Hong Kong as a contemporary laboratory for the future scenarios of vertical growth

During its brief history, the skyscraper has experienced radical transformations that have profoundly changed its character, redefining the system of urban relations that it establishes with the city. Among the main typological changes of the skyscraper, there is the passage from "single vertical building" to “aggregation of several buildings”. Over the last few years, the relationship between the skyscraper and the city has been enriched by connections operated through skybridges which have altered its fruition methods. The paper aims to focus on the city of Hong Kong, which is emblematic as regards the vertical experimentation and the construction of public pedestrian infrastructures (called CEW). There will be analyzed 2 paradigmatic points for understanding Hong Kong’s vertical tissues: the osmotic relationship between interior/exterior and the intersection with the infrastructural system (and the formation of covered squares). This research aims to develop this theme through a theory of Vertical Fabric, a critical system that investigates the spatial conformation inside and outside the skyscrapers in the light of a morpho-typological criterion. Considering the skyscraper as a vertical fabric, it is possible to highlight the relationship between the urban path and the building, and the implications of the service core in the spatial articulation of the skyscraper itself. Central and Admiralty districts testify as vertical growth is linked to the phenomenon of internalization of the paths that governs the relationships between skyscrapers and horizontal connective structures. As an immediate result of this phenomenology, we find the definition of a new paradigm of urban mobility, realized through a ground plan at altitude which performs the function of access, exchange and meeting. The paper also intends to focus on the changes in relational dynamics between the high building and the metropolis, outlining the possibility of considering individual buildings as micro-cities that host gathering places.