This book is invaluable to the reader interested in tall buildings, to architects and engineers seeking a new approach for their design and to investors and developers seeking to create more marketable and habitable high-rise dwellings and skyscraper commercial spaces.

It puts forward Ken Yeang's ideas for the skyscraper as a city-in-the-sky, in a novel design approach that resembles urban design and planning as against the design of a conventional building in a high-rise structure.

The book proposes a new vertical theory of urban design and discusses Yeang's theoretical propositions and design concepts that include those for de-compartmenting the skyscraper's built form, for urban analysis as a three-dimensional matrix and for a strategy to map the land use of the skyscraper. It also suggest ideas for the diversification of vertical land uses, the creation of public realms and places-in-the-sky, vertical landscaping, creating high-rise neighbourhoods, vertical townscape, vertical transportation and accessibility, the skyscraper as an urban ecosystem and other related topics.

The book's many ideas and its theoretical approach radically change the current design approach to tall buildings to make them into more humane environments and be more satisfying to its inhabitants in its endeavour to re-create the ideal conditions at the ground now up in the sky. The book is illustrated by numerous diagrams and illustrations.

This book is a sequel to Yeang's earlier book, The Skyscraper, Bioclimatically Considered (Wiley-Academy).

Underlying Yeang's projects is a programme of research that focuses on the design of the skyscraper, a design that derives from the recognized importance that climate has on finding energy-efficient resources.

As buildings continue to become taller, as land prices continue to rise, demands on cities increase, and the concept of the tall building gets stretched to its limits, the skyscraper cannot be regarded as a conventional building or treated with the same parameters with regard to its urban context. This book provides a unique theory of urban design which is to date a progressive theory in an area where many architects and urban planners are looking for a way forward.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 218-219) and index.

Premises for a Vertical Theory

The Tall Building Typology and Cities

De-compartmenting the Skyscraper's Builtform

Urban Design Framework and Vertical Landuse Mapping

Diversification of Vertical Landuses

Public Realms and Place-Making in The Sky Vertical Townscape

Vertical Landscaping and Open Spaces

Creating Neighbourhoods in the Sky

Movement, Accessibility and Streets-in-the-Sky and Vertical Infrastructures

Artificial Land in the Sky: Flexibility and Change

The Skyscraper as an Urban Ecosystem

The New Skyscraper