Practical importance of the shape of a tall building in the city space

Abstract

The development of construction technology creates ever greater opportunities for designing tall buildings with unusual shapes. So the question remains: what role might the shape of a tall building play in developing a legible and imageable environment? The paper aims to show the importance of the shape of a tall building for imageability and legibility of the urban environment, on the basis of previously published analyses by various authors, which are part of wider studies on: placemaking with tall buildings, imageability of tall buildings and orientation in the urban space. The importance of the shape of a tall building is presented in three aspects: its functioning as a landmark, imageability of such buildings and recognisability of a district of the city as well as the city itself. The unique shape of a tall building has enormous potential for use in creating legible and imageable urban environment. The shape can be used to create distinctive landmarks of different scale and importance to the city. The location of a tall building with a distinctive shape is important. Constructing such a building in a clearly visible place makes it easy to remember. When such a building is located e.g. at the terminus of a street's view corridor, it significantly contributes to the strengthening of its imageability. Examples presented in this paper show that single tall buildings with unique shapes are important for the recognisability of a district of the city, and even the city as a whole.