What we learn on the boards and on the site, written down: wind, plinths, curtain walls, and the politics of a skyline that is a policy.
- Maas Vertex tops out at 165 metresThe last crown slab was poured at dawn on the longest week of the year. Notes from the topping-out of our tallest tower to date, and what still has to happen before the keys.
- The street decides the towerHeight is judged at eye level. Why we design every tower from its lowest ten metres upward, and why the plinth, not the crown, is where skylines are won.
- Designing for wind at 150 metresAbove the rooftops of Rotterdam the wind is a structural material. Vortex shedding, tuned mass, and why the wind tunnel gets a vote before the design review does.
- One to one: the façade mock-upA field in Brabant, three storeys of curtain wall, and a client meeting held outdoors in January. Notes from the visual mock-up that decided Helix HQ's glass.
- A skyline is a policyRotterdam's towers did not happen by accident. They were legislated, drawn and argued into being. On the high-rise vision, and what other cities misread about it.