Tower block
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall
High-rise buildings became possible to construct with the invention of the
High-rise structures pose particular design challenges for
Definition
Various bodies have defined "high-rise":
- Emporis defines a high-rise as "A multi-story structure between 35–100 metres (115–328 ft) tall, or a building of unknown height from 12–39 floors."[3]
- The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines a high-rise as "a building having many storeys".
- The International Conference on Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings defined a high-rise as "any structure where the height can have a serious impact on evacuation"[4]
- In the U.S., the National Fire Protection Association defines a high-rise as being higher than 75 feet (23 m), or about seven stories.[5]
- Most building engineers, inspectors, architects and similar professionals define a high-rise as a building that is at least 75 feet tall.[citation needed]
History
High-rise apartment buildings had already appeared in antiquity: the insulae in Ancient Rome and several other cities in the Roman 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-rise insulae collapsing,[8] several Roman emperors, beginning with Augustus (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 taller insulae collapsing.[11] The lower floors were typically occupied by either shops or wealthy families, while the upper stories were rented out to the lower classes.[12] Surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-story buildings even existed in provincial towns, such as in third century AD Hermopolis in Roman Egypt.[13]
In
The skyline of many important medieval cities was dominated by large numbers of high-rising urban towers, which fulfilled defensive but also representative purposes. The residential Towers of Bologna numbered between 80 and 100 at a time, the largest of which still rise to 97.2 m. In Florence, 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 as San Gimignano are known to have featured 72 towers up to 51 m in height.[17]
The
High rises were built in the
The engineer's definition of high-rise buildings comes from the development of
The residential tower block with its typical
Other contemporary styles and movements in high-rise design include
Currently, the tallest high-rise apartment building in the world is the Central Park Tower on Billionaires' Row in Midtown Manhattan, towering at 1,550 feet (470 m).
Streets in the sky
Streets in the sky is a style of
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 by
Modern development
Asia
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. In
China
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.[35] "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)."[34]
Japan
Housing in Japan includes various traits coming from different eras. The word danchi now either means an employer-provided housing or has a meaning similar to "projects". For modern hi-rises, there are two borrowed words to make a distinction:
- "Apaato" (アパート)is used to describe a rather small apartment, initially made to be rented;
- a large, modern apartment would be a "Mansion" (マンション). The "mansion" nickname is used for both residential towers and for individual condominium apartments (for being roomy, spacey enough to compare to detached houses).
South Korea
In South Korea, the tower blocks are called Apartment Complex (아파트 단지). The first residential towers began to be built after the Korean 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 in Seoul, 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.[36] Seoul proper is noted for its population density, eight times greater than Rome, though less than Manhattan and Paris. Its metropolitan area is the densest in the OECD.[37]
Europe
Central and Eastern Europe
Although some Central and Eastern European countries during the interwar period, such as the Second 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 the
In Romania, 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.[39] Construction continued in the 1970s and 1980s, under the systematisation programme of Nicolae 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.[40][41] In Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), panelák building under Marxism–Leninism resulted from two main factors: the postwar housing shortage and the ideology of the ruling 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,
In the European Union, among former Warsaw Pact states, a majority of the population lives in flats in Latvia (65.1%), Estonia (63.8%), Lithuania (58.4%), Czech Republic (52.8%), and Slovakia (50.3%) (as of 2014[update], data from Eurostat).[42] 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.
Western Europe
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2020) |
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.
In
France
There are some tall residential buildings in La Défense district, such as Tour Défense 2000, even though the district is mainly "commercial". This allows the residents to walk to the nearby office buildings without using vehicles.
