ABSTRACT
Buildings for high-rise residential are very different from high-rise offices and really deserve a book entirely to them – a good reference guide is Heck-mann and Schneider’s Floor Plan Manual Housing. While occupant loads are far lower in residential towers than in a commercial tower, privacy is of paramount importance in apartment design both visually and acoustically, so super-skinny buildings permit one apartment per floor. The structural frame may again be a concrete frame, steel frame or massive timber construction, but the wonderful advantages of a steel frame in an office building–flexibility and large spans–are not so appreciated in a residential building. Many Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) residential buildings are therefore composed of twin CLT walls between apartments, which have a great deadening effect on acoustics. All of the issues that are presented in the chapters on facades are present here for residential buildings as well, with the added complication of numerous opening panels on the outside for fresh air.
