Session 7H: Skyscrapers and Social Responsibility

30 October 2019
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

The builders and designers of any building play a powerful role in the safety of building occupants, but skyscrapers present further challenges to safety, as in the event of an emergency, a great number of people must be swiftly evacuated from dozens of stories up through limited exits at the ground levels. Disasters such as the 2017 Grenfell Tower in London spurred global action with the International Fire Safety Standards Coalition, to improve the fire safety of buildings around the world. The responsibility of skyscrapers to best serve their occupants and tenants extends to improving vertical neighborhoods through returning value to the public as well; such as through curated public access nodes and recreational and social spaces. As vertical workspaces become more common, it becomes increasingly important to dedicate recreational and flexible spaces that incorporate greenery and interface with the exterior world in order to offer a more responsible, and ultimately more satisfying, daily experience to the most important part of skyscrapers: the people that live and work in them.