The world around us continues to evolve in many different ways. As urban populations grow larger with each passing year, urban planning, design and architecture takes on even greater levels of importance than in the past. With larger populations, the question in already busy and compact cities is, where to go next with new buildings and regeneration of existing areas? Large cities have continued to sprawl over the last few decades, with major cities spreading into surrounding towns, swallowing up entire regions, creating a situation where there are multiple metropolis in each developed country.

There does come a time within any urban environment where there just isn’t any more space available in which a city can continue to grow outwards from its centre, and then the question of design and architecture becomes one of how to design and build up in an effective and sustainable way. Large tower blocks and skyscrapers are nothing new in the world of urban design and architecture. They were planned as commodities, seen as a necessity to help provide a home for large numbers of new inhabitants for a city or area, or to provide commercial space for vast quantities of companies that were brining finance into the area.

The design aesthetic was not at the forefront of planners minds in the vast majority of cases, but this could be changing as we are experiencing an ever more pressing need to build tall in order to cope with the demands of a growing urban population that sees no sign of abating in the near future.

In the major cities of the world, and in all developing countries, space is becoming limited in all urban areas. In the process the land becomes more expensive to build on, leaving urban planners and architects with the idea of building tall. It could be the only way to maintain and improve standards of living in modern cities.

As it has become a more pressing matter, and with new techniques and innovation in design and building processes, it is now possible to begin to think of a future world where domestic tower blocks and skyscrapers serve a pleasing aesthetic and comfortable domestic option, rather than just a functionality that doesn’t consider the comfort of inhabitants and the impact on the surrounding environment and existing communities.

There is a balancing act that can provide residential and commercial opportunities within tall, sustainable buildings in big cities that are striking on the eye, pleasant to live in and allow a community to grow and thrive within it. In too many cities, the traditional aesthetic of a city skyline has been threatened by the mass of new, homogenous skyscrapers and residential tower blocks that overlook historically important and culturally pleasing buildings and structures.

Implementing the design and build of residential and commercial skyscrapers as sustainable tall buildings in future cities is an important part of how we manage the growing urban population. The balance is to be found with clever architecture and pleasing design, with managing living standards without creating overcrowding and impacting negatively on existing communities and the environment.