Tower block

{{Short description|Tall building}} {{Redirect2|High-rise|Tower Block||High Rise (disambiguation){{!}}High Rise|and|Tower Block (film)}} {{Distinguish|Skyscraper}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}} [[File:GatewayVueNB.jpg|thumb|right|A newer high-rise tower in downtown New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S., known as the ''Hub City''. High-rise towers often anchor central business districts. ]] [[File:Vilnius_CBD.jpg|thumb|right|High-rise towers in Vilnius Central Business District, Lithuania]] [[File:Majakka, Kalasatama, Helsinki (July 2019).jpg|thumb|The ''Majakka'' high-rise building in Kalasatama, Helsinki, Finland]]

A '''tower block''', '''high-rise''', '''apartment tower''', '''residential tower''', '''apartment block''', '''block of flats''', or '''office tower''' is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building; it is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdiction. It is used as a residential or office building, or has other functions, including hotel, retail, or with multiple purposes combined. Residential high-rise buildings are also known in some varieties of English, such as British English, as '''tower blocks''' and may be referred to as '''MDUs''', standing for '''multi-dwelling units'''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=BICSI |title=Residential Network Cabling |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=2002  |isbn=0-07-138211-9 |page=[https://books.google.com/books/content?id=EDSW8ZXByAcC&pg=PA13&img=1&pgis=1&dq=MDU&bul=1&sig=ACfU3U3qNw705kHrcLOx2nHqFvFi4VZa4Q&edge=0 13] |id=Google Books [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Residential_Network_Cabling/EDSW8ZXByAcC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA13&printsec=frontcover&bsq=MDU EDSW8ZXByAcC].}}</ref> A very tall high-rise building is referred to as a skyscraper.

High-rise buildings became possible to construct with the invention of the elevator (lift) and with less expensive, more abundant building materials. The materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. Most North American–style skyscrapers have a steel frame, while residential blocks are usually constructed of concrete. There is no clear difference between a tower block and a skyscraper, although a building with forty or more stories and taller than {{convert|150|m|ft}} is generally considered a skyscraper.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/547956/skyscraper|title=skyscraper |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=19 September 2012}}</ref>

High-rise structures pose particular design challenges for structural and geotechnical engineers, particularly if situated in a seismically active region or if the underlying soils have geotechnical risk factors such as high compressibility or bay mud. They also pose serious challenges to firefighters during emergencies in high-rise structures. New and old building design, building systems such as the building standpipe system, HVAC systems (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), fire sprinkler systems, and other things such as stairwell and elevator evacuations pose significant problems. Studies are often required to ensure that pedestrian wind comfort and wind danger concerns are addressed. In order to allow less wind exposure, to transmit more daylight to the ground and to appear more slender, many high-rises have a design with setbacks.

Apartment buildings have technical and economic advantages in areas of high population density, and have become a distinctive feature of housing accommodation in virtually all densely populated urban areas around the world. In contrast with low-rise and single-family houses, apartment blocks accommodate more inhabitants per unit of area of land and decrease the cost of municipal infrastructure.

==Definition== Various bodies have defined "high-rise":

* Emporis defines a high-rise as "A multi-story structure between {{convert|35–100|m}} tall, or a building of unknown height from 12–39 floors."<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=high-rise building (ESN 18727) |url=http://standards.emporis.com/?nav=realestate&lng=3&esn=18727 |url-status=dead  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090817083757/http://standards.emporis.com/?nav=realestate&lng=3&esn=18727#expand |archive-date=2009-08-17 |access-date=16 October 2009 |website=Emporis Standards |department=Data Standards: Real Estate; Directory Path: real estate > building attributes > construction type > structure > multi-story building }}</ref> * The ''New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'' defines a high-rise as "a building having many storeys". * The International Conference on Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings defined a high-rise as "any structure where the height can have a serious impact on evacuation"<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=High-Rise Buildings in Natural Disaster |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards |publisher=Springer |url=https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_168 |access-date=2025-09-04 |last=Saatcioglu |first=Murat |date=2013  |orig-date={{small|article says "First Online: 01 January 2016" and "Published: 21 January 2016"; book says "Published: 03 April 2013" next to Hardcover ISBN and "Published: 17 April 2013" next to "eBook ISBN"}} |editor-last=Bobrowsky |editor-first=Peter T. |publication-place=Dordrecht, NL |edition= |series=Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series (EESS) |pages=451–452 |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_168 |isbn=978-90-481-8699-0  |issn=1388-4360 |lccn=2012944445 |eissn=1871-756X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> * In the U.S., the National Fire Protection Association defines a high-rise as being higher than {{convert|75|ft}}, or about seven stories.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/pdf/os.highrise.pdf|title=High-rise building fires|first=John R.|last=Hall|date=December 2011|work=nfpa.org|publisher=NFPA|access-date=10 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711065726/http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/pdf/os.highrise.pdf|archive-date=11 July 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> * Most building engineers, inspectors, architects and similar professionals define a high-rise as a building that is at least 75 feet (23 m) tall.{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}}

==History== thumb|Sliding ladder for firefighters in 1904

High-rise apartment buildings had already appeared in antiquity: the ''insulae'' in Ancient Rome and several other cities in the Roman Empire, some of which might have reached up to ten or more stories,{{sfn|Aldrete|2004|pp=79f.}} one reportedly having 200 stairs.<ref>Martial, Epigrams, 27</ref> Because of the destruction caused by poorly built high-rise ''insulae'' collapsing,{{sfn|Aldrete|2004|p=78}} several Roman emperors, beginning with Augustus (r. 30 BC – 14 AD), set limits of {{convert|20–25|m}} for multi-story buildings, but met with limited success,<ref>Strabo, 5.3.7</ref><ref>Alexander G. McKay: Römische Häuser, Villen und Paläste, Feldmeilen 1984, {{ISBN|3-7611-0585-1}} p. 231</ref> as these limits were often ignored despite the likelihood of taller ''insulae'' collapsing.{{sfn|Aldrete|2004|pp=78–9}} The lower floors were typically occupied by either shops or wealthy families, while the upper stories were rented out to the lower classes.{{sfn|Aldrete|2004|pp=79 ff.}} Surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-story buildings even existed in provincial towns, such as in third century AD Hermopolis in Roman Egypt.<ref name="PapyrusOxyrhynchus">Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2719, in: Katja Lembke, Cäcilia Fluck, Günter Vittmann: ''Ägyptens späte Blüte. Die Römer am Nil'', Mainz 2004, {{ISBN|3-8053-3276-9}}, p. 29</ref>

