THE
EMPTY
TOWER
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment SHIN QIN LIM
Source: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-most-dense-neighborhoods-in-the-world.html
THE
EM TY
TOWER
THE REAL MEANING OF HIGH-RISE APARTMENT
Shin Qin Lim 905494 Tutorial 6 | Dr Monique Webber ABPL90117 Twenty-First Century Architecture Manifesto: The Empty Tower | The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Contents 7 Introduction
20 Empathy
30 Whole Body Perception
36 Feeling and Experience
45 Conclusion
46 Bibliography
The Empty Tower
Source: https://quillette.com/2018/11/21/stubborn-attachments-a-review/anonymous-crowd-of-people-walking-on-city-street/
As a modern dwelling form, high-density living is an unfolding trend that offers a solution to contemporary 1. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, State of World Population (United State: United Nations Population Fund, 2009),
19,
https://www.unfpa.org/publications/
state-world-population-2009.
housing needs. Nearly half of the world’s population have lived in cities1.
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Introduction
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Source:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqq7cPxg_Yc&ab_channel=TheB1M
TOWERS
In spite of the fact that countries around the world continue to use this type of architectural development as a solution to contemporary housing problems, using density as the only criterion in generating well calibrated built environments that contain urban quality has serious restrictions.
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LIFE SATISFACTION happiness ................
emotion
PRIVACY
life quality
feeling
................ wellbeing
..........
................
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
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The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
In fact,
life satisfaction has become one of the many
areas heavily impacted due to the rapid development of highrise apartment buildings, with negative implications towards people’s perception of privacy and social development.
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Experience MELBOURNE
SCENE OUTSIDE BEDROOM Due to the high-rise boom in the Central Business District (CBD) of Melbourne, new buildings have clearly taken no consideration into privacy and visual field, where rooms are often presented with few sunlight, bad lighting, and over-reliance on artificial lighting. Despite the call for the continuance of developing highrise apartments, less consideration of the residents’ wellbeing is reflected. In addition, the new building design opposite my apartment also remains very static and formularised.
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Personal
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Personal MELBOURNE
SCENE OUTSIDE UNIT Indoor Corridor (Outside the Unit) is narrow, cold, and demonstrates a lack of natural lighting. These factors ultimately influence our life quality.
Experience
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Experience MELBOURNE
BALCONY Balconies in Melbourne apartments are also small in size. Residents cannot do anything to benefit their mental health and personal wellbeing, such as exercise and greenery. The noise and hot air coming out of the air condition unit also contributes to feeling of discomfort.
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Personal
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Personal MELBOURNE
SCENE FROM BALCONY The densely populated high-rise towers are not soley found in developed cities like Hong Kong, but also where I live. I live in an apartment in Melbourne on the 32nd floor. This photo was taken from my balcony. When I want to go out to relax and get some fresh air – however, I feel stressed by the densely packed building towers.
Experience
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W
hile
architects
have
for
centuries
provided
people with safe home environments, it is argued that contemporary architects should focus more on experiential architectural work – that is, to build designs based on real-life experiences and how architectures affect people’s sense of life satisfaction. Modern day high-rise buildings are incapable of meeting people’s requirements for life satisfaction. In a historical point of view, although tower buildings were initially used to cope with the ongoing need for new housing during post-war era, where they were designed to help people achieve better life satisfaction within a short period of time. Yet, it is suggested that these buildings are mainly used to compensate society issues (i.e. lack of land) over its’ original purpose. In particular, Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore demonstrates the use of high-density collective housing as their answer to the lack of land.
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The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Fig. 1: Teoalida, Housing in Hong Kong & Macau, 2011.
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But is this answer the most appropriate?
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The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Fig. 2: Le Corbusier, 1964.
