The Space Within: Skyspaces in Tall Buildings

As the world population continues to urbanize, the need for urban amenities becomes amplified; cities must increasingly account for an expanding urban population. The interiors of tall buildings provide an extraordinary opportunity to create habitable, communal space in increasingly dense and vertical cities. Although skyscrapers are typically celebrated for their visual impact on the skyline, or as places to view the city, the quality of their interior spaces needs to be more strongly considered. This is especially the case as, with climate change, the outdoors become less habitable for longer portions of the year.

This CTBUH Technical Guide thus analyzes how to approach urban habitat within tall buildings, highlighting case studies of large, multi-floor communal spaces at height, in locations around the world, in a broad mix of building functions, in different climates, and at different scales – to help readers understand the ingredients that make them successful, or the lack of ingredients that hold them back from their full potential.

This Technical Guide is the product of more than a year’s research by the CTBUH Urban Habitat / Urban Design Committee, CTBUH staff, and a research team of architecture students from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). It is part of a series of Technical Guides that provides practical state-of-the-art technical details on specific areas of skyscraper research, offering a wealth of knowledge essential for industry professionals, academic researchers, and all others interested in the relationship between skyscrapers and urban habitat.

Principal Authors: James Parakh, Daniel Safarik & Peng Du
Editorial and Directional Input: Antony Wood, Steven Henry & Jason Gabel
Academic Coordination: Peng Du
Layout: Rachel Fox
Publisher: CTBUH, Chicago, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-939493-64-7
Soft cover, 204 pages, 8.5"W x 11"H