In Arab Egypt, the initial capital city of Fustat housed many high-rise residential buildings, some seven stories tall that could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people. Al-Muqaddasi, in the 10th century, described them as resembling minarets, while Nasir Khusraw, in the early 11th century, described some of them rising up to 14 stories, with roof gardens on the top story complete with ox-drawn water wheels for irrigating them.<ref name="Behrens-Abouseif 1992 6">{{citation|title=Islamic Architecture in Cairo|first=Doris|last=Behrens-Abouseif|year=1992|publisher=Brill Publishers|isbn=90-04-09626-4|page=6}}</ref><ref name="Joan D. Barghusen, Bob Moulder 2001 11">{{citation|title=Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Cairo|first1=Joan D. | last1 = Barghusen | first2 = Bob | last2 = Moulder|publisher=Twenty-First Century Books|year=2001|isbn=0-8225-3221-2|page=11}}</ref> By the 16th century, Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants.<ref name="Mortada 2003 viii">{{citation |title=Traditional Islamic principles of built environment |first=Hisham |last=Mortada |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |isbn=0-7007-1700-5 |page=viii}}</ref>

The skyline of many important medieval cities was dominated by large numbers of high-rising urban towers, which fulfilled defensive but also representative purposes. The residential Towers of Bologna numbered between 80 and 100 at a time, the largest of which still rise to 97.2 m (319 ft). In Florence, a law of 1251 decreed that all urban buildings should be reduced to a height of less than 26 m (85 ft), the regulation immediately put into effect.<ref name="Werner Müller 345">Werner Müller: "dtv-Atlas Baukunst I. Allgemeiner Teil: Baugeschichte von Mesopotamien bis Byzanz", 14th ed., 2005, {{ISBN|978-3-423-03020-5}}, p. 345</ref> Even medium-sized towns such as San Gimignano are known to have featured 72 towers up to 51 m (167 ft) in height.<ref name="Werner Müller 345"/>

The Hakka people in southern China have adopted communal living structures designed to be easily defensible in the forms of ''weilongwu'' (围龙屋), as well as ''(yuanzhai) tulou'' [(園寨)土楼], often abbreviated to ''yuanlou'' [園楼]<ref>{{harvnb|Knapp|2000|p=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/China_s_Old_Dwellings/PNnfwOo-WdAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA264&printsec=frontcover&dq=tulou 264]}}: "Perhaps a thousand unique ''yuanlou'' 園楼 (round buildings), also called ''yuanzhai tulou'' 園寨土楼, are located in the rugged valleys of southwestern Fujian, [...] (Zeng 1992, 76)."</ref>; the latter are large, enclosed and fortified earth buildings, between two (though usually at least three) and five stories high<ref>{{harvnb|Knapp|2000|p=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/China_s_Old_Dwellings/PNnfwOo-WdAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA265&printsec=frontcover&dq=stories 265]}}: "While ''yuanlou'' vary from two to five stories in height, over two-thirds are three stories."</ref> and housing up to 80<ref>{{harvnb|Knapp|2000|pages=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/China_s_Old_Dwellings/PNnfwOo-WdAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA265&printsec=frontcover&dq=Chengqilou 265–266]}}: "Chengqilou 承启楼, [...], is among the largest round dwelling complexes still standing. Considered by many to be the most imposing and distinctive of Fujian's circular ''tulou'', [...]. [...] records suggest that when the clan was most prosperous as many as 80 households [...] occupied the 370 rooms it holds."</ref> families. The oldest still standing tulou dates back from the 14th century.

High-rises were built in the Yemeni city of Shibam in the 16th century. The houses of Shibam are all made out of mud bricks, but about five hundred of them are tower houses, which rise five to sixteen stories high,<ref name="Helfritz">{{citation|title=Land without shade|first=Hans|last=Helfritz|journal=Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society|volume=24|issue=2|date=April 1937|pages=201–16|doi=10.1080/03068373708730789}}</ref> with each floor having one or two apartments.<ref name=Jerome>{{citation|title=The Architecture of Mud: Construction and Repair Technology in the Hadhramaut Region of Yemen |first1 = Pamela | last1 = Jerome | last2= Chiari | first2 = Giacomo |first3=Caterina | last3 = Borelli |journal=APT Bulletin|volume=30|issue=2–3 |year=1999 |pages=39–48 [44] |doi=10.2307/1504639 |jstor=1504639 }}</ref><ref name=UNESCO>[https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/192 Old Walled City of Shibam], UNESCO World Heritage Centre</ref> This technique of building was implemented to protect residents from Bedouin attacks. While Shibam has existed for around two thousand years, most of the city's houses date from the 16th century. The city has the tallest mud buildings in the world, some more than 30 meters (100 feet) high.<ref name="Shipman 154–62">{{citation |title=The Hadhramaut |first=J. G. T. |last=Shipman |journal=Asian Affairs |volume=15 |issue=2 |date=June 1984 |pages=154–62 |doi=10.1080/03068378408730145}}</ref> Shibam has been called "one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction" or "Manhattan of the desert".<ref name=UNESCO/>

The engineer's definition of high-rise buildings comes from the development of fire trucks in the late 19th century. Magirus had shown the first cogwheel sliding ladder in 1864. The first turntable ladder drawn by horses was developed in 1892 which had a length of 25 meters (82 ft). The extension ladder was motorized by Magirus in 1904. The definition of a maximum of 22 meters (72 ft) for the highest floor was common in the building regulations at the time and it is still so today in Germany. The common height for turntable ladders did later go to 32 meters (105 feet), so that 30 meters (98 ft) is a common limit in some building regulations today, for example in Switzerland. Any building that exceeds the height of the usual turntable ladders in a city must install additional fire safety equipment, so that these high-rise buildings have a different section in the building regulations in the world.

[[File:Y House.JPG|thumb|A residential block in Steinfurt, Westphalia, Germany, forming a "Y"]]

The residential tower block with its typical concrete construction is a familiar feature of Modernist architecture. Influential examples include Le Corbusier's "housing unit", his Unité d'Habitation, repeated in various European cities starting with his Cité radieuse in Marseille (1947–52), constructed of ''béton brut'', rough-cast concrete, as steel for framework was unavailable in post-war France. Residential tower blocks became standard in housing urban populations displaced by slum clearances and "urban renewal". High-rise projects after World War II typically rejected the classical designs of the early skyscrapers, instead embracing the uniform international style; many older skyscrapers were redesigned to suit contemporary tastes or even got demolished - such as New York's Singer Building, once the world's tallest skyscraper. However, with the movements of Postmodernism, New Urbanism, and New Classical Architecture, that established since the 1980s, a more classical approach came back to global skyscraper design, that is popular today.