T
he Le Corbusier’s monumental towers have given
an inspiration on a whole new model of multipurpose in high-rise building after post-war urban renewal period, contending tall buildings as a potent and central symbol for the design of the modern city. High density collective housings around the world seem to have placed behind the value of life satisfaction in this 2. Belinda Yuen et al., “High-rise Living in Singapore Public Housing”, Urban Studies 43, no. 3 (2006): 585, doi: 10.1080/004209805005331.
architectural structures2, implying a lack of concern over residents’ living experience.
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As such, it is proposed that while cities continue to make advancements in developing modern cities through establishing high-rise apartment buildings, it is also essential to take care of the residents’ life satisfaction! -018
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
HIGH-RISE APARTMENT
H
igh-rise apartment is meant to provide
a sense of home
for
the residents, bringing them joy and connecting them to the world and others. The real meaning of high-rise apartment does not solely satisfy the basic needs of the residents, but helps them to understand themselves and their place in the world. It mediates between being and the environment, providing a filter through which they can see themselves and the world. It is not a benign shelter, but a lens that they create for experiencing the world and themselves within it.
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Empathy
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Architects have long-based the process of design on their
imagination.
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The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
In fact, imagination is only the
first step to
entrepreneurship.
Fig. 3: Shin Qin Lim, Imagination, 2020.
I
n conjunction to external factors (e.g. developer’s
requirements), few have considered what is it like to actually be living in the space architects have created. To a certain extent, architects should show more empathy to future residents by establishing closer contacts and relationships with their proposed designs.
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EMPATHY
O
ne way of improving empathy can be achieved through
extended
personal experience. For instance, if the architect is
asked to participate in a project that’s related to the design of high-rise apartment buildings, he or she should have some experience in what it is like to be living in one. Indeed, empathizing in such projects is truly challenging as architects are required to dive into the worldview of the concerned target group, get to know the needs and wants of the different stakeholders involved, and to combine these different sources of input into a valuable architectural concept that appeals to the different stakeholders’ needs . Therefore, architects can place 3. Ann Petermans, Erik Nuyt, Happiness in place and space: Exploring the contribution of architecture and
themselves from a position of the user experience and tests the
interior architecture to happiness (Belgium: Hasselt
validity of the ideas through this imaginative exchange of roles
University, 2016), 117.
and personalities.
Yet, this action has also proven its value......
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The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Mats Egelius’s creation Urbana Villor in 2009 provided an account of how architects’ engagement made differences to basic life satisfaction in a Swedish context.
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Fig. 4: Mats Egelius, Urbana Villor, 2009.
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The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
MAT EGELIUS |URBANA VILLOR|
I
n short, Egelius determined how concepts such
as contact, privacy, identity, personalization and aesthetics play a role in residents’ lives by living in an apartment in the same housing block . As a result, he created flexible internal spaces, encouraged personalization through colour, decoration and objects in semiprivate spaces, provided several communal spaces to increase interaction, and child caring facilities for younger couples. With regular interaction and documentation the impact of Egelius’s long term study will be difficult to measure but crucial to the world of research and making a difference in people’s lives.
It is understandable that sometimes architects will be asked to design non-approachable or inexperienced structures, such as health care facility, schools, or office environment. Architects are invited to participate in research and to connect with other 4. Sabrina Frey, Subjective Well-Being and the Built Environment: An International Evaluation (United States of America: Florida State University, 2012), 20.
relevant disciplines to make sure their designs are not purely imagined, but experienced and relevant to the users’ lifestyle.
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Experience
Fig. 5: Shin Qin Lim, The Libra, 2020.
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Personal
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Personal
THE LIBRA Early this year, as part of my final project, I was asked to design an emergency accommodation for women. Without prior experience, the only way for me to understand what the residents needs was to do research and obtain information from stakeholders. The important is not about the final outcome but an architect’s intention to incorporate scientific knowledge into designs.
Experience
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IMAGINATION + EXPERIENCE
A
fter all, architects should
build on the growing literature and data sources to provide information about life satisfaction when they design their building plans5, just like how Egelius gave his imagined design ideas the shape of reality.
