What is the Psychological Cost of Building Taller?

In 1894, Toronto’s tallest building was the seven-storey, 85-foot-tall Beard Building. This bank, commercial office, and hotel was considered the city’s first skyscraper and remained the tallest structure until the construction of the Trader’s Bank Building in 1906. Standing at just 10 storeys, the Trader’s Bank Building was not only the tallest building in Toronto, but the entire British Commonwealth until 1913. Over the next 100 years, Toronto grew vertically, and underwent an especially rapid growth spurt with the onset of the condo boom. Today, Toronto’s First Canadian Place holds the title for tallest skyscraper in Canada. However, with developers striving to reach new heights, it’s clear that the structure won’t hold the title for long. The skyscrapers of today will only be dwarfed by future designs as cities around the world strive to push boundaries and build bigger, better, faster, and above all, taller. However, as we push towards the clouds, what is the psychological impact of living in a superstructure and how will we keep the spaces human?

Beard Building

The quest to be the tallest

Stories of man’s quest to build structures that touch the sky have existed since the Biblical narrative recounting the Tower of Babylon, and likely even before that. Today, innovative engineering and competition between cities for the title of the tallest structure are pushing skyscrapers to new heights. According to Andre Schmidt of the BBC, “cities and regions compete against each other and require buildings as landmarks that create identity, symbolise power and riches and showcase sophistication way beyond their physical boundaries.” These superstructures also have economic benefits, adding value to a city’s central business district and boosting tourism. Though the race to build the tallest building may be about prestige today, explains Schmidt, it will also become essential to alleviating urban sprawl and preventing our megacities from overtaking our remaining natural landscapes.

Burj Khalifa - via Emporis - Copyright: Colin Capelle

Today, the third tallest high-rise structure in the world is the Makkah Clock Royal Tower located in Saudi Arabia. The 120-floor tower is 601 meters tall (1,971 feet) and home to residential units, a hotel, a shopping centre, and a clock so large it can be seen 25 kilometres away. This tower falls just 32 meters (105 feet) short of China’s Shanghai Tower, a 121-floor residential and commercial high-rise with the world’s fastest elevator (running at 18 metres per second!). However, the distinction as the world’s tallest skyscraper belongs to the United Arab Emirates’ Burj Khalifa. This 163-floor and 828 meter (2,716 feet) monolith was designed to withstand the intense temperatures of Dubai and the condensation water collected from the A/C system could fill 20 Olympic-sized pools! Though the Burj Khalifa is today’s tallest high-rise, it won’t be for long -  the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah broke ground and aims to surpass Dubai’s prized tower and set a new world standard.

The challenges of living amongst the clouds

As buildings continue to carry humans to new heights, engineers will have to ensure that they  adapt not only to the elements, but also their inhabitants. Future skyscrapers pose a number of challenges from both an engineering and psychological perspective. Though developers and engineers are working to overcome technical hurdles, they must also take into account the human psyche and the issues that arise as we inhabit spaces further and further from the ground.

Environmental psychology is “the study of the interaction of humans with their surroundings.” Architectural features, colour, and lighting all have profound effects on our mood and health. As we discussed earlier this month, access to nature has a variety of mental and physical benefits. In addition to making us calmer and more focused, access to trees and waterways also help our bodies heal faster and with fewer complications. As we get closer to the sky, we further ourselves from our natural habitat on the Earth’s surface.

Additionally, high-rise living typically does not appeal to growing families for a number of reasons including their perceived distance from social and communal spaces. Today, the condo lifestyle mostly appeals to singles, young couples, and downsizing families, while some growing families remain resistant to the lack of a front yard and distance from the streetscape. According to Dr. Philip Oldfield, some families see the “lack of social-communal spaces and distance between the flat and the street as a physical and psychological barrier.”

Recent studies have shown that the perception of living in a tall building also depends on a number of demographic factors including age, gender, and marital status. Mark Lavery recently conducted a study where women and men were shown the same apartment. The women were more likely to perceive an apartment at a higher level to be more spacious, while men perceived the same space to be less so. Individuals living at lower levels can also feel as though the weight of the people living above them is “crushing.” Dr. Oldfield suggests that if we shift the design and focus of these residential towers to address human needs, they will not only become healthier for our psyche, but also appeal to growing families and a range of new demographics.

Pruitt-Igoe - hopefully this isn't the future of Toronto's high-rises

The future of high-rise living

In this vision for the future of high-rise living, skyscrapers will function less like residential units and more like “vertical cities.” Dr. Oldfield looks towards Singapore as an excellent example of innovative high-rise design solutions. In a city where more than 85% of the population live in high-rise social housing, tower design becomes important to ensuring that the architecture facilitates the creation of a positive psychological space.

Architects and developers only have to hear the name Pruitt-Igoe to be reminded of the cost of poor tower planning and its effect on the human psyche. In the US, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project has become “a notorious symbol of failed public policy and architectural hubris.” St. Louis’ social housing complex was meant to become an “oasis in the desert.” However, poor design choices (such as elevators that only stopped on specific floors) combined with large-scale economic changes in the city led to the project’s demise. The tower design created a prison of poverty, and facilitated crime, and further segregation. The 33 towers were demolished only two decades after their construction.

Pinnacle@Duxton

In contrast, Singapore’s Pinnacle@Duxton is a development of seven towers linked by skybridges. The building incorporates a number of social spaces including an outdoor gym for elderly residents, a children’s play area, mini parks, public seating, and a running track that links all seven towers. The towers ensure all residents have access to psychologically necessary natural elements like light and fresh air. Singapore’s construction regulations also encourage the incorporation of positive psychological spaces into high-rise design. Developers in Singapore who incorporate community spaces throughout their high-rise structures are allowed to build taller, and these spaces are excluded from the taxable area of their developments.

Similarly in Japan, two construction companies have responded to the need for a human element in their designs for a hypothetical superstructure - Sky City 1000. Takenaka and Shimizu’s vertical city is divided into 14 horizontal segments or “space plateaus” comprised of a ring of apartments or office spaces surrounded by a courtyard and shared public park. Their design strives to emulate the streetscape and allows ventilation, daylight, and even rain to enter the courtyards. These designs “attempt to create a sense of human scale up in the air, a relationship to the traditional city with streets and squares in-between measurable built volumes,” explains Schmidt.

Sky City 1000

Modern skyscrapers like the Shanghai Tower and Burj Khalifa are substantially taller and much more expensive than the 11-storey Pruitt-Igoe towers. The cost of demolishing the superstructures of the future due to failure or abandonment would be catastrophic. As engineers surmount technological hurdles and continue to innovate, they must also strive to ensure their towers remain relatable and distinctly human. The towers of the future will have to be vertical cities, where the streetscape is accessible, even while living amongst the clouds.