2010 Vertical Communities

This studio explores the concepts of community, lifestyle, interconnectivity and social sustainability in the field of tall buildings. The aim was to create a number of towers that are linked together at height through skybridges, and at ground level by a ‘groundscraper’. The project was accredited by the CTBUH.

The site for the studio is Leamouth in east London – the site of a real project for a new residential community designed by the London office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who acted as ‘clients’ for the studio. The project brief consisted of three stages: extensive site studies, development of a common masterplan, and finally design and development of the individual towers themselves.

Masterplan Development
Teaching and Reviews

		Studio Physical Model The final results of the ‘Vertical Communities’ studio project a new urban vision for Leamouth in East London, consisting of eight tall buildings linked by a groundscraper at the base and a skybridge network at height. All the towers are mixed-use in function, but a strong provision is made for residential accommodation.


		Masterplan and Skybridges Matthew Bryant, David Calder & Amrita Chowdhury Rather than focussing on the design of a single tower, the students in this group were responsible for developing the masterplan beyond a strategic level, designing in detail the skybridges and groundscraper, and creating the new urban vision for Leamouth. View the project video


		Colour My Thames Chandni Chadha, Arham Daoudi, Elnaz Eidinejad & Akshay Sethi This design aims to create a vertical residential community bound together by aspects of color and art. Rather than restrict the tower to the blues and grays of typical curtain-walling, the design aims to integrate color and vibrancy into the building in a meaningful way. View the project video


		Botanical Tower Aurelia li, Nu Long & Andrew Tang This scheme aims to extend the Lea Valley ‘green corridor’ – a series of parks and wetlands that stretch northwards from the site, along the river Lea – into the sky, by embracing vertical greenery within a tall building. View the project video


		Edu-scraper Xifeng He, Yu Wei Luo & Ben Minton Inspired by research into local demographics – which show an extremely high birth rate and low death rate – this project aims to accommodate both primary and secondary schools and residential units into the same vertical tower. View the project video


		Sports Tower Jia Liu, Wanyi Sun & Chao Wei Inspired by the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games, this design aims to create a new vertical residential community incorporating sports facilities at height. View the project video


		Marina Tower Tom Heneker, Li Yu Liang, Juzar Mukadam & Salil Riswadkar This scheme is concerned with the valuable resource of water in two ways; firstly, by ‘floating’ the tower out over the water a marina and water taxi hub is created at its base, offering a new recreational facility on the river Lea. View the project video


		Green Lung Ashwin Chaudhari, Snigdha Deshpande, Pranjal Diwakirti & Priyanka Kumath This design is concerned with the introduction of fresh air, natural light and vegetation into a tall building. View the project video


		Farm-scraper Mandar Mallappanavar, Savita Poojari & Pranali Shah Inspired by issues surrounding sustainable agriculture, this design aims to accommodate residential units combined with vertical farming in the place where demand for food is highest – the city. View the project video


		Recycling Tower Minh Ngoc Phan & Sim Lee Yee This scheme consists of a residential tower with an emphasis on waste collection and recycling. The project takes advantage of its location at the centre of the ‘skybridge network’, acting as a ‘hub’ to gather and process waste from neighboring towers. View the project video