ABSTRACT
External smog-filled air is drawn into the building at ground level, beneath a large glass canopy. Air pollution in China is causing significant health and mortality problems, fuelled by increased coal burning, heavy industries, vehicle emissions and dust. The proposal consists of a slender tower with office and residential floor plates wrapped around a south-facing glazed solar chimney. Three towers rise out of the market, each made up of stacked four-storey ‘vertical villages’. Cores are pushed to the south side of the plan, with façade farming integrated on the sunny north, east and west sides. Shibam is a walled city in Yemen, famous for its towers of mud-brick dating back to the sixteenth century. These towers rise up to 11 storeys in height and benefit from thick walls of thermal mass, small windows and mashrabiya shading to respond to the harsh desert climate of consistently high temperatures and intense solar gain.