5. David Halpern, Mental Health and The Built Environment: More Than Brick and Mortar? (London” Taylor & Francis, 1995), 100.
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When architects combine their realizable imagination with own experience, the final result will definitely elevate to a much higher level.
Fig. 6: Shin Qin Lim, Imagination + Experience, 2020. -029
Whole Body Perception
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Human see, smell, taste, hear and touch the spaces, people and object that exist in their live every day.
Fig. 7: Beth Poe, Focus: 30 Days of Thanks, 2013. -030
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Demonstrating empathy to the users of the architecture can be a challenging task but not impossible; and one way of doing so is to connect the architecture to the users’ five senses. -031
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Fig. 8: Oskar Schlemmer, Figure in Space with Plane Geometry and Spatial Delineations, 1924. -demonstrates the abstract invisible network of human body relationships in a space-
WHOLE BODY PERCEPTION The beauty of architecture should not
a visual stimulus that directly impacts
be solely admired through our eyes
people
but
the
living experience is limited if only one
five senses, it is further suggested
sense is predominantly used. Think of
that architects are more likely to
designing a space for people with visual
demonstrate
are
disabilities, inclusive designs that take
taking perception from our five senses
care of our five senses is vital in order
into
for users to develop comfortable living
better
appreciated
empathy
consideration.
though
if
they
Historically,
architects only focused on the overall
visual
experience.
expression of architecture as it acts as
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field.
However,
our
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Fig. 9: The Eyes of The Skin, 1996.
T
he
principle
of
whole-body
perception
was
mentioned in The Eyes of the Skin, where Juhani Pallasmaa stated that sound, smell, and feeling of spaces are equivalent to our visual perception6. Although it may be challenging for users to visually capture the acoustics, scents and tactility, these perceptions are 6. Juhani Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin (New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1996), 67. 7. Pallasmaa, The Eyes of the Skin, 67.
distinctively stored in human brain and therefore gives us different memories7.
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Fig. 10: Alvar Aalto, Villa Mairea, 1939. -034
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
WHOLE BODY PERCEPTION
M
oreover, the Villa Mairea by Alvar Aalto is an
architecture that values our sense of movement and touch as much as eye, and creates an ambience of domesticity and welcome. For instance, variety in materials that can be depicted through fences and walls and throughout the villa can ultimately makes people feel more domestic and intimate. The use of warm colour material and the verticality of the timber columns imitate the sea of birch trees that surround the house, the open living area with adequate forest light shines through the undulating screen dictate the atmospheric experience of the residents when walking through a forest.
If architects are able to develop better understanding on how users take in architecture designs through their senses, they will ultimately also become more capable of stimulating the users’ emotions. Therefore, this idea should also be brought to a higher level where architects should take into consideration the vitalness of whole-body encounter, which involves residents’ thoughts and experience. The integration of senses, materiality, detailing (e.g. for thermal comfort) and lighting not only enhances the quality of life, but also creates more immersive, engaging, and memorable multisensory experiences to the residents.
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Feeling & Experience
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Whole body perception, therefore, is not only important because of how it affects our perception but in terms of how it contributes to
residents’ feeling and experience
of the building.
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The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
A person’s perception of space affects their emotions – resulting in a different sense of amplitude. Fig. 11: Shin Qin Lim, Space with Feeling, 2020. 8. Esther M. Sternberg, Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well Being. (United State: Harvard University Press, 2009). 1-24. 9. Sternberg, Healing Spaces. 1-24.
A
s shown in research, emotions and feelings such as awe or peace are triggered in different
areas of the brain. These emotions, when promoted and mixed appropriately, promotes healing8. On the contrary, the process of healing is inhibited when people are negatively affected by the stress created by their immediate living environment, such as if people are isolated, live in dark, cramped, noisy or crowded quarters9. Architecture influence residents’ emotions but some seem to almost exude a sense of happiness, life and optimism. People sense when they have entered a healthy home no matter what the housing style is. Residences with rooms that are unique, exciting, and inspirational promotes a sense of harmony, energetic, and happiness.
