Page 37 - Vertical City

RECONCILING HIGH-RISE LIVING AND THE SUN 37

While the L/H rule was only applied to low buildings,
to ensure natural ventilation and perspectives, slender
high-rise buildings, their facades oriented east and west
can be parallelly disposed close to one another and be
integrated in luxuriant nature. Staggered, they conserve
both views and ventilation. The air currents are pleasant
and they are still being built 20.

The L/B rule

At the vision of the projected shadow in the vertical
plan leading to the L/H rule, depending on orientation
but independent of the width B of the buildings, there
is added, for towers, the vision of the projected shadow
in horizontal plan leading to the L/B rule, independent
of the height of the tower as well as its orientation, but
depending on the largest width B of the tower from a
particular angle. This rule governs the acceptable lapse
of time during which a specific point of a building is in
the shadow of the other. This time corresponds to the
angle formed by 2 rays directed to the specific point and
tangentially touching the silhouette of the tower (B).

This angle is thus, and for example, 15° for one hour
of acceptable shadow in our latitudes (and 30° for two

20 I recall, as to this subject, toasting Le Corbusier with Jackson C.S.
Wong in his offices (Wong and Ouyang) in Hong Kong in October
1992, while viewing aerial photos of entire new cities realized with
high-rise towers and where the plans were in the form of a double
Lorraine Cross. I had not realized the visionary character of his
approach.