Post-Miesian Office Tower and the Global Issue of Its Interpretation

Giorgio Marfella, University of Melbourne

The skylines of many cities worldwide are still defined by the dominant and ubiquitous office blocks of the twentieth century. While there is consensus stating...

30 April 2018

Brisbane's Subtropical Livability Goals and High-Rise Apartments: Vision and Reality

Rosemary Kennedy, SubTropical Cities Consultancy

Climate-based design is very significant in the Brisbane planning context. Brisbane City Council’s Vision 2031 aspires to capitalize on the city’s enviable subtropical climate and...

30 April 2018

Cyclone-Glazing and Façade Resilience for the Asia-Pacific Region: Market and Code Study

Angela Mejorin, Dario Trabucco, CTBUH; Reisuke Nakada, Malvinder Singh Ruprai & Ingo Stelzer, Trosifol World of Interlayers

This paper summarizes the Stage 1 results of the CTBUH Research Division’s project “Cyclone-Glazing and Facade Resilience for the Asia-Pacific Region.” The project was possible...

30 October 2017

Australia: Rising Up Down Under

CTBUH Research

Australia is one of the world’s least densely-populated countries, and yet it has one of the highest proportions of urban dwellers, a figure that is...

30 October 2017

Connecting the City: People, Density & Infrastructure

CTBUH 2017 Conference Speakers

The future of humanity on this planet relies on the collective benefits of urban density; reducing both land consumption and the energy needed to construct...

30 October 2017

Debating Tall: Is Australian High-Rise Housing On the Right Track?

Chris Johnson, Urban Taskforce; Elizabeth Farrelly, Australian Graduate School of Urbanism

Australia is at a critical decision point about how to manage projected growth. Historically, the response has been to build suburban sprawl, but this is...

30 October 2017

Empirically Evaluating the Livability Of Local Neighborhoods and Global Cities

Christian Derix, Lucy Helme, Fabio Galicia & Alexander Kachkaev, Woods Bagot

CIVITAS is a search engine for urban conditions, developed to allow stakeholders to identify qualities of livability and urban experiences that suit their tacit desires...

30 October 2017

Humanizing the High-Rise

Kim H. Nielsen, 3XN Architects

The under-design Quay Quarter Tower will create a stunning new building on the Sydney skyline that sets new benchmarks in office tower design globally and...

30 October 2017

Rethinking CTBUH Height Criteria In the Context of Tall Timber

Robert M. Foster, University of Queensland; Michael H. Ramage, University of Cambridge; Thomas Reynolds, The University of Edinburgh

Recent developments in the design and construction of progressively taller buildings using engineered timber as a structural material raise important questions about the language that...

30 October 2017

Shaping Australia’s Tall Tower Design And High Livability Standards

Guy Lake, Katie Rathbone, Philip Vivian & Kristen Whittle, Bates Smart

With nearly 90% of its population expected to live in its state-capital cities by 2053, Australia is on track to become one of the world’s...

30 October 2017

The Role of Design Competitions In Shaping Sydney’s Public Realm

Helen Lochhead & Philip Oldfield, University of New South Wales

Since 2000, through the City of Sydney’s Competitive Design Policy (CDP), the quality of major projects in the city has been improved significantly, mediating the...

27 January 2017

Debating Tall: Melbourne's New Skyscraper Guidelines: Too Restrictive?

Larry Parsons, Victorian State Government; Danni Addison, Urban Development Institute of Australia

A new amendment to Melbourne’s local planning scheme imposes limitations on tower setbacks and introduces floor area ratio (FAR) restrictions in the central business district....

10 January 2017

Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2016

Jason Gabel, Annan Shehadi, Shawn Ursini & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH

CTBUH has determined that 128 buildings of 200 meters’ height or greater were completed around the world in 2016 – setting a new record for...

