Placemaking in the High-Rise City: Architectural and Urban Design Analyses

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented boom in tall and supertall building construction worldwide (Wood, 2011). Because of their massive bulk and soaring height, tall buildings often create serious placemaking problems. Employing extensive photographs and sketches, this paper examines architectural and urban design strategies that improve placemaking with tall buildings. The paper embraces a comprehensive approach that considers the relationship of tall buildings to their surroundings at the macro and micro scales. It also considers non-physical factors that tall buildings need to address, such as the social life the building creates. It is hoped that the placemaking factors discussed in this article will provide the required groundwork for future research that explores regulations and codes that foster placemaking with tall buildings.