Abstract:
This thesis is a remedial response to the issues of social isolation and sensory disconnection from the ground that occupants in high-rise buildings often experience. Christopher Alexander reveals that living or working in spaces far from the ground plane is detrimental to social and mental wellbeing. People are less likely to leave their dwellings and feel isolated up in the sky (Alexander et al. 116, 118). To solve these problems, the thesis proposes bringing the humane conditions of the ground plane’s public realm into the high-rise. There are three points of investigation within the thesis that informed the architectural outcome, each dealing with a different scale and aspect of the design. Rem Koolhaas’s observations of traditional skyscrapers and Ken Yeang’s radical ideas for reinventing the skyscraper informed the conceptual framework of vertical urbanism of the design. Jane Jacobs’s theories of mixed use informed the functional performance of the high-rise in terms of safety and liveliness of its public spaces. A case study of Barcelona informed the emotive and tangible spatial qualities of the design from the macro to the micro. Design testing and development with mostly sketching and digital modeling are used to synthesise and adapt the research into architecture. The final architectural outcome is a mixed-use high-rise building located in Auckland city centre, composed of five spatially connected districts, each based on a successful public place in Barcelona: the Beach, the Park, the Town Square, the Street and the Market. Each district provides a unique experience and set of activities to encourage comprehensive usage of the high-rise. The outcome retains the traditional functions of the high-rise to meet the demands of density, economic viability and a volatile urban lifestyle, while also introducing vertical urbanism to satisfy the human need for social contact and environmental comfort.