A Theory Of Vertical Architecture

The default approach to building cities vertically is through the construction of towers. Such “common towers” multiply the “value” of a plot of ground by repeatedly stacking the most profitable types of private units vertically. These independent extrusions of land produce spaces that are disconnected from one another and the city below. The widespread proliferation of this default approach is rapidly filling the vertical territory of the world’s cities with privatized stacks of ordinary spaces.

A critical investigation of “Common Towers” and the conditions that have led to their proliferation exposes opportunities that their presence conceals. There is both architectural and urbanistic potential in the vertical territory above a city that cannot be realized through the “common tower.” This thesis explores the potential of the seamless vertical extension of the unconditionally public realm as a means of driving the three-dimensional organization of spaces within the volume of a city.