Research On The Design Of Public Spaces On The Top Of Skyscrapers

Skyscrapers’ first come into being dates back to the late19th century. And theyprevails in America soon afterwards. Although suffered the collapse of the410m-highWorld Center Twin Tower, the world does not lose the passion for construction of moreskyscrapers. It takes only6years that the828m Dubai Tower surpasses the first500mlevel skyscraper-Taipei101Tower. And there are96towers with more than300m inthe world, among which one third are in China.The research found that, skyscraper construction witnesses not only explosivegrowth in height and number, more and more skyscrapers leverages their top space forpublic services, such as viewpoints, lobbies or air-clubs. At present, the academics haslittle special study of such kind of public spaces, but the research of design patterns ofskyscrapers’ top spaces has a profound meaning to future development of skyscrapersand city spaces, especially for the long-term "fast food" style development of China’scity construction.However, the concept of the term of "skyscraper" changes with spaces and time.Thus the definition of the skyscraper has a direct effect on the definition of the research.According to the universally acknowledged connotation, along with the definition of theauthorities of high building research institution (i.e. CTBUH), the spiritual insight of"skyscraper" refered in this thesis includes "Rise","Self-improvement" and towers over300m high.This thesis starts with the research of hotel lobby on top of Nanning HengdaInternational Plaza Building(320m), and will do case studies of over300m skyscrapersin the world. The topics includes the accessability, the functionality, the design andinner spaces and sustainable eco-system, in terms of the vertical city and city designtheory, public space theory and sustainable building theory. And a design practice willbe presented as a conclusion.