A friend of mine recently told me about a documentary that he thought I’d like. It’s called Highrise. And it’s an exploration of vertical living around the world.
But it’s not your typical documentary. It’s a multi-year, multi-media documentary that I’m still in the midst of exploring. There’s videos, interactive web documentaries, blog posts and other stuff planned.
If you’re interested in highrise buildings and cities, you can start here and here on the New York Times’ website.
I immediately thought it was a good example of the typical Hong Kong tower plan that I have been writing about on this blog. You can see the cruciform plan, the light/air cutouts, and how this plan allows for towers to be built directly beside each other.
In some cases the result is perhaps not that dissimilar from a European courtyard block, except the building typology here is high-rise as opposed to mid-rise. Note the outdoor spaces in the middle of the blocks.
The cruciform plan also creates a secondary scale of courtyards at the corners of these “tower courtyard blocks.” That is, where you have 3 towers arranged in a triangle. I only see two instances where you have 4 directly adjacent towers. Probably discouraged.
It’s also interesting to note how relatively subtle shifts in tower positioning seem to open up the possibility of additional towers. You can see that just below the boat in this picture (not sure what the boat is all about).
Is there anything else you find interesting in this picture?
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