Author(s)

C. Saint-Pierre, V. Becue, Y. Diab & J. Teller

Abstract

The phenomenon of urbanization is recognized all around the world: cities are growing, changing, renewing. For over a century, these transformations were possible thanks to numerous technical and technological progresses. Among the characteristic components of urban environment, the vertical construction is experiencing a more or less accepted success, according to the regions, populations or cultures. More present on the North American continent since their birth, and more recently implanted in the Asian countries, towers were for a long while a land and economical result. Today, the stakes have evolved and the towers are well-known for their strong symbol of economic power with a local, global or international influence. Among European cities, Paris is showing less enthusiasm concerning tower construction on its territory and is having trouble to develop high-rise projects. Nevertheless, more and more projects of this kind are proposed – especially in the strategies of the Greater Paris consultation – but they are hardly approved. This is why it is necessary to question oneself about the means to find a judicious establishment and an adapted program, allowing a good insertion of a tower in the urban fabric, at the building, district or city scale. We first establish a method which relates and analyses typological and contextual criteria, allowing the situation’s assessment and the impacts’ evolution of a tower project in the sustainable city. These criteria are mainly used as a support of decision making and are consequently useful for the creation of case studies, easier to understand for elected members and citizens, since they clearly expose the issues. Keywords: high-rise, mixed-use building, Greater Paris consultancy, mobility, form, function.

Keywords

high-rise, mixed-use building, Greater Paris consultancy, mobility,form, function