Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 1612 Tall buildings and mid-rise building Asian cities are often imagined by outsiders as masses of tall buildings in close proximity. While there are examples of this the overall reality is of a mixture of building heights. Certainly Singapore and Shanghai have embraced tall buildings with some very tall signature buildings in key locations. Professor Hu has graphed the number of tall buildings constructed over the last decade in Sydney, Shanghai and Singapore and clearly Sydney is behind the other two cities. The historic Bund buildings in Shanghai are of a mid-rise type but no doubt were seen as skyscrapers in their day. The New Bund, under construction across the river from the old, has a good mix of tall and mid-rise buildings. Singapore has also retained precincts of older buildings that weave through the city centre. Singapore has embarked on the development of some very tall apartment buildings. These reach up to 50 storeys in height but they have been cleverly structured into four separate layers through the use of sky gardens every 12 or so floors. The sky gardens have significant landscaping and open space. Children play in these areas and residents stroll through the gardens. Singapore architects WOHA talk about the need for a number of pedestrian layers in taller cities that connect at various levels. Model of new buildings proposed for the ‘New Bund’ in Shanghai Shanghai’s super tall buildings