Vertical Tissue: architectonical interpretation of the skyscraper

The aim of this paper is to analyze the skyscraper as an architectural organism, and to interpret the vertical city like a “vertical tissue”. Previously, the skyscraper, studied as an architectural type, was defined as a block developed in height (Pevsner, 1976) isolated from the urban context and opposed to the historic city (Maffioletti, 1990). This research is based on the concept of “organism” (Strappa, 1995), and it examines the skyscraper as a building type in which it is possible to identify a solidarity between the vertical structuring axis and residential units (example noticed in the first buildings of Chicago) (Condit, 1979). The skyscraper is therefore not considered as a model of the so-called “utopia of gigantism” (Samonà) that characterized the modern city in recent years, but as a system that can create a new vision of the city; as the skyscraper is treated as a basic element to compare an alternative model for the modern city. To study the vertical city like vertical tissue it is first necessary to define the skyscraper as an architectural organism, therefore to interpret the aggregation of skyscrapers such as an urban organism, underling the “urban” features in which the vertical element is the matrix design for a new city-system. Thanks to this methodology we can study the city not as a set of architectural singularity but as vertical system, in which we can recognize both an architectural and urban organism.