The Vertical City

Philippe Samyn

Description

The growth of world population and its concentration in cities leads to excessive occupation of the ground by constructions.
Technical and scientific progress in the last decade allows, from now onwards, to envisage in our regions very high constructions at the same global costs (including networks) as our present constructions, if they are grouped in a regular manner, connected together by networks supported by bridges, 40 or 50 m above the ground, to form small vertical cities.
A new architecture for towers remains to be invented with naturally illuminated and ventilated vertical streets that offers views and are punctuated by aerial piazzas.
This architecture can completely satisfy the needs of the soul and the spirit, as well as our senses and our physiological needs.

Philippe Samyn, member of the Académie royale de Belgique, is an architect, urbanist, structural engineer, and Doctor of Applied Sciences. He is the author, assisted by the architects and engineers of SAMYN and PARTNERS, of numerous public and private building projects, including towers.

Sujets

• Architecture

Informations

• Publié par: Académie royale de Belgique
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9782803104130
• Langue: Français

Extrait

THE VERTICAL CITY
Philippe Samyn
The vertical city
Postface by Jean Attali
Académie royale de Belgique
rue Ducale, 1 - 1000 Bruxelles, Belgique
www.academieroyale.be
Informations concernant la version numérique
ISBN : 978-2-8031-0413-0

© 2014, Académie royale de Belgique
Collection L’Académie en poche
Sous la responsabilité académique de Véronique Dehant
Volume 38
Diffusion
Académie royale de Belgique
www.academie-editions.be
Crédits
Conception et réalisation : Grégory Van Aelbrouck, Laurent Hansen, Académie royale de Belgique
Illustration de couverture : Le WING BUILDING. Projet de l’auteur, élève libre en quatrième année d’architecture à La Cambre, juin 1971. Immeuble multifonctionnel de 60 étages. © Philippe Samyn and Partners sprl, architects & engineers.
Publié en collaboration avec
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Informations concernant la version numérique
ISBN 978-2-87569-144-6
 
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INTRODUCTION
We can all remember the excitement and joy of our first tree house; it’s a childhood memory that probably remains forever.
For a family or a community it was, nonetheless, difficult to inhabit high places whether for safety, to spare tillable land in places where such plots were rare or susceptible to flooding, or for many other reasons and constraints.
Building shelters on such sites was daunting and we can but admire the ingenuity of their builders. The Meteora in Greece, the walled cities of Shibam and Sanaa in Yemen, or the perched monasteries built on the vertiginous cliffs of India and Tibet are extraordinary examples.
The second industrial revolution 1 with the initial invention of the mechanical lift followed by numerous discoveries and innovations during the 20th century, particularly in the past twenty years, have modified conditions. If it has been possible to live in comfort in high dwellings for the past century, it has become affordable only in recent times, which explains the current enthusiasm for high-rise habitations.
This infatuation goes hand-in-hand with attraction for city life where the world’s population is increasingly concentrated. It has led to an almost automatic and anarchic development of tentacular megalopoles in both an industrial and financial 2 process of globalization, technology, banalization and conformity characteristic of collectively governed societies.
This also follows on the changes in the composition of families during the past century.
The home or the farm still housing three generations of one or of several families common at the beginning of the 20th century has been gradually replaced by the one-family home or apartment after World War 2 and is now ceding place to smaller habitations, often for single parent families.
The large house or farm corresponded to a self-sufficient way of life in the countryside and was quite isolated, except for certain neighborhoods, from the cities. ...