01 January 2017

Collins Square, Melbourne, Australia

A $2 billion development project, Collins Square, made up of five commercial towers and the Southern Goods Shed, is the largest of its kind in...

17 October 2016

A Case Study on Designing Superslim in Melbourne

Kristen Whittle, Bates Smart

Collins House Melbourne, the newest super slim tower to hit the global stage, will be the most slender tower in Australia and the fourth globally....

17 October 2016

Crown Sydney: An Engineered Response to Sculptural Form

Simon Cloherty & Brad Nichols, Robert Bird Group

Crown Sydney will be located within Barangaroo South – one of three precincts on the foreshore of Darling Harbour – on the western edge of...

17 October 2016

Cyclone Resistant Glazing Solutions

Jennifer Schneider, Trosifol

As urban areas become developed in regions prone to severe weather, the risk of financial and human loss increases. Severe weather such as hurricanes, cyclones,...

17 October 2016

Exploring Geometry and Form in Tall Buildings

Chris Wilkinson, Wilkinson Eyre Architects

Using four tower designs on four continents – the Guangzhou International Finance Center in China, the Crown Sydney Resort Hotel in Australia, 45 Bay Street...

17 October 2016

The Future of Skyscrapers in Melbourne: From Hyper-Density to the Uplift Principle

Giorgio Marfella, The University of Melbourne

Melbourne is theater to an ongoing skyscraper boom. Considering the recent projects completed, under construction, approved, or under proposal, the outlook of high-rise activity in...

17 October 2016

What’s Next?: How Do We Make Vertical Urban Design?

Winy Mass, MVRDV

It seems sometimes as if the further away from the ground we rise, the more architectonic and less urban our buildings become. Skyscrapers have always...

28 April 2016

The Logic of Rapid Extrusion Produces the “Jumping” Phoenix

Giorgio Marfella, Steven Richardson & Paulo Vaz-Serra, The University of Melbourne

In inner cities worldwide, there is limited availability of large land parcels apt for high-rise development. Yet, given the seemingly global trend of “superslim” architecture,...

28 January 2016

Debating Tall: Modular as Homogenizing Force?

Shonn Mills, Ramboll; Philip Oldfield, University of New South Wales

The persistent interest in prefabricated modular construction has now turned into high-rise reality, though the results have been inconsistent. Earlier experiments with the approach resulted...

26 October 2015

8 Chifley – Sustainable Structural and Fire Engineering

Andrew Johnson, Arup

8 Chifley’s unique aesthetic has attracted much of the attention, however the 34 storey 150m tall building’s overall quality, sustainable performance, and structural efficiency, both...

26 October 2015

Beyond the Podium: Urban Spaces for Tall Buildings in a Subtropical City

Caroline Stalker, Architectus

The tower and podium form is a widely accepted typology for urban intensification across the globe. However in the subtropics it may not be the...

26 October 2015

Skyscraper Citymaker

Karl Fender, Fender Katsalidis

Tall buildings can amplify the positive physical and symbolic impact on a city. Fender Katsalidis has been at the forefront of high-density, high-rise residential buildings...

26 October 2015

Successful Sky Life

Paul Scott, Make

There is no doubt more tall buildings are required to accommodate global population growth. However, the taller a building, the greater the disconnect between occupants...

26 October 2015

Sydney 2050: A Sustainable City Vision for Greater Height, Public Benefit & Tall Building Resurgence

Philip Vivian, Bates Smart

Sydney 2050 investigates how an increased height limit in Central Sydney can allow for both sustainable population growth and also benefit the public The vision...

26 October 2015

Tall Buildings, Operable Facades, Wind, Life Safety – Designing for the Risks

Tom Neudorfl & Ross Murchie, Murchie Consulting

2015 records an unprecedented number of tall and super-tall buildings completed worldwide. Furthermore, residential buildings with operable facades form an increasing proportion of these tall...

