Page 22 - Reside Magazine Premier Central Florida

the 118th floor of Hong Kong’s 480m Ritz Carlton is currently the world’s
highest—or to penthouse homes, from where the luckiest few can enjoy
spectacular views of the skies and the surrounding city.
“It’s exhilarating to live and work in a place that is so private and solitary,
but at the same time so connected to the city,” says architect Scott Duncan of
SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill). The firm designed both the very first
“mixed-use” skyscraper back in 1968 (Chicago’s John Hancock Center) and the
world’s largest mixed-use, the Burj Khalifa, which houses a mall, restaurants,
hotel, spa, apartments, observation platform, and much more. Duncan sees the
appeal of living in the skies only increasing: “The skyscraper had its origins in
efficiency and density. Its future, however, will be rooted in enhancing the
quality of the human experience. We will see architects exploring ways to make
living in a skyscraper an even more extraordinary and sublime experience.”
Architects have been thinking about how to make skyscrapers healthier
and more liveable since the 1970s. Singapore-based practice WOHA
uses features such as elevated gardens, open-air walkways, integrated
landscaping including trees, and shading systems that cool buildings to
prevent reliance on air conditioning—all important for the tropical Southeast
Asian context and for our globally warming world. In Chicago, architect
Jeanne Gang has explored how to sculpt a skyscraper to boost social ties
and nature. Her 82-story residential building Aqua (2009) is designed

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