Page 23 - Reside Magazine Premier Central Florida

Reside — Central Florida Edition

Architects MVRDV turned a drum tower
into the colorful Shenzhen Women and
Children’s Centre, which is now a vibrant
community space (left) complete with
a covered roof terrace (far left).
Below left: Residential building Aqua
encourages social interaction between
neighbors with strategically curved
terraces

as a vertical landscape, with curved balconies,
a rooftop garden and a bird-friendly facade.
Now construction accounts for around
40% of carbon emissions worldwide, a new
era of skyscraper “retrofits” are showing that
existing tall buildings can be effectively
repurposed and made more sustainable with
“ “The most sustainable building is one you do not tear down,” says
additions such as solar shading. Recent examples include the transformed
Quay Quarter Tower office building in Sydney and the Shenzhen Women and
Children’s Centre, once a 100m drum tower and now a colorful community
resource. What will the skyscrapers of today become in the next century?
THE FUTURE OF Peter Wang, principal and design director at Gensler. He has just led
the groundbreaking conversion of a 24-story 1970s office tower in New York
THE SKYSCRAPER into 588 homes, in response to changing demands of space in the city,
post-Covid. “Shifts in culture, work styles, lifestyles, and attitudes are
WILL BE ROOTED happening faster and faster, hastening the demise of these older buildings.
Our job is to think analytically and creatively on how to leverage these
IN ENHANCING existing structures to support new uses.”
Sustainability has also been a driver for the recent growth of so-called
THE QUALITY “plyscrapers,” built with an engineered wooden structure made possible by
innovations in cross-laminated and glue-laminated timber. Timber offers many
OF THE HUMAN renewable when sourced sustainably, plus it can be pre-fabricated, is quicker
benefits in comparison with concrete and steel; it is a natural carbon store and
EXPERIENCE to build with, and healthier for construction workers. Today, the tallest timber
” While excited about the promise of plyscrapers growing taller, the cultural
building rises to 86.6m; by 2027 it’s set to reach 100m (in Switzerland, with the
Rocket & Tigerli by Schmidt Hammer Lassen).
Many of the first innovations in timber tall buildings have been in
Norway and Sweden, countries with timber industries and support from the
public sector and municipalities—for example, the 20-story Sara Cultural
Centre (2021) in northern Sweden, which houses a theater, library, and art gallery.

center’s lead architects, Robert Schmitz and Oskar Norelius of White Arkitekter,

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