Other contemporary styles and movements in high-rise design include organic, sustainable, neo-futurist, structuralist, high-tech, deconstructivist, blob, digital, streamline, novelty, critical regionalist, vernacular, Art Deco (or ''Art Deco Nouveau''), and neohistorist, also known as revivalist.

Currently, the tallest high-rise apartment building in the world is the Central Park Tower on Billionaires' Row in Midtown Manhattan, towering at {{convert|1,550|ft}}.

===Streets in the sky=== {{Redirect|Streets in the sky|the third studio album by UK rock band The Enemy|Streets in the Sky}} thumb|right|"Street in the sky" at Park Hill Streets in the sky is a style of architecture that emerged in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.<ref name= SIS>{{cite web|title=Intersection Fields III: Michiel Brinkman vs. Peter and Alison Smithson| date = 3 May 2016 | url=http://www.hiddenarchitecture.net/2016/05/intersection-fields-iii-michiel.html|website=www.hiddenarchitecture.net|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171201033445/http://www.hiddenarchitecture.net/2016/05/intersection-fields-iii-michiel.html | archive-date=1 December 2017}}</ref> Generally built to replace run-down terraced housing, the new designs included not only modern improvements such as inside toilets, but also shops and other community facilities within high-rise blocks.<ref name=intute>{{cite web|url=http://www.intute.ac.uk/hottopics/2006/11/streets-in-the-sky/ |title=Streets in the Sky |publisher=Intute.ac.uk |date=1 November 2006 |access-date=8 August 2010}}</ref> Examples of the buildings and developments are Trellick Tower, Balfron Tower, Broadwater Farm, Robin Hood Gardens and Keeling House in London, Hunslet Grange in Leeds and Park Hill, Sheffield, and Castlefields and Southgate Estate, Runcorn. These were an attempt to develop a new architecture, differentiated from earlier large housing estates, such as Quarry Hill flats in Leeds.<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 September 2014 |title=Quarry Hill's history |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/image_galleries/image_gallery_quarry_hill_gallery.shtml |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311085229/http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/image_galleries/image_gallery_quarry_hill_gallery.shtml?2 |archive-date=2008-03-11 |website=BBC |publisher=BBC Leeds |publication-place=Broadcasting Centre, 2 Saint Peter's Square, Leeds, LS9 8AH |agency=All these image gallery photographs are provided by the Leodis database - www.leodis.org |department=Leeds : In Pictures : Photo Galleries : K-T Picture Galleries}}</ref><ref>{{Cite periodical |last=Hamilton |first=David |date=July 2009 |title=Social Engineering Through Architectural Change |url=https://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/42007/sec_id/42007 |url-status=dead  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090706080623/http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/42007/sec_id/42007 |archive-date=2009-07-06 |access-date=8 August 2010 |magazine=New English Review |publication-place=Nashville, TN }}</ref> Alison and Peter Smithson were the architects of Robin Hood Gardens.<ref>{{cite web |title=Alison + Peter Smithson: Architects (1928-1993 + 1923-2003) |url=http://designmuseum.org/design/alison-peter-smithson |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124011148/http://designmuseum.org/design/alison-peter-smithson |archive-date=24 November 2010 |access-date=8 August 2010 |website=Design Museum website |department=Design/Designer Information}}</ref> As another large example, in 2005 it was decided to carry out a 20-year process of demolition and replacement of dwellings with modern houses in the Aylesbury Estate in south London, built in 1970.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fletcher |first=Martin |date=20 October 2008 |title=The estate we're in / New dawn for Hell's waiting room / Demolition of the Aylesbury Estate: a new dawn for Hell's waiting room? |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/crime/article/demolition-of-the-aylesbury-estate-a-new-dawn-for-hells-waiting-room-jglhxhw396s |url-access=subscription |website=The Times |pages=1, 2–4  |publication-place=London, England |id={{Factiva|T000000020081020e4ak00001}}. {{Gale|IF0503748756|A187396391}}. {{NewsBank text|123F146C050BA810}}. Nexis Uni [https://advance.lexis.com/api/document?collection=news&id=urn%3acontentItem%3a4TR3-TG20-TX38-S181-00000-00 {{small|4TR3-TG20-TX38-S181-00000-00}}]. |department=times2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=putting Aylesbury Tenants First |url=http://aylesburytenantsfirst.org.uk/  |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250830215753/http://aylesburytenantsfirst.org.uk/ |archive-date=2025-08-30 |access-date=8 August 2010 |website=Aylesbury Tenants and Leaseholders First |publisher=}}</ref> The Hulme Crescents in Manchester were the largest social housing scheme in Europe when built in 1972 but lasted just 22 years. The Crescents had one of the worst reputations of any British social housing schemes and were marred by numerous design and practical problems.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parkinson-Bailey |first=John J. |url= |title=Manchester: an architectural history |date=2000 |publisher=Manchester University Press (distrib. in USA by St. Martin's Press) |isbn=978-0-7190-5606-2 |location= UK |page=195 |id=Google Books [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Manchester/Ie9PAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Crescents%20195 Ie9PAAAAMAAJ]. HathiTrust record [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004104042 004104042], item [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015050251456&q1=Crescents&start=1 mdp.39015050251456].}}</ref>

The ideal of Streets in the Sky worked rarely in practice. Unlike an actual city street, these walkways were not thoroughfares, and often came to a dead end multiple storeys above the ground. They lacked a regular flow of passers-by, and the walkways and especially the stairwells could not be seen by anyone elsewhere, so there was no deterrent to crime and disorder. There were no "eyes on the street" as advocated by Jane Jacobs in her book ''The Death and Life of Great American Cities''. The Unité d'Habitation in Marseille provides a more successful example of the concept, with the fifth floor walkway including a shop and café.<ref>{{Cite web |author=The Urban Idiot |date=17 January 2018 |title=Streets in the sky |url=https://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/streets-in-the-sky-the-urban-idiot/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250807193736/https://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/streets-in-the-sky-the-urban-idiot/ |archive-date=2025-08-07 |website=AoU Journal - Here & Now |publisher=The Academy of Urbanism |department=}}</ref>

=== Towers in the park and microdistricts === {{Wide image|Flemington_aerial.jpg|700|Debney Meadows (Flemington Estate) (1962–1965) in Melbourne.}} {{Wide image|Малый_Чертановский_пруд_2.jpg|700|A panel housing microdistrict in Chertanovo Severnoye District of Moscow is built with a similar idea in mind}}

Towers in the park is a morphology of modernist<ref name="GLOBE">[https://web.archive.org/web/20140809132351/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/architecture/how-to-rejuvenate-urban-towers-in-the-park/article624757/ "How to rejuvenate urban 'towers in the park{{'"}}], ''Globe and Mail'', John Bentley Mays, May 12, 2011</ref> high-rise apartment buildings characterized by a high-rise building surrounded by a swath of landscaped land; e.g., the tower does not directly front the street.

