This year-long studio aimed to develop a typology of net-zero skyscrapers that integrate the maximum number of relevant sustainable design strategies and technologies, not only in terms of carbon but also in terms of internal environment, community and the impact of the building on the physical, social and cultural realms. Semester 1 embraced abstracted skyscraper designs based on significant research. Semester 2, which also included a week-long overseas field trip to Shenzhen, China, applied the learning to a specific, and real, site in an existing urban context. Dr. Peng Du convened this studio, in place of Professor Antony Wood.

Building on the success of the previous year’s studio, students were once again tasked with designing new cities in differing locations, climates and terrains, addressing the future impacts of climate change. The range of project sites was expanded from the year previous to include new and challenging locations, such as the arctic circle, the middle of the ocean, etc.

This year-long studio was based on the following provocative scenario: “The year is 2050 and, after five decades of attempting to adapt cities to cope with “natural” disasters of increasing frequency and severity in the face of accelerating climate change, humanity has come to accept a simple truth: that many existing cities—especially coastal cities—are no longer viable into the future”. The studio began with a global study of these factors, and the effect on cities, before going on to design new cities, located in the most “sustainable” locations. Each city was charged with maximizing environmental and cultural symbiosis, with both terrain and climate.

This studio continued the theme of Transit-Oriented Development of the year previous, now set in Miami, within the   $1.05 billion mixed-use development that is Brickell City Centre. Strategically located in the center of the Brickell financial district, the students investigated alternatives to the overall Brickell City Centre Development and proposed programmatic and design solutions for a Phase II Tower, integrated into the existing Phase I buildings. Dr. Peng Du convened this studio, in place of Professor Antony Wood.

The site sits atop the new terminal for East Side Access in New York, forming the western gateway to Grand Central. Thus, a transit hub with train hall and connections to other transit facilities was a required part of the program. Students were tasked to develop a tower that pushes the boundaries of what it means to build a truly “three-dimensional city” – mixing programs, encouraging extreme density, and introducing meaningful public space strategically throughout the building. The key issues included the response to dense/varied site context; public space integration; vertical circulation systems, public/private space, and sustainability. Dr. Peng Du convened this studio, in place of Professor Antony Wood.

This studio revisited the Chicago Decarbonization Plan topic first used in the Spring 2012 studio, but now focusing on a new, single site: Wolf Point, Chicago. Located at the confluence of the North, South, and Main Branches of the Chicago River, Wolf Point lies within the Near North Side, Loop, and Near West Side community areas of Chicago. Using the framework of the Decarbonization Plan, this comprehensive design studio saw students working in pairs, collaborating with tutors to develop a unique set of environmental Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for their projects.

This semester-long studio examined what the term “sustainability” really means on an urban scale. A key question was posed: “What contributes most to the sustainability of cities?” In considering only environmental sustainability, the most sustainable city would most likely be that which consumes the fewest resources and emits fewest pollutants per capita. However, “sustainability” is the equilibrium point of three different aspects: social, economic, and environmental. This studio thus looked to create an “index” of all factors contributing to the holistic idea of sustainability, then evaluate a number of cities on that index.

This studio aimed to address three important questions: What if we could tap into Chicago’s latent potential by using the built environment as a carbon asset?; What if we could redefine energy as a commodity to be traded between buildings, blocks, cities?; and What if we could transform Chicago’s Loop into a net carbon-positive district? Working with Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill Architecture, who had developed the original Chicago Decarbonization Plan, the final studio results were exhibited publicly at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, located in the Santa Fe Building in downtown Chicago. Taking place in the building’s atrium, the exhibition was part of the “Chicago Model City” exhibit, which featured a 25 x 35-foot scale model of downtown Chicago.

This studio was set in Seoul, with students working  in pairs to design a tall building  inspired by the cultural, physical and environmental aspects of place. The site for the project was a real site being developed by Daelim Construction at the time, with Kohn Pederson Fox as architects, in the Seoul Forest district of the South Korean capital, not far from the Han River. The studio visited Seoul and engaged with the real issues of the site, city and culture. The studio  engaged with Daelim Construction as clients, KPF as architects, and also students and professors at Korea University, as collaborators.

Using the same site as the year previous—the C-Ward district of Mumbai—the studio explored various design schemes for the neighborhood, drawing inspiration from its cultural, physical, and environmental characteristics. The studio visited Mumbai and engaged directly with the real issues facing the site. The client for the project was once again the real client for the neighborhood redevelopment: the Remaking of Mumbai Federation (RoMF). This year, the students worked on a common urban vision – consisting of a community of towers linked by skybridges – before developing a tower in pairs, within the overall urban form.

This studio traveled to Mumbai and worked with the community-based “Remaking of Mumbai Federation (RoMF)”. The project was based on the very real situation that is the C-ward district of Mumbai – a dense, historic district that had seen no investment and is largely dilapidated. Students were free to develop their site of choice within the C-Ward, and design a tall building which contributed something significant to the wider community, beyond just the  program of the building itself.

Following Professor Wood’s relocation to Chicago / the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, this was the first high-rise project he convened at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). The project was located on the site of the proposed Chicago Spire by Santiago Calatrava, on the lake-front in Chicago (never built). The brief asked for a mixed-use (predominantly residential) building of 60-100 stories in height, with fundamental design decisions on form, layout, skin, material, construction and incorporated technologies driven so as to create a sustainable, ‘carbon-neutral’ tower. The project began with a significant period of research (conducted in student pairs / small groups) – of site and of precedent; buildings and technologies – which informed the detailed program for the building, as well as strategies for both site and building.

Drawing on the success of the ‘Pavements in the Sky’ project of the previous year, this project set a similar challenge, now in the existing high-rise context of Canary Wharf. Assuming a date in the future which requires a push for greater urban density, the programmatic brief asked for the creation of a ‘new urban vision’, consisting of a series of new towers, linked into a skybridge network with the existing towers of Canary Wharf. Building programs were derived directly from site study and research, with the majority of the towers looking to enrich the overtly commercial area through residential provision.

This studio broke away from the single tower as a design object, explored over the two years previously, to create a series of skyscrapers connected by a network of ‘skybridges’ – all located on different sites across the City of London. The skybridge linkages therefore break down the stereotype of the tall building as an isolationist icon and offer rich experiential opportunities (as well as fire evacuation efficiencies). Each student designed their tall building individually – deriving the programmatic brief from a study of site and precedent - then worked collaboratively with peers on adjoining sites to design the skybridges.

Continuing the same studio topic as the year previous, and continuing to work in the City of London, this studio again focused on designing a mixed-use tower, incorporating office and residential functions, at the St Botolph’s Street / Houndsditch junction. At the time, the site was being developed for a real tall building, the Minerva Tower (never built), designed by Nicholas Grimshaw Architects, who were involved in the studio reviews. Particular emphasis was placed on the tower's interface with the ground.

This project incorporated the design of a mixed-use tower, combining prestigious offices with residential apartments and retail-leisure spaces in one building. The site was 110 Bishopsgate, which was being developed by the Heron Corporation and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates for a real tall building at the time, later completed in 2011. As such then, both the site and the programmatic brief for this project were real and high profile. The studio included a 3-day fieldtrip from Nottingham to London to study the site and precedents.