Skyplane

Architecture's leading thinkers and practitioners examine both the global phenomenon of the tall building and its adaptation to the Asian-Pacific context in this detailed case study. The evershifting profile of modern cities, coupled with a lack of comprehensive city planning, pose important architectural and aesthetic questions about towers' effects on culture and historic city centers. Pressing concerns about environmental sustainability and building economics are also addressed in this strikingly designed book, which draws on a diverse array of examples, including the Dong Towers of Southern China, high-rise housing in Hong Kong and Australia, and the iconic towers of Seidler, PTW, Foster, Koolhaas, Mayne and Ingenhoven & Architectus.

Richard Francis-Jones is a principle of Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp Architects. His firm is one of Australia’s foremost and awarded architectural practices. Lawrence Nield is an award-winning practitioner and theorist. He was a founding principal of Bligh Voller Nield and a former professor of architecture at the University of Sydney. He has been involved the planning and design of the Sydney, Athens, Beijing, and London Olympics. Xing Ruan is professor of architecture and chair of architecture discipline at the University of New South Wales. He is the author of Allegorical Architecture and New China Architecture. Deborah van der Plaat is an architectural historian and independent scholar based in Brisbane. Her research has been widely published in academic journals and she currently teaches part time in the architecture program at the University of Queensland.