It is based on an ideology popularised by Le Corbusier with the Plan Voisin, an expansion of the Garden city movement aimed at reducing the problem of urban congestion. It was introduced in several large cities across the world, notably in North America,<ref name="GLOBE" /> Europe<ref>{{Cite web |title=Your Broadwater Farm {{!}} Tottenham Regeneration |url=https://tottenham.london/explore/broadwater-farm/your-broadwater-farm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922181755/https://tottenham.london/explore/broadwater-farm/your-broadwater-farm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=22 September 2020 |access-date=2021-12-28 |website=tottenham.london}}</ref> and Australia<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frykholm |first=Hannes |date=4 May 2023  |orig-date=Published online: 08 Dec 2023 |title=‘A Village Stood on End’: Anthropology and the Interior of the Modernist Tower |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10331867.2023.2284463 |journal=Fabrications  |publisher= |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=359–377 |doi=10.1080/10331867.2023.2284463 |issn=1033-1867 |eissn=2164-4756|doi-access=free }}</ref> as a solution for housing, especially for public housing, reaching a peak of popularity in the 1960s with the introduction of prefabrication technology.

By the early 1970s, opposition to this style of towers mounted, with many, including urban planners, now referring to them as "ghettos".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Daly |first=Margaret |date=August 27, 1973 |title=A young, angry city planner leaves -- older and happier |trans-title=see subheading "Tall buildings" |work=The Toronto Star |page=C3 |id=Newspapers.com [https://thestar.newspapers.com/image/946334659/?terms=%22Tall%20Buildings%22%20ghetto&match=1 946334659].}}</ref> Neighbourhoods like St. James Town were originally designed to house young "swinging single" middle class residents, but the apartments lacked appeal and the area quickly became much poorer. From its early days of implementation the concept was criticised for making residents feel unsafe, including large empty common areas dominated by gang culture and crime. The layout was criticised for normalising anti-social behaviour and hampering the efforts of essential services, particularly for law enforcement.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kalven |first=Jamie |date=October 6, 2016 |title=If the Police Bosses Say It Didn’t Happen, It Didn’t Happen / Operation Smoke and Mirrors: In the Chicago Police Department, If the Bosses Say It Didn’t Happen, It Didn’t Happen |url=https://theintercept.com/2016/10/06/in-the-chicago-police-department-if-the-bosses-say-it-didnt-happen-it-didnt-happen/ |work=The Intercept |department="Code of Silence" }}</ref>

The history of microdistricts as an urban planning concept dates back to the 1920s, when the Soviet Union underwent rapid urbanization. Under the Soviet urban planning ideologies of the 1920s, residential complexes—compact territories with residential dwellings, schools, shops, entertainment facilities, and green spaces—started to prevail in urban planning practice, as they allowed for more careful and efficient planning of the rapid urban expansion. These complexes were seen as an opportunity to build a collective society,<ref name="van Dijk">{{Cite conference |last=van Dijk |first=M.H.H. |date=2003 |title=Planning and politics: The influence of politics on spatial planning |url=https://www.isocarp.net/Data/case_studies/313.pdf |conference=XXXIX (39th) International ISoCaRP Congress |publisher=International Society of City and Regional Planners |publication-date=2005 |pages=c. 349? |id=Google Books [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Planning_in_a_More_Globalized_and_Compet/NWNPAAAAMAAJ NWNPAAAAMAAJ]. HathiTrust [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015064684387&q1=Dijk&start=1 mdp.39015064684387]. |work=Planning in a more globalized and competitive world}}</ref> an environment suitable and necessary for the new way of life.<ref name="Gentile">{{Cite magazine |last=Gentile |first=Michael  |date=May 16, 2000  |title=Urbanism and Disurbanism in the Soviet Union |url=https://inblickosteuropa.se/2000/05/urbanism-and-disurbanism-in-the-soviet-union-by-michael-gentile/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610070807/http://www.student.uu.se/studorg/europe/inblick/?p=/2articles/04/gentile.html  |archive-date=2007-06-10 |magazine=Inblick Östeuropa  |publisher=Östeuropaforums  |issue=4  |issn=1404-014X}}</ref>

==Developments by region== ===Asia=== {{multiple image | align= center | direction= horizontal | image1= Hong Kong Isnald Eastern District Buildings 200909.jpg | caption1= High-rise buildings, Hong Kong | width1= 200 | image2= Vladivostok-view-august-2015.jpg | caption2= Modern towers of Vladivostok, Russia | width2= 195 | image3= Abu Dhabi – Corniche 3 - أبو ظبي - الكورنيش - panoramio.jpg | caption3= Road in front, skyline in background (Abu Dhabi, Middle East) | width3= 188 | footer= }} {{Wide image|Hyderabad ORR Wide angle (01).jpg|950|Panoramic view of the skyline in Hyderabad, India, with several high-rise residential buildings}}Residential tower complexes are common in Asian countries such as China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Pakistan, Iran and South Korea, as urban densities are very high. In Singapore and urban Hong Kong, land prices are so high that a large portion of the population lives in high-rise apartments. In fact, over 60% of Hong Kong residents live in apartments, many of them condominiums. Of them in 2020, 2,112,138 were identified residents of public housing,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hong Kong Housing Authority|date=31 March 2021|title=香港房屋委員會年報|trans-title=Hong Kong Housing Authority Annual Report|url=https://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/mini-site/haar2021/en/common/pdf/1_Key_Figures_ENTC.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204121524/https://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/mini-site/haar2021/en/common/pdf/1_Key_Figures_ENTC.pdf|archive-date=4 February 2022|access-date=4 February 2022|website=housingauthority.gov.hk/}}</ref> which is 28% of the total population.

