Boulderspace

With Harvey Hines’ proposed 50-story residential tower at the Whole Foods site, and David Barrett’s shipping container SRO stack at the Lolita’s site (both of these “hypothetical” designs recently debuted at Design Project Build), high density housing as a solution to affordability has hit the Boulder scene. It has long been accepted that the introduction of specific high density areas of development offsets public amenities such as open space, allowing for a balance in density suiting a versatile range of needs. Initially, shared walls offer economy in construction costs and later, during inhabitance, ganged dwelling units lead to lower utility costs. An efficient building footprint with shared outdoor space on roofs and other often unused space - converse to many building footprints with individual private outdoor spaces - furthers this model as an affordable solution.

While this logic is hard to argue with, hypothetical designs such as Barrett’s and Hines’ are still considered radically polemic in the relatively conservative building environment of Boulder. Imagine a design which would house all 100,000 inhabitants of Boulder in one spire, towering above the city in a gleaming homage to high density as a housing solution to increasing urbanization.

Popular Architecture thinks that just such a design is a solution to London’s affordable housing crunch.

Dubbed simply, “ The SuperTower”, PA’s design looms 1500 meters (almost 5000’) over the city of London, perched on the banks of the Thames. Divided into neighborhoods, villages, and districts, residents would enjoy public amenities of a farmer’s market, several gardens, ice skating and pool levels, theaters, and even the “Tower University.” Indeed, the tower is envisioned as a self sufficient, self contained town, plopped down within a city.

While feasibility is certainly questionable (currently the tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai, will stand at 800 meters at its impending completion), and precedents of high density affordable housing don’t exactly bolster the potential here ( Pruitt-Igoe and Cabrini-Green being the most infamous examples in the States), the Super Tower concept succeeds in provoking reactions to the controversial question of affordable, abundant housing to match a booming population. Residents of Boulder confronted with perpetually escalating housing costs would agree that this question – and the finding of a solution - is as relevant on this side of the pond as it seems to be in London.

Tags: "The Super Tower", Burj Dubai, Cabrini-Green, David Barrett Studio Architects, Design Project Build, Harvey M. Hine Architects, Lolita's, Pruitt-Igoe, Whole Foods