High rise challenges in China

As the skyscraper centre of the world continues to shift from North America to China, architecture students from The University Of Nottingham are keeping pace with the country's rapidly changing skyline. The team of postgraduate students were on a field trip to Tianjin, a city around 90 miles south-east of the Beijing capital, where they were researching how tall buildings can respond to both the environmental and social context of China, in order to develop a series of high-rise designs as part of their architectural studio project. Working with counterparts from Tianjin University and supported by Singapore-based Pomeroy Studio and AECOM, the aim of the project is to develop specialist knowledge and skills in the field of tall building design. Graduates from The University of Nottingham's MArch in Sustainable Tall Buildings , the only programme and qualification of its kind globally, go on to work in different parts of the world with their own socio-political and economic challenges, all of which have an impact on building design. The site for the studies is the currently-under-construction Tianjin Binhai New Area, which epitomises the unprecedented scale of China's urbanisation. Over the next decade, it is predicted that hundreds of skyscrapers will spring up in this region, as China plans to move hundreds of millions of people from rural to urban areas across the country. For Dr Philip Oldfield , head of tall building research at Nottingham, it is an important time for future architects to get to grips with the building challenges and opportunities posed by this growth.