Sarah Williams Goldhagen (2012) celebrated the work of innovative architecture firms such as WOHA (based in Singapore), Mass Studies (based in Seoul), Amateur Architecture Studio (based in Hangzhou, China), and the New York City-based Steven Holl in the transformation of residential towers into "vertical communities" or "vertical cities in the sky" providing aesthetic, unusually designed silhouettes on the skyline, comfortable private spaces and attractive public spaces. None of these "functional, handsome, and humane high-rise residential buildings" are affordable housing.<ref name="Goldhagen"> {{cite magazine |last=Williams Goldhagen |first=Sarah |author-link1=Sarah Williams Goldhagen |date=2012 |orig-date=May 18 online; June 7 in print |title=(Sarah Williams Goldhagen on Architecture): Living High |url=http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/103329/highrise-skyscraper-woha-gehry-pritzker-architecture-megalopolis?page=0,1 |access-date=28 June 2012 |magazine=The New Republic |pages=20–23 |volume=243 |issue=9 |issn=0028-6583 |id={{EBSCOhost|75344190}}. {{Factiva|NRPB000020120619e8670000q}}. {{NewsBank text|13F1AB3417E07128}}. {{ProQuest|1020893343}}. |eissn=2169-2416}} </ref><ref name="Meinhold"> {{cite web |last=Meinhold |first=Bridgette |date=25 May 2012 |title=2012 Pritzker Prize Awarded to Wang Shu – First Chinese Architect to Win the Award |url=http://inhabitat.com/2012-pritzker-prize-awarded-to-wang-shu-first-chinese-architect-to-win-the-award/ |access-date=28 June 2012 |website=Inhabitat |publisher=MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands |publication-place=El Segundo, CA  |department=Design : Architecture}} </ref>

====China==== [[File:山大乐水居小区.jpg|thumb|A modern ''xiaoqu'' in the city of Qingdao]]

The 2012 Pritzker Prize was awarded to Chinese architect Wang Shu. Among his winning designs is the Vertical Courtyard Apartments, six 26-story towers by his architectural firm Amateur Architecture Studio built in Hangzhou.<ref name=Meinhold /> "These towers were designed to house two-story apartments, in which every inhabitant would enjoy "the illusion of living on the second floor", accomplished by folding concrete floor planes (like "bamboo mats," claims the firm), so that every third story opens into a private courtyard. In the larger towers, the two-story units are stacked slightly askew, adding to the visual interest of the variegated façades (Goldhagen 2012)."<ref name=Goldhagen />

==== Japan ==== [[File:Grace_tower01s3200.jpg|thumb|Okayama prefecture "mansions"]]

Housing in Japan includes various traits coming from different eras. The word ''danchi'' now either means an employer-provided housing or has a meaning similar to "projects". For modern hi-rises, there are two borrowed words to make a distinction:

* "''Apaato''" (アパート）is used to describe a rather small apartment, initially made to be rented; * a large, modern apartment would be a "''mansion''" (マンション). The "mansion" nickname is used for both residential towers and for individual condominium apartments (for being roomy, spacey enough to compare to detached houses).

====South Korea==== In South Korea, the tower blocks are called Apartment Complex ({{Lang|ko|아파트 단지}}). The first residential towers began to be built after the Korean War. The South Korean government needed to build many apartment complexes in the cities to be able to accommodate the citizens. In the 60 years since, as the population increased considerably, tower blocks have become more common. This time, however, the new tower blocks integrated shopping malls, parking systems, and other convenient facilities.

Samsung Tower Palace in Seoul, South Korea, is the tallest apartment complex in Asia.

In Seoul, approximately 80 percent of its residents live in apartment complexes which comprise 98 percent of recent residential construction.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.holcimfoundation.org/portals/1/docs/f07/wk-norm/f07-wk-norm-cho02.pdf |chapter=Two Houses in Seoul |first=Minsuk | last = Cho |title=Urban Trans Formation |editor-first1=Ilka | editor-last1 = Ruby | editor-first2 = Andreas | editor-last2 = Ruby |publisher=Ruby Press |year=2008 |page=25 |access-date=28 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828234827/http://www.holcimfoundation.org/Portals/1/docs/F07/WK-Norm/F07-WK-Norm-cho02.pdf |archive-date=28 August 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Seoul proper is noted for its population density, eight times greater than Rome, though less than Manhattan and Paris. Its metropolitan area is the densest in the OECD.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Hankyoreh|url=http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/393438.html|title=Seoul ranks highest in population density among OECD countries|date=15 December 2009}}</ref>

==== India ==== Several metropolitan cities in India have witnessed a surge in vertical development in the 21st-century.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2025-04-14 |title=The Economics of Vertical Growth in India: Addressing Urban Density and Sprawl |url=https://www.archdaily.com/1028945/the-economics-of-vertical-growth-in-india-addressing-urban-density-and-sprawl |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=ArchDaily |language=en-US}}</ref> Most skyscrapers in cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Delhi-NCR consist of residential units which are commonly referred to as "apartment complexes", "apartment societies", or "gated societies".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Haidar |first=Faizan |date=2025-01-20 |title=Developers focus on high-rise development in Central Delhi as demand surges for residential complex |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/property-/-cstruction/developers-focus-on-high-rise-development-in-central-delhi-as-demand-surges-for-residential-complex/articleshow/117392906.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2025-05-30 |work=The Economic Times |issn=0013-0389}}</ref> These residential high-rise buildings are typically located in affluent neighborhoods and include recreational amenities for their residents. The tallest apartment complex in India is the Palais Royale in Mumbai.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shaikh |first=Ateeq |date=Dec 25, 2024 |title=India's tallest luxe building Palais Royale gets part OC up to 53 floors |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/mumbai-news/indias-tallest-luxe-building-gets-part-oc-up-to-53-floors-101735068015813.html |work=Hindustan Times}}</ref>

Several commercial high-rise buildings also exist and are predominantly used as office spaces, often with multiple organizations sharing the various floors within the high-rise building.<ref name=":0" />

===Europe=== {{see also|Panelák|Plattenbau}}

====Central and Eastern Europe==== [[File:Endla street Tallinn.jpg|thumb|Refurbished 4-story Khrushchyovka, in Tallinn, Estonia]] [[File:Jahodová od Pražské.jpg|thumb|Painted paneláks in Prague, Czech Republic]] [[File:Osiedle Skocznia Warsaw 2022 aerial.jpg|thumb|right|Osiedle Skocznia in Warsaw, Poland]] [[File:Bloc P10, Bucharest.jpg|thumb|Renovated apartment building from 1963 in Bucharest, Romania. With the 2010s, renovation of older apartment buildings in Eastern Europe has become common, especially in countries which get EU funds.]]

Although some Central and Eastern European countries during the interwar period, such as the Second Polish Republic, already started building housing estates that were considered to be of a high standard for their time, many of these structures perished during the Second World War.