Great Britain
Tower blocks were first built in the United Kingdom after the Second 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 of Ronan Point in 1968.[43]
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,[44] modern safety precautions can be prohibitively expensive to retrofit. The Grenfell 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.[45] 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 of London such as Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, and virtually any area in London with council housing. Some new high-rises are being built in areas such as Central London, Southwark, and Nine Elms. In east London, some old high-rises are being gentrified, in addition to new high-rises being built in areas such as Stratford and Canary Wharf.[citation needed]
Ireland
- Republic of Ireland
The majority of residential high rise buildings in the Republic of Ireland were concentrated in the suburb of Ballymun, Dublin. The Ballymun Flats were built between 1966 and 1969: seven 15-story towers, nineteen 8-story blocks and ten 4-story blocks.[46] These were the "seven towers" referred to in the U2 song "Running to Stand Still". They have since been demolished. Inner Dublin flat complexes, typically of 4-5 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 (8 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 in Ballymun, Coolock and Kilbarrack. These flats were badly affected by a heroin epidemic that hit working-class areas of Dublin in the 1980s and early 90s.
Residential tower blocks were previously uncommon outside of Dublin, but during the era of the Celtic Tiger the largest cities such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway witnessed new large apartment building, although their heights have generally been restricted. Some large towns such as Navan, Drogheda, Dundalk and Mullingar have also witnessed the construction of many modern apartment blocks.
- Northern Ireland
Tower blocks in Northern Ireland were never built to the frequency as in cities on the island of
Most of the aforementioned high rise flats in the city were built by the Northern Ireland Housing Trust (NIHT) as part of overspill housing schemes, the first such development being the pair of point blocks in East Belfast's Cregagh estate. These eleven-story towers were completed in 1961 and were the first tall council housing blocks on the island of Ireland.[47] The NIHT also designed the inner city Divis Flats complex. The six to eight story deck access flats that comprised most of the Divis estate were of poor build quality and were all demolished by the early 1990s.[48] Similar slab blocks were built by the NIHT in East Belfast (Tullycarnet) and Derry's Bogside area, all four of which have been demolished.
North America
Canada
In Canada, large
However, some cities such as
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 in redevelopment schemes.
United States
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2009) |
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.[50]
Some of the first residential towers were the
The government's experiments in the 1960s and 70s to use high-rise apartments as a means of providing the housing solution for the poor broadly resulted in failure. Made in the
In contrast to their public 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. The Upper 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 is Central Park Tower located in Midtown Manhattan, having a height of 1,550 feet (470 m) with the highest occupied floor at 1,417 feet (432 m).[51]
Oceania
High-rise living in Australia was limited to the
Deck access
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 is
Green tower blocks
Green tower blocks have some scheme of living plants or
See also
- Earthquake engineering
- Highrise (documentary), a project about life in high-rise apartments around the world
- Prefabrication
- Cutie de chibrituri – meaning Matchboxes in Romanian is the equivalent in Romania
- Wind engineering
- List of fires in high-rise buildings
References
Citations
- ISBN 0-07-138211-9
- ^ "skyscraper". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 19 September 2012.
- ^ Data Standards: high-rise building (ESN 18727), Emporis Standards. Accessed online 16 October 2009.
- ^ Also Murat Saatcioglu, "High-Rise Buildings in Natural Disaster", in Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards Dordrecht, NL: Springer, 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_168
- ^ Hall, John R. (December 2011). "High-rise building fires" (PDF). nfpa.org. NFPA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
- ^ Aldrete 2004, pp. 79f..
- ^ Martial, Epigrams, 27
- ^ Aldrete 2004, p. 78.
- ^ Strabo, 5.3.7
- ISBN 3-7611-0585-1p. 231
- ^ Aldrete 2004, pp. 78–9.
- ^ Aldrete 2004, pp. 79 ff..
- ISBN 3-8053-3276-9, p. 29
- ISBN 90-04-09626-4
- ISBN 0-8225-3221-2
- ISBN 0-7007-1700-5
- ^ ISBN 978-3-423-03020-5, p. 345
- ^ Knapp, Ronald G.. China's old dwellings. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2000. 266.
- JSTOR 1504639
- ^ a b Old Walled City of Shibam, UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- ^ possibly by Jay Thakkar, "High Rise Residential Towers", (self-published, n.d.) https://www.academia.edu/32050381/High_Rise_Residential_Tower
- ^ "Intersection Fields III: Michiel Brinkman vs. Peter and Alison Smithson". www.hiddenarchitecture.net. 3 May 2016. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017.