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Architects have the responsibility to create structures, objects and things that are safe for both physical and mentally, in order to enhance residents’ lifesatisfaction. Thus, architects are deemed responsible in determining how their designs create an impact on people’s feelings. -038
The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Fig. 12:Gernot Bohme, 2017.
I
n addition, the introduction of the concept of
atmosphere by Gernot Bohme also highlights the objective qualities of space and how it is perceived through bodily-sensual states of a person. As people can apprehend atmospheres be entering the space, different representations of the interior space will contribute to 10. Gernot Bohme, The Theory of Atmosphere and Its Application. (London: Bloomsbury, 2014). 92-97.
different realisation of atmospheres, especially through light and sound (e.g. music and illumination)10.
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FEELING & EXPERIENCE
M
iranda A. Grieder and Amy Chanmugamis’s research
illustrates the potential of leveraging environmental psychology concepts in the shelter design, enabling shelters to go beyond the role of secure structure, housing from an array of services to being buildings designed to improve psychological well11
.Miranda
A.
Grieder
and
Amy
Chanmugam,
being of residents11. It introduces environmental psychology
“Applying Environmental Psychology in the Design
and related design guidelines into health care facilities to
of Domestic Violence Shelters,” Journal of Aggression,
increase residents’ psychological well-being. Design strategies
Maltreatment & Trauma, 22:4 (2013), 365-378, DOI: 10.1080/10926771.2013.775984.
that increase sense of control, social support, provide positive
12. Grieder and Chanmugam, “Applying Environmental
distractors and reduce environmental stressors were also
Psychology in the Design of Domestic Violence Shelters,” 370.
specifically mentioned in the research12.
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Four key design principles that need to be addressed in order to create a mentally healthy living environment -041
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Fig. 13:Mecanoo, Zaans Medical Centre, 2016.
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The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Healthcare centre projects are the best example on illustrating how architecture and interior design guidelines conducive to people healing and well-being. Mecanoo’s Zaans Medical Centre takes into consideration the atmosphere that
avoids
‘hospital-like’,
but
rather
as
a place that promotes wellbeing. Positive distractions such as an abundance of daylight, the use of natural material, bright colours and unobstructed views of the surrounding are incorporated into the design principles, contributing towards a pleasant atmosphere.
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As an architect’s primary goal is to promote the health, safety and welfare of its clients, how people feel and experience the design faces both outside and inside are the key design principle in order to achieve their clients’ life satisfaction.
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The Real Meaning of High-rise Apartment
Conclusion
LIFE SATISFACTION
Contemporary architects undoubtedly have gone through extensive trainings to facilitate the construction of aesthetic building structures, yet, it is uncommon for us to forget some fundamentals beliefs in design. Although high-rise apartment buildings were meant address people’s life satisfaction, much of today’s tower buildings seem to have gone further away from its original claim. Thus, it is proposed that architects should employ experiential living and extensive research as a mean to create empathetic designs, where they can make use of their magic to influence residents’ sensory perception and ultimately provide some sense of life satisfaction to them. Architectural practice, especially with involvement in high-rise residential projects, should prioritise wellbeing experience and life satisfaction over other factors.
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Bibliography Baldea, and Cristian Dumitrescu, “Contemporary High-Density Housing. Social and Architectural Implications,” Acta Technica Napocensis: Civil Engineering &Architecture 56, No. 3 (July 2013):
2,https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263082710_Contemporary_HighDensity_Housing_
Social_and_Architectural_Implications/stats. Bohme, Gernot. The Theory of Atmosphere and Its Application. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Chan, Ying-Keung. “Density, Crowding, and Factors Intervening in Their Relationship: Evidence from
a Hyper-Dense Metropolis.” Social Indicators Research 48, no. 1 (1999): 104. https://www.jstor.org/
stable/27522404. Cuthbert, Alexander R. Architecture, Society and Space. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1985. https://doi. org/10.1016/0305-9006(85)90008-X. Frey, Sabrina. Subjective Well-Being and the Built Environment: An International Evaluation. United States:
Florida State University, 2012.