In the Eastern Bloc, tower blocks were constructed in great numbers to produce plenty of cheap accommodation for the growing postwar populations of the USSR and its satellite states. This took place mostly in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, though in the People's Republic of Poland this process started even earlier due to the severe damages that Polish cities sustained during World War II. Throughout the former Eastern Bloc countries, tower blocks built during the Soviet years make up much of the current housing estates and most of them were built in the specific socialist realist style of architecture that was dominant in the territories east of the Iron Curtain: blocky buildings of that era are colloquially known as Khrushchyovka. However, there were also larger and more ambitious projects built in Eastern Europe at the time, which have since become recognisable examples of post-war modernism; such as the largest ''falowiec'' building in the Przymorze Wielkie district of Gdańsk, with a length of {{convert|860|m|ft|2|abbr=on}} and 1,792 flats, it is the second longest housing block in Europe.<ref name="zupgra">{{cite book|last1=Sobecka|first1=Martyna|last2=Navarro|first2=David|date=2020|title=Brutal Poland|location=Poznań|publisher=Zupagrafika|isbn=9788395057472}}</ref>

In Romania, the mass construction of standardised housing blocks began in the 1950s and 1960s with the outskirts of the cities, some of which were made up of slums.<ref name="Elleh2014">{{cite book|first = Nnamdi | last = Elleh|title=Reading the Architecture of the Underprivileged Classes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyzjBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA212|date=28 November 2014|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4094-6786-1|pages=212–}}</ref> Construction continued in the 1970s and 1980s, under the systematisation programme of Nicolae Ceaușescu, which consisted largely of the demolition and reconstruction of existing villages, towns, and cities, in whole or in part, in order to build blocks of flats (''blocuri''), as a result of increasing urbanisation following an accelerated industrialisation process.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313679886 |title= Dezvoltarea urbană și ariile metropolitane |trans-title=The urban development and metropolitan areas |last1=Mitrica |first1=Bianca |last2=Grigorescu |first2=Ines |last3=Urucu |first3=Veselina |year=2016 |publisher= Editura Academiei Române |isbn=978-973-27-2695-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/urbanizarea-in-romania-secolului-xx-interbelic-vs-comunism |title= Urbanizarea în România secolului XX: interbelic vs comunism |trans-title=Urbanization in the 20th century Romania: interwar period vs communist period |first=Ionel-Claudiu | last = Dumitrescu |website=historia.ro}}</ref> In Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia), panelák building under Marxism–Leninism resulted from two main factors: the postwar housing shortage and the ideology of the ruling party.

In Eastern European countries, opinions about these buildings vary greatly, with some deeming them as eyesores on their city's landscape while others glorify them as relics of a bygone age and historical examples of unique architectural styles (such as socialist realism, brutalism, etc.).<ref name="zupgra" /> Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of the former Eastern Bloc countries have begun construction of new, more expensive and modern housing. The Śródmieście borough of Warsaw, the capital of Poland, has seen the development of an array of skyscrapers. Russia is also currently undergoing a dramatic buildout, growing a commercially shaped skyline. Moreover, the ongoing changes made to postwar housing estates since the 2000s in former communist countries vary – ranging from simply applying a new coat of paint to the previously grey exterior to thorough modernisation of entire buildings.<ref name="zupgra" />

In the European Union, among former Warsaw Pact states, a majority of the population lives in flats in Latvia (64.4%), Estonia (60.6%), Lithuania (59.5%), the Czech Republic (50.9%), Bulgaria (46.7%) and Slovakia (45.3%) ({{As of|2024|lc=y}}, data from Eurostat).<ref>see section Source data for tables and figures, Housing statistics: tables and figures [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_lvho01__custom_12697868/bookmark/table?lang=en&bookmarkId=f02b1ce6-d1ab-4138-ac5a-de96fb4b0224]</ref> However, not all flat dwellers in Eastern Europe live in Cold War-era blocks of flats; many live in buildings constructed after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and some in buildings that survived World War II.

====Western Europe==== {{More citations needed section|date=January 2020}}

In Western Europe, there are fewer high-rise buildings because of the historic city centres. In the 1960s, developers began demolishing older buildings to replace them with modern high-rise buildings.

=====Belgium===== In Brussels, there are numerous modern high-rise buildings in the Northern Quarter business district (also called ''Little Manhattan'').<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-10-26 |title=Le quartier Nord se veut un modèle pour la ville de demain |url=https://www.lesoir.be/186659/article/2018-10-26/le-quartier-nord-se-veut-un-modele-pour-la-ville-de-demain |access-date=2026-05-05 |website=Le Soir |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mikolajczak |first=Charlotte |date=2026-05-04 |title=Démolitions, projet de tours démesuré et inadapté, abandon... Le Manhattan bruxellois fait débat |url=https://www.lalibre.be/economie/immo/2021/06/10/le-manhattan-bruxellois-en-quete-de-nouvelles-fonctions-P7GCGSGD7VDFVHY3FOON7Y7O7Q/ |access-date=2026-05-05 |website=La Libre.be |language=fr}}</ref>

=====France===== {{wide image|Panorama_La_Défense.jpg|950|La Défense at night}} There are some tall residential buildings in ''La Défense'' district, such as Tour Défense 2000, even though the district is mainly "commercial". This allows the residents to walk to the nearby office buildings without using vehicles.

=====Great Britain===== {{main|Tower blocks in Great Britain}} [[File:Argylebuilding.jpg|thumb|Argyle Building in Glasgow]]

Tower blocks were first built in the United Kingdom after the Second World War, and were seen as a cheap way to replace 19th-century urban slums and war-damaged buildings. They were originally seen as desirable, but quickly fell out of favour as tower blocks attracted rising crime and social disorder, particularly after the collapse of Ronan Point in 1968.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/heritage/ronan-point |title=Ronan Point |work=The Open University |access-date=29 October 2015}}</ref>

Although Tower blocks are controversial and numerous examples have been demolished, many still remain in large cities. Due to lack of proper regulation, some tower blocks present a significant fire risk and even though there have been efforts to make them more safe,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/building-control-news/unsafe-cladding-removal-works-still-incomplete-on-over-300-high-rise-buildings-in-manchester-and-london/115651/ | title=Unsafe cladding removal works still incomplete on over 300 high-rise buildings in Manchester and London | date=16 September 2022 }}</ref> modern safety precautions can be prohibitively expensive to retrofit. The Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 was partly caused by council ignorance, as a local action group complained to the council about the fire hazards of the tower several years before the incident, yet remedial work had not been carried out.<ref name="guardiansafety">{{cite news|last1=Wahlquist|first1=Calla|title=Fire safety concerns raised by Grenfell Tower residents in 2012|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/14/fire-safety-concerns-raised-by-grenfell-tower-residents-in-2012|access-date=14 June 2017|work=The Guardian|date=14 June 2017}}</ref> This fire further made tower blocks less desirable to British residents.

