The Integration Of Tall Buildings In Urban Environment: Considering The Key Sustainability Concepts

Abstract

As a result of physical, social and economic needs, demand for tall buildings is increasing worldwide. Due to their great size and large impacts on urban environment, tall buildings, , have the potential to improve the quality around them through careful design and urban integration. When compared with lower buildings, tall buildings can be more challenging by means of architectural design and engineering details. Also, depending on their large area of influence, design considerations regarding sustainability and environmental integration of tall buildings need to be handled with more care than other conventional buildings in order to provide the most positive impact.

This research focuses on physical and social environmental impacts of tall buildings where these impacts are examined through determined ‘key sustainability concepts’. The identified relevant ‘key sustainability concepts’ support revealing out the physical and social environmental impacts of tall buildings as positive or negative. As conducted in this study, these key sustainability concepts are proved to be analytical and observational tools to evaluate existing or new tall buildings, from architectural scale to urban scale. As a demonstration of its effectiveness on urban environment, two tall buildings located in London, ‘The Shard’ and ’30 St Mary Axe (Gherkin)’ were selected and compared through site analysis and survey methods over key sustainability concepts. With this study, the possible negative and positive effects of tall buildings both on architectural and urban scale have been revealed through a physical and social sustainable approach.