Grieder, Miranda A., Chanmugam, Amy. “Applying Environmental Psychology in the Design of
Domestic Violence Shelters,” Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 22:4 (2013), 365-378,
DOI: 10.1080/10926771.2013.775984.
Halpern, David. Mental Health and The Built Environment: More Than Brick and Mortar?. London: Taylor &
Francis, 1995.
Lau, Stephen Siu-Yu, Zhonghua Gou, and Fuk-Ming Li. “Users’ perceptions of domestic
Kong: Challenging daylighting-based design regulations”, Journal
(June 2010): 82, doi: 10.1057/JBA.2010.12.
windows in Hong
of Building Appraisal 6, no. 1
Moller, Clifford B., Architectural Environment and our Mental Health. New York: Horizon
Press, 1968.
Obaid, Thoraya. State of World Population. United State: United Nations Population Fund, 2009. https://www. unfpa.org/publications/state-world-population-2009. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1996. Pelkonen, Eeva-Liisa. What about Space?. United States: 306090 Inc., 2013. Petermans, Ann and Erik Nuyt. Happiness in place and space: Exploring the contribution of architecture
and interior architecture to happiness. Belgium: Hasselt University, 2016.https://www.academia.
edu/28904329/Happiness_in_place_and_space_Exploring_th_contribution_of_architecture_and_ interior_architecture_to_happiness. Sternberg, Esther M., Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well Being. United State:Harvard University
Press, 2009.
Yuen, Belinda, Anthony Yeh, Stephen John Appold, George Earl, John Ting, and Lanny Kurnianingrum
Kwee. “High-rise Living in Singapore Public Housing”, Urban Studies 43, no. 3 (2006): 585, doi:
10.1080/004209805005331.
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List of Figures Fig. 1. Teoalida. Housing in Hong Kong & Macau. 2011. photograph. https://www.teoalida.com/world/hongkong/. Fig. 2. Bilsen, Joop van (Anefo). Le Corbusier. 1964. photograph. 1946 × 2,606. https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Le_Corbusier_(1964)_Stedelijk_Museum_Sikkensprijzen_916-9288_(cropped).jpg. Fig. 3. Lim, Shin Qin. Imagination. 2020. Fig. 4. Salin, Kasper. Kasper Salin 2009 Urban villas in Malmö. 2009. photograph.https://www.arkitekt.se/kaspersalin-priset-2009/priser-kasper-salin-2009-urbanavillor-i-malmo/. Fig. 5. Lim, Shin Qin. The Libra. 2020. Fig. 6. Lim, Shin Qin. Imagination + Experience. 2020. Fig. 7. Poe, Bath. Focus: 30 Days of Thanks. 2013. photograph, 620 × 691. https://bethpoe.com/2013/11/19/ november-19-2013/. Fig. 8. Oskar, Schlemmer. Figure in Space with Plane Geometry and Spatial Delineations, 1924 in Embodied emotions: observations and experiments in architecture and corporeality (Portugal: Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade de Lisboa, 2016), 205. Fig.9. Pallasmaa, Juhani. The Eyes of the Skin. New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1996. Fig. 10. Lindman, Son. Villa Mairea in Finland / Alvar Aalto. 2016. photograph. https://archeyes.com/villa-maireaalvar-aalto/. Fig. 11. Lim, Shin Qin. The Libra. 2020. Fig. 12. Mendel, Dagmar. Gernot Böhme feiert 80. Geburtstag. 2017. photograph. https://www.echo-online.de/ freizeit/kunst-und-kultur/kulturnachrichten/gernot-bohme-feiert-80-geburtstag_17647007. Fig. 13. Wolzak, Thijs. Zaans Medical Centre / Mecanoo. 2016. photograph. https://www.archdaily.com/874330/ zaans-medical-centre-mecanoo.
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