Getting them up

Architectural Review, The, April, 2004 by John Winter

HIGH-RISE MANUAL: TYPOLOGY AND DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY

Edited by Johann Eisele and Ellen Kloft. Basel: Birkhauser. 2003. [euro]65

I had always imagined that high-rise buildings were designed and built by people with years of experience and more know-how than the rest of us. But this book sets out to make the reader an instant expert. Twenty chapters by different experts cover most aspects of building tall, from management to structure to fire. Like the Reader's Digest Book of Home Maintenance, it takes a complicated technical subject and describes it in language that we can all understand.

The information contained is really impressive. For inexperienced architects joining a team designing a tall building, this book is a must. It may not make them expert, but it will give basic knowledge that should give confidence and enable the right questions to be asked. More experienced architects will also find much to learn and to ponder, but should be aware that local practice and regulations may be different from those experienced by the various authors.

The authors, and most of the examples, are German. But the massive Asian contribution is fully acknowledged. Thirty years ago a book like this would have been almost exclusively American; now America does not even play a dominant role. The German concern for sustainability issues is most welcome, and this book is particularly good when dealing with energy-saving facades and illustrates some innovative low-energy high-rise projects.

The book is mercifully un-architectural. This is a technical and managerial manual, with architectural issues getting short shrift.

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