There are old high-rise buildings built in the 1960s and 1970s in areas of London such as Tower Hamlets, Newham, Hackney, and virtually any area in London with council housing. Some new high-rises are being built in areas such as Central London, Southwark, and Nine Elms. In east London, some old high-rises are being gentrified, in addition to new high-rises being built in areas such as Stratford and Canary Wharf.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

=====Ireland===== [[File:Capital Dock, Dublin Docklands, June 2021.jpg|thumb|right|Capital Dock, 22-story "mixed use" building in Dublin, Ireland]]

======Republic of Ireland======

The majority of residential high-rise buildings in the Republic of Ireland were concentrated in the suburb of Ballymun, Dublin. The Ballymun Flats were built between 1966 and 1969: seven 15-story towers, nineteen 8-story blocks and ten 4-story blocks.<ref>{{cite news |title=Demolition of famous Dublin tower block |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0313/ballymun.html |publisher=RTÉ News |date=13 March 2005 |access-date=19 May 2010 }}</ref> These were the "seven towers" referred to in the U2 song "Running to Stand Still".{{cn|date=October 2024}} They have since been demolished.

Inner Dublin flat complexes, typically of four to five storeys include Sheriff Street (demolished), Fatima Mansions (demolished and redeveloped), St Joseph's Gardens (demolished; replaced by Killarney Court flat complex), St Teresa's Gardens, Dolphin House, Liberty House, St Michael's Estate (eight storeys) and O'Devaney Gardens and a lot more mainly throughout the north and south inner city of Dublin. Suburban flat complexes were built exclusively on the northside of the city in Ballymun, Coolock and Kilbarrack. These flats were badly affected by a heroin epidemic that hit working-class areas of Dublin in the 1980s and early 1990s.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

Residential tower blocks were previously uncommon outside of Dublin, but during the era of the Celtic Tiger the largest cities such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway witnessed new large apartment building, although their heights have generally been restricted. Some large towns such as Navan, Drogheda, Dundalk and Mullingar have also witnessed the construction of many modern apartment blocks.

======Northern Ireland======

Tower blocks in Northern Ireland were never built to the frequency as in cities on the island of Great Britain, but taller high-rises are generally more common than in the Republic of Ireland. Most tower blocks and flat complexes are found in Belfast, although many of these have been demolished since the 1990s and replaced with traditional public housing units. The mid-rise Divis flats complex in west Belfast was built between 1968 and 1972. It was demolished in the early 1990s after the residents demanded new houses due to mounting problems with their flats. Divis Tower, built separately in 1966, still stands, however; and in 2007 work began to convert the former British Army base at the top two floors into new dwellings. Divis Tower was for several decades Ireland's tallest residential building, having since being surpassed by the privately owned Obel Tower in the city centre. In the north of the city, the iconic seven-tower complex in the New Lodge remains, although so too the problems that residents face, such as poor piping and limited sanitation. Farther north, the four tower blocks in Rathcoole dominate the local skyline, while in south Belfast, the tower blocks in Seymour Hill, Belvoir and Finaghy remain standing.

Most of the aforementioned high-rise flats in the city were built by the Northern Ireland Housing Trust (NIHT) as part of overspill housing schemes, the first such development being the pair of point blocks in East Belfast's Cregagh estate. These eleven-story towers were completed in 1961 and were the first tall council housing blocks on the island of Ireland.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Glendinning|first1=Miles|last2=Muthesius|first2=Stefan|year=1994|title=Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland|publisher=Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art|isbn=9780300054446|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWuBQgAACAAJ|page=288}}</ref> The NIHT also designed the inner city Divis Flats complex. The six-to-eight-storey deck-access flats that comprised most of the Divis estate were of poor build quality and were all demolished by the early 1990s.{{sfnp|Glendinning|Muthesius|1994|page=367}} Similar slab blocks were built by the NIHT in East Belfast (Tullycarnet) and Derry's Bogside area, all four of which have been demolished.

Belfast Corporation constructed seven tower blocks on the former Victoria Barracks site in the New Lodge district. While the Corporation built some mid-rise flats as part of slum clearance schemes (most notably the now demolished Unity Flats and the Weetabix Flats in the Shankill area), New Lodge was its only high-rise project in the inner city; there were three more in outlying areas of the city during the 1960s, two being in Mount Vernon in North Belfast and one being in the Clarawood estate, East Belfast. The Royal Hospital built three thirteen-story towers for use as staff accommodation, prominently located adjacent to the M2 Motorway at Broadway. Belfast City Hospital also constructed a high-rise slab block which since privatisation has been named Bradbury Court, formerly known as Erskine House. Queens University Belfast built several eleven storey towers at its Queens Elms student accommodation. Of the three sixteen-story point blocks of Larne Borough Council in the late 1960s, only one remains.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bridge |first=Albert  |date=19 March 2011  |title=D3902 : Riverdale flats, Larne (1) |url=https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2313893 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250214170846/https://www.geograph.ie/photo/2313893 |archive-date=2025-02-14 |website=Geograph Ireland}}</ref>

===North America=== ====Canada==== {{See also|List of tallest buildings in Canada}} [[File:Elliot and Skyline Towers (2025).jpg|thumb|High-rise towers in New Westminster]]

In Canada, large multi-family buildings are usually known as ''apartment buildings'' or ''apartment blocks'' if they are rented from one common landowner, or ''condominiums'' or ''condo towers'' if each dwelling unit is individually owned; they may be called ''low-rise'' (or ''walk-up''), ''mid-rise'', ''high-rise'', or ''skyscraper'' depending on their height. Tall residential towers are a staple building type in all large cities. Their relative prominence in Canadian cities varies substantially, however. In general, more populated cities have more high-rises than smaller cities, due to a relative scarcity of land and a greater demand for housing.

However, some cities such as Quebec City and Halifax have fewer high-rise buildings due to several factors: a focus on historic preservation, height restrictions, and lower growth rates. In middle-sized cities with a relatively low population density, such as Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, or Hamilton there are more apartment towers but they are greatly outnumbered by single-family houses. Most of the largest residential towers in Canada are found in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver; the country's most densely populated cities.

Toronto contains the second largest concentration of high-rise apartment buildings in North America (after New York). In Canada, like in other New World countries, but unlike Western Europe, most high-rise towers are located in the city centre (or "downtown"), where smaller, older buildings were demolished to make way in redevelopment schemes.

