Skyline Comparison

This post is going to be a bit image-heavy. I have found many interesting photos of skylines from around the world which I would like to share with you. But the post is not only about some nice pictures. It is also about facades and the status of climate adaption in modern architecture.

Toronto: humid continental climate Dfa/ Dfb (1)

Chicago: humid continental climate Dfa (2)

Similar or unique?

You may have noticed that I have arranged the photos according to the climate zone the depicted cities belong to, from rather cold (Toronto) to hot climates (Singapore). The climate descriptions and the associated letter symbols in the captions are based on the Koeppen Climate Classification, one of the most widely used climate classification systems.

I have tried to make the photos look as similar as possible: I have only used pictures taken at daytime and at nice weather conditions, showing only skylines with a waterfront. I retouched and cropped the pictures to give the them a similar scale.

Critical viewers may find some of the depicted city centres replaceable. However, the photos still don't look exactly the same. You can probably identify at least some of the cities just by looking at the photos. Each of these cities have their landmark buildings, some of which have become iconic images inseparably connected to their cities.

In addition, shape, size, colour and materials of the buildings indicate the time of their creation or give hints about the predominant design preferences of the place. Often, the shape of the building or the layout of the facades reveal its function and use (real estate, office, look-out or television tower, etc.).

New York: humid subtropical climate Cfa (3)

Shanghai: humid subtropical climate Cfa (4)

Climate Adaption

But what about climate adaption? Can you also identify the climate zone the city belongs to just by looking at the buildings? Does the amount and size of the windows provide an indication of the climate? Or the ratio of opaque and transparent building skins? Are different facade materials used in the different climate zones? Or can you distinguish more sun-shading devices on the buildings in hot climates? Can you, for that matter, identify any visible measures of climate adaption in these photos?

I'm afraid that the answer to most of these questions is 'no'. Climate adaption seems to be a widely neglected subject in modern architecture (9).

Hong Kong: humid subtropical climate Cwa (5)

Dubai: hot desert climate BWh (6)

 Respiration exacte

Le Corbusier's words of the "respiration exacte" aptly describe these circumstances. In a lecture held in Buenos Aires in 1929 he proposed "...one house for all countries, the house of exact breathing" instead of houses built "...in response to climate" (10).

Le Corbusier's words were guided by a strong belief in technological progress, but they have since then proved to be very true. The achievements of modern technology - in this case of modern HVAC systems - seem to have eliminated the need for a facade design that takes the climate into account.

All around the world, modern buildings are constructed by using almost identical "construction sets". Once the building is completed and in use, energy-intensive building services must compensate the shortcomings of the design. Only recently, as negative impacts of rising energy consumption have become more and more obvious, such concepts are put into question.

Abu Dhabi: hot desert climate BWh (7)

Singapore: tropical rainforest climate Af (8)

It is interesting that Le Corbusier has run a completely different path in his later works. The facades of his buildings in India designed in the 1960s have many features responsive to the local climatic conditions. Many of these strategies can also be found in the traditional architecture of these climate zones (see also this post).

All in all, it seems that traditional buildings often provide more sophisticated climate-responsive design strategies than modern buildings. I plan to deal with these traditional strategies in more detail in one of my next posts.

References

(1) "From Hanlan's Point" by BriYYZ , CC-BY-SA-2.0 (altered: retouched, cropped)
(2) "Loop skyline from the lakefront, Chicago, IL, USA" by J. Crocker , license details
(3) "NYC Mini Cruise 2014" by Liz Novak , CC-BY-2.0 (altered: retouched, cropped)
(4) "Shanghai on the Bund The Pudong skyline" by Matt_Weibo, CC-BY-SA-2.0 (altered: retouched, cropped)
(5) "Hong Kong Skyline" by Daniele Cardone, CC-BY-2.0 (altered: retouched, cropped)
(6) "dubai-600870" von dbenthien, CC0-1.0 (altered: retouched, cropped)
(7) "Near Heritage Village @ Abu Dhabi" by Guilhem Vellut, CC-BY-2.0 (altered: retouched, cropped)
(8) "Singapore skyline" by Bryan Allison, CC-BY-SA-2.0 (altered: retouched, cropped)
(9) cf. Harmann, Ralph E. Urban Space, Building Orientation and Design, p. 202 et sqq., in: Hindrichs, Dirk U., Daniels, Klaus (ed.), Plusminus 20/ 40 Latitude. Sustainable Building Design in Tropical and Subtropical Regions,  Stuttgart et al. 2007
(10) Le Corbusier. Precisions sur un état présent de l'architectureet de l'urbanisme, Paris 1960, p. 64, quoted from: William W. Braham, Daniel Willis. Architecture and Energy: Performance and Style, London 2013, p. 136

I'm looking for modern examples of climate-responsive building skin design. If you know one, please write me!