Living in the Sky

In the 1920s van der Rohe and le Corbusier sketched their utopian cities of the future - giant glass towers linked by elevated roads and walkways. Movies like ‘Metropolis’ painted a high-rise Dystopia, where the masses, stripped of their individuality, became one with the machines they operated. By the 1970s, High-rise had been dismissed in many countries as alienating and dehumanising. But suddenly, it’s back. In Asia and Europe the battle is on to trump neighboring countries and build the highest, brightest apartment and office blocks in the world; and New York is constantly in the news, with its so far unfulfilled plans to replace the World Trade Center with a crystal tower 1776 feet high. What’s behind this sudden passion? What will the high-rise life of the future really be like? Architects in Hong Kong, Vienna and Munich show their achievements and their plans, in radically contrasting cities: Hong Kong depends entirely on the high-rise experience (in some parts of the city it’s impossible to walk at ground level). The European cities still have a horizontal city plan - the cathedral still dominates the townscape. Are the skyscrapers planned today, new temples of consumerism and commerce? Architects like Greg Lynn, Johann Eisele, Daniel Liebeskind, Wu Siegfried Zhi-qiang, Dr. Willensbühl and Cai Yong-jie compare notes. The 500-meter barrier has long been breached, at least in theory, says Wu. He’s currently working on a mega-city in Hong Kong, with auditoria and museums 600 feet in the air, serviced by suspended railways and high-speed elevators. Supermarkets, restaurants, doctors’ surgeries, swimming pools and tennis courts can all be found in the vertical city of a single building.