====United States==== {{See also|List of tallest buildings in the United States|List of tallest buildings in New York City}} {{More citations needed section|date=October 2009}} [[File:Central Park Tower from street 2020.jpg|thumb|Central Park Tower in Manhattan, New York City, the tallest residential high-rise tower in the world, December 2020]]

In the United States, tower blocks are commonly referred to as "midrise" or "highrise apartment buildings", depending on their height, while buildings that house fewer flats (apartments), or are not as tall as the tower blocks, are called "lowrise apartment buildings". Specifically, "midrise" buildings are as tall as the streets are wide, allowing five hours of sunlight on the street.<ref>{{cite web|title=Avenues and Mid-Rise Buildings Study|url=http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=7238036318061410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD|website=City of Toronto|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref>

Some of the first residential towers were the Castle Village towers in Manhattan, New York City, completed in 1939. Their cross-shaped design was copied in towers in Parkchester and Stuyvesant Town residential developments.

The government's experiments in the 1960s and 1970s to use high-rise apartments as a means of providing the housing solution for the poor broadly resulted in failure. Made in the tower in the park style, all but a few high-rise housing projects in the nation's largest cities, such as Cabrini–Green and Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago, Penn South in Manhattan, and the Desire Projects in New Orleans, fell victim to the "ghettofication" and are now being torn down, renovated, or replaced. Another example is the former Pruitt–Igoe complex in St. Louis, torn down in the 1970s.

In contrast to their public housing counterparts, commercially developed high-rise apartment buildings continue to flourish in cities around the country largely due to high land prices and the housing boom of the 2000s. The Upper East Side in New York City, featuring high-rise apartments, is the wealthiest urban neighborhood in the United States.

Currently, the tallest residential building in the world is Central Park Tower located in Midtown Manhattan, having a height of {{convert|1,550|ft}} with the highest occupied floor at {{convert|1,417|ft}}.<ref>{{Cite web |title=100 Tallest All-Residential Buildings |url=http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/buildings?list=tallest100-residential |url-access=subscription |website=The Skyscraper Center |publisher=Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)}}</ref>

===Oceania=== {{See also|List of tallest buildings in Australia|List of tallest buildings in Sydney}} upright|thumb|Housing commission towers in Waterloo, Sydney, Australia

High-rise living in Australia was limited to the Sydney CBD until the 1960s, when a short-lived fashion saw public housing tenants located in new high-rise developments, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. The buildings pictured along with four other 16-story blocks were constructed on behalf of the Royal Australian Navy and were available to sailors and their families for accommodation. Due to social problems within these blocks the Navy left and the Department of Housing took charge and flats were let to low income and immigrant families. During the 1980s many people escaping communism in Eastern bloc countries were housed in these buildings. Developers have enthusiastically adopted the term "apartment" for these new high-rise blocks, perhaps to avoid the stigma still attached to housing commission flats.

== Deck access == Deck access is a type of flat that is accessed from a walkway that is open to the elements, as opposed to flats that are accessed from fully enclosed internal corridors. Deck-access blocks of flats are usually fairly low-rise structures. The decks can vary from simple walkways, which may be covered or uncovered, to decks wide enough for small vehicles. The best-known example of deck-access flats in the UK is Park Hill, Sheffield, where the decks are wide enough to allow electric vehicles; however, the design is inspired by French Modernist architect Le Corbusier, particularly his Unité d'habitation in Marseille.<ref>BBC 'English Heritage' documentary about Park Hill flats. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00k89m5<nowiki>?]</nowiki></ref>

== Green tower blocks == [[File:Brocker 000308 173001 518483 4578 (36776424576).jpg|thumb|An apartment building with a pergola and solar panels in the Bronx, New York City]]

Green tower blocks have some scheme of living plants or green roofs<ref>{{cite web |date=c. 2005  |title=ROOFS |url=http://www.sustainingtowers.org/ROOFa.htm  |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212204441/http://sustainingtowers.org/ROOFa.htm |archive-date=2009-02-12 |website=Sustaining Tower Blocks: THE DESIGN GUIDE for sustainable refurbishment  |publisher=Price & Myers Sustainability ("provided for informational purposes only") }}</ref> or solar panels<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.salford.gov.uk/pr-10-2680.htm |title=Tower blocks go green with power-saving panels |publisher=Salford.gov.uk |date=20 September 2010 |access-date=25 November 2011}}</ref> on their roofs or incorporate other environmentally friendly design features.<ref>{{cite web |date=March 1, 2004  |title=Present context : state of the art |url=http://www.sustainingtowers.org/SOA-present.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040623073806/http://www.sustainingtowers.org/SOA-present.htm |archive-date=23 June 2004 |access-date=15 August 2012 |website=Sustaining Tower Blocks: A resource portal for sustainable refurbishment of tower blocks |publisher=Battle McCarthy Ltd}}</ref>

==See also== * Cutie de chibrituri – meaning ''Matchboxes'' in Romanian, are the equivalent in Romania * Earthquake engineering * High-rise littering * ''Highrise'' (documentary), a project about life in high-rise apartments around the world * Large panel system building * List of fires in high-rise buildings ** List of high-rise façade fires *** Grenfell Tower fire * Prefabrication * Wind engineering

== References == ===Citations=== {{reflist}}

=== General and cited sources === * {{Cite book |last=Aldrete |first=Gregory S. |author-link=Gregory S. Aldrete |year=2004 |title=Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome, Pompeii and Ostia |isbn=978-0-313-33174-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/dailylifeinroman00aldr |publisher=Greenwood Press }} * {{Cite book |last=Dunleavy |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Dunleavy |year=1981 |title=The Politics of Mass Housing in Britain, 1945–1975 |location=Oxford, U.K. |publisher=Clarendon Press }} * {{Cite book |last=Hanley |first=Lynsey |year=2007 |title=Estates: An Intimate History |location=London |publisher=Granta Books }} * {{Cite book |last=Knapp |first=Ronald G. |title=China's Old Dwellings |date=2000 |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |isbn=0-8248-2214-5  |publication-place=Honolulu |pages=264–272 |chapter=Yuanlou: ''Fujian Round Dwellings'' |lccn=99-20353 |oclc=40907650 |id=Google Books [https://www.google.com/books/edition/China_s_Old_Dwellings/PNnfwOo-WdAC PNnfwOo-WdAC]. |department=Chapter 5: Dwellings in Southern China }} * {{Cite book |last=Power |first=A. |year=1987 |title=Property Before People |location=London |publisher=Allen & Unwin }} * {{Cite book |last=Power |first=A. |year=1997 |title=Estates on the Edge |location=Great Britain |publisher=MacMillan }} * {{Cite book |last=Saatcioglu |first=Murat |year=2016 |chapter=High-Rise Buildings in Natural Disaster |title=Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards |series=Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series |location=Dordrecht, NL |publisher=Springer |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_168 |isbn=978-90-481-8699-0 |pages=451–452 }}

== External links == * {{Commons category-inline|High-rises}}

Category:Apartment types Category:Skyscrapers by type