- ^ "Streets in the Sky". Intute.ac.uk. 1 November 2006. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
- ^ Quarry Hill at BBC Online
- ^ "Social Engineering Through Architectural Change". Newenglishreview.org. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
- ^ "Alison and Peter Smithson, Design Museum". Designmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 24 November 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
- ^ Fletcher, Martin (20 October 2008). "Demolition of the Aylesbury Estate: a new dawn for Hell's waiting room?". The Times & The Sunday Times.
- ^ "Aylesbury Tenants First". Aylesbury Tenants First. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
- ^ Parkinson-Bailey, p.195
- ^ The Urban Idiot (17 January 2018). "Streets in the sky". Academy of Urbanism.
- ^ Hong Kong Housing Authority (31 March 2021). "香港房屋委員會年報" [Hong Kong Housing Authority Annual Report] (PDF). housingauthority.gov.hk/. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
- ^ a b Williams Goldhagen, Sarah (18 May 2012). "Living High". New Republic. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
- ^ a b Meinhold, Bridgette (25 May 2012). "2012 Pritzker Prize Awarded to Wang Shu – First Chinese Architect to Win the Award". inhabitat.com. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
- ^ Cho, Minsuk (2008). "Two Houses in Seoul" (PDF). In Ruby, Ilka; Ruby, Andreas (eds.). Urban Trans Formation. Ruby Press. p. 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 August 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
- ^ "Seoul ranks highest in population density among OECD countries". The Hankyoreh. 15 December 2009.
- ^ ISBN 9788395057472.
- ISBN 978-1-4094-6786-1.
- ISBN 978-973-27-2695-2.
- ^ Dumitrescu, Ionel-Claudiu. "Urbanizarea în România secolului XX: interbelic vs comunism" [Urbanization in the 20th century Romania: interwar period vs communist period]. historia.ro.
- ^ see section Source data for tables and figures, Housing statistics: tables and figures [1]
- ^ "Ronan Point". The Open University. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ "Unsafe cladding removal works still incomplete on over 300 high-rise buildings in Manchester and London". 16 September 2022.
- ^ Wahlquist, Calla (14 June 2017). "Fire safety concerns raised by Grenfell Tower residents in 2012". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
- ^ "RTÉ News: Demolition of famous Dublin tower block". www.rte.ie. 13 March 2005. Retrieved 19 May 2010.
- ISBN 9780300054446.
- ^ Glendinning & Muthesius (1994), p. 367.
- ^ Riverdale Flats, Larne (1) http://www.geograph.ie/photo/2313893
- ^ "Avenues and Mid-Rise Buildings Study". City of Toronto. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
- ^ "100 Tallest All-Residential Buildings - the Skyscraper Center".
- ^ BBC 'English Heritage' documentary about Park Hill flats.
- ^ "de beste bron van informatie over sustainingtowers. Deze website is te koop!". sustainingtowers.org. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
- ^ "Tower blocks go green with power-saving panels". Salford.gov.uk. 20 September 2010. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
- ^ "State of the Art". Sustaining: towers blocks. Battle McCarthy Ltd. Archived from the original on 23 June 2004. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
General and cited sources
- ISBN 978-0-313-33174-9.
- Dunleavy, Patrick (1981). The politics of mass housing in Britain, 1945–1975. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press.
- Hanley, Lynsey (2007). Estates: an intimate history. London: Granta Books.
- Power, A. (1987). Property before people. London: Allen & Unwin.
- Power, A. (1997). Estates on the edge. Great Britain: MacMillan.
- Saatcioglu, Murat (2016). "High-Rise Buildings in Natural Disaster". Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Dordrecht, NL: Springer. pp. 451–452. ISBN 978-90-481-8699-0.
External links
- Media related to High-rises at Wikimedia Commons