26 October 2015

The Construction of a High-Rise Development Using Volumetric Modular Methodology

Phillip Gardiner, Irwinconsult

The SOHO Tower is a 29-level modular building in Darwin, in the far north of Australia, a cyclonic region. The building was designed to incorporate...

26 October 2015

The Impact of Private and Shared Open Space on Liveability in Subtropical Apartment Buildings

Rosemary Kennedy, Centre for Subtropical Design; Laurie Buys, Queensland University of Technology

As the number of tall apartment buildings significantly increases in most cities across the globe, their ability to deliver quality lifestyles for residents becomes an...

24 August 2015

A “Flight Manual” for Air Plants

Lloyd Godman, Ecological Artist; Stuart Jones, Hyder Consulting; Grant Harris, Ironbark Environmental Arboriculture

The green fabric that clothes the earth is fraying. Sadly, through overuse, the garment we depend upon is wearing out. The construction of buildings and...

31 December 2014

Interactive Study on Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2014

Daniel Safarik, Antony Wood, Marty Carver & Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH

An All-Time Record 97 Buildings of 200 Meters or Higher Completed in 2014 and 2014 showed further shifts towards Asia, and also surprising developments in...

06 November 2014

Achieving a Six-Star Rated Tall Building in Sydney’s Central Business District

Lester Partridge, AECOM Building Engineering

The ANZ Tower in central Sydney not only represents the commercial office sector’s recovery from the 2008 financial crisis; it is also a strong example...

06 November 2014

Case Study: One Central Park, Sydney

Jean Nouvel & Bertram Beissel, Ateliers Jean Nouvel

One Central Park was developed as a response to growing demand for residential accommodation in downtown Sydney. Its developers and designers used the opportunity to...

16 September 2014

Green Walls in High-Rise Buildings

CTBUH Research

The latest CTBUH technical guide, Green Walls in High-Rise Buildings, provides a thorough investigation of the methods used around the world for implementation of vertical...

16 September 2014

Innovative Designs for Natural Ventilation in High-Rise Buildings

Kevin Peddie & Tony Rofail, Windtech Consultants

Consideration of energy efficient design strategies has become one of the primary considerations by leading architectural firms during the conceptual design phases and is an...

16 September 2014

Interactions Between Residential and Office Towers in Melbourne

Giorgio Marfella, University of Melbourne

Cities interact with commercial real estate forces using spatial and construction models which may become more or less viable with time. Melbourne is an interesting...

01 November 2011

The Subtropical Residential Tower: Investigating Sustainable Practices in Tall Buildings

Rosemary Kennedy, Centre for Subtropical Design; Shane Thompson, Shane Thompson Architects

This article discusses how outcomes of the charrette take their cue from the city’s subtropical climate and demonstrate how high-density high-rise living can be attractive,...

13 April 2011

Tall and Urban: An Analysis of Global Population and Tall Buildings

CTBUH Research

Tall buildings are spreading across the globe at an ever-increasing rate. This study demonstrates the relationship between population and tall buildings across those countries and...

01 November 2010

Can Tall Buildings be Child-Friendly? The Vertical Living Kids Research Project

Carolyn Whitzman, University of Melbourne

With the emergence of new high-rise residential developments occurring in tandem with economic restructuring and changing household demographics. The Vertical Living Kids Research Project is...

01 May 2010

The Vertical Garden City: Towards a New Urban Topology

Chris Abel, University of Sydney

The author reviews recent innovations in high-rise architecture in search of relevant solutions but finds them still limited by conventional urban typologies. The work of...

01 April 2009

Death of the Great Australian Dream

Chris Abel, Architectural Writer & Teacher

The Great Australian Dream of the detached house in the suburbs has deep roots in the Australian psyche; however, the catastrophic effects of which call...

03 March 2008

Sustainable Groundscrapers and Megaplate Towers

Rocco Bressi & Darren Kindrachuk, Lend Lease Design

This paper explores the influence of property market aspirations and sustainability issues upon workplace environments influencing office buildings in Australia. Emerging trends and influences are...

