From Icons to Ecosystems: Rethinking the High-Rise with Antony Wood

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Most Podern Podcast

Minkoo Kang, Libo Li, and Alex Yuen

70 episodes

1 day ago

The podcast about the Built Environment, with the minds shaping it, for the people living in it. Why does the built environment feel broken — and what would it take to fix it? Most Podern is about how the built world really works. We dig into the systems shaping architecture, urbanism, housing, and public spaces, and talk with the people actually building change: architects, planners, developers, and urban thinkers.

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From Icons to Ecosystems: Rethinking the High-Rise with Antony Wood

Most Podern Podcast

59 minutes 39 seconds

5 months ago

From Icons to Ecosystems: Rethinking the High-Rise with Antony Wood

Why do we need to keep building skyscrapers and what separates them marvels or monstrosities?

Dr. Antony Wood, one of the world’s foremost experts on tall buildings, reveals why cities go vertical, what drives the global icon race, and how most towers fall short. From skybridges and carbon-sequestering timber to the 5% of skyscrapers that actually work, this conversation reimagines the high-rise as more than a symbol, but rather as a system for living, density, and urban ambition.

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Keywords

skyscrapers, tall buildings, vertical urbanism, sustainable architecture, high-rise design, mass timber construction, urban density, carbon emissions, skybridges, public space in cities, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Antony Wood, CTBUH, skyline architecture, mixed-use towers, high-rise housing, vertical infrastructure, future of cities, architectural sustainability, iconic skyscrapers

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome + Guest Intro

01:00 – Why Do We Build Tall?

04:50 – Does Density Mean Height?

07:20 – 94% of Skyscrapers Built After 2000

08:20 – Why Asia Builds Higher

11:20 – The Global Icon Race

13:40 – Vertical Access & Skybridges

16:30 – How We First Built Tall

18:00 – The Skyscraper Problem: 95% Are Bad

21:20 – What the Best 5% Get Right

24:30 – Defining 'Tall' (And 'Supertall')

27:30 – Why the U.S. Isn’t Building the Tallest Anymore

29:40 – The Shift from Office to Mixed-Use

31:45 – What Singapore Got Right

34:30 – Mass Timber: A Building Revolution

38:10 – The Roadblocks to Mass Timber

41:00 – Rethinking Land, Forests, and Verticality

42:15 – Antony’s Top 5 Tall Buildings

46:20 – How Height Changes Human Experience

51:00 – Fighting NIMBYism with Better Towers

53:40 – The Future of Tall Buildings

56:00 – Where to Follow Dr. Antony Wood

56:56 – What Moment Are We In?

Links

Dr. Antony Wood: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antony-wood/

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CUTBUH): https://www.ctbuh.org/