01 February 2008

The Race for the Sky: Unbuilt Skyscrapers

Mohamad Kashef, East Carolina University

Unbuilt skyscraper designs are noted by many architecture critics as the best in the genre of tall buildings. This paper provides an exposition of various...

16 October 2007

Advances in the Structural Design of High-Rise Residential Buildings in Australia

Owen Martin, Connell Mott MacDonald

This paper examines developments in the structural design of high rise concrete residential buildings in Australia’s two major cities, Sydney and Melbourne. Reference is made...

31 December 2006

Tallest Buildings Completed in 2006

Nina Tower 1 in Hong Kong, at 319 meters high, leads the list of the ten tallest buildings completed in 2006. The Sports City Tower/Aspire...

16 October 2005

126 Phillip Street, Sydney

Rocco Bressi, Bovis Lend Lease

126 Phillip Street is a super premium office tower containing 31 commercial levels, newly completed on the corner of Phillip and Hunter streets in Sydney....

16 October 2005

Two Examples of Urban Renewal: Melbourne and Coolangatta, Australia

Omiros Emmanouilides, Omiros One Architecture

The proposed paper will examine and compare two recent and totally different examples of urban renewal in these two Australian cities. The area to be...

01 March 2005

Too Little, Too Late?

Chris Abel, University of Sydney

Chris Abel writes for the Architectural Review Australia on the idealization to the detached, single-family home.

10 October 2004

Structural Design of the 84 Storey World Tower in Sydney

Owen Martin & Nalean Lal, Connell Mott MacDonald

Completed in June 2003, Sydney's 84 storey 260m high World Tower is the tallest building in Australia. The structural engineering design represents an example of...

20 October 2003

An Assessment of Australian Preparedness for Tall Building Usage in a New Risk Regime

Alan P. Jeary, University of Western Sydney

This paper is an assessment of the current state of readiness of Australia to combat terrorist attacks on large occupancy buildings has been assessed in...

20 October 2003

Design of Structures for Fire in the Australian Regulatory Environment and the Impact of the WTC Collapse

David Proe, Peter Johnson & Richard Hough, ARUP

This paper summarizes the regulations and design methods applicable to the fire design of high-rise structures in Australia and discusses the effect of the WTC...

26 February 2001

A Third Millennium City Prototype – Melbourne Docklands

John Tabart, Barangaroo Delivery Authority

This paper introduces the theme of ‘New Cities’ applied in the design process for Melbourne Docklands –Victoria’s new waterfront, a 220–hectare waterfront precinct at the...

26 February 2001

Analysis and Model Techniques for Determining Dynamic Behaviour of Civil Structures with Various Damping Systems

B. Breukelman, T. Haskett, S. Gamble, & P. Irwin, RWDI

Controlling vibrations of structures through the use of damping systems continues to increase as structures become lighter and more slender. As a result, the tools...

26 February 2001

Aurora Place Commercial Office Tower – 88 Phillip Street, Sydney

Rocco Bressi, Bovis Lend Lease

This paper deals primarily with the structural design aspects of the commercial office tower.

26 February 2001

Recent Applications of Damping Systems for Wind Response

Peter Irwin & Brian Breukelman, RWDI

A traditional solution to the problem of excessive motion of tall buildings under wind action is to add more structure so as to stiffen the...

26 February 2001

Tall Building Design Innovations in Australia

Brian Dean, Owen Martin, David Emery & Peter Chancellor

This paper describes three examples of innovative tall building designs undertaken by the authors' firm in Australasia. These involve the design of building structures up...

26 February 2001

Tall Buildings in Melbourne: Challenging Policy Frameworks

Lyndsay Neilson, Nielsen Associates

This paper provides a brief overview of the history of tall buildings in Melbourne, Australia, and discusses the policy context within which they have developed...