A high-rise is a tall building or structure. Normally, the function of the building is added, for example high-rise apartment building or high-rise offices.

High-rise buildings became possible with the invention of the elevator (lift) and cheaper, more abundant building materials. Buildings between 75 feet and 491 feet (23 m to 150 m) high are, by some standards, considered high-rises. Buildings taller than 492 feet (150 m) are classified as skyscrapers. The average height of a level is around 13 feet (4 m) high, thus a 79 foot (24 m) tall building would comprise 6 floors.

The materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. Most American style skyscrapers have a steel frame, while residential tower blocks are usually constructed out of concrete.

Although the exact definition is immaterial, various bodies have tried to define what 'high-rise' means:

• The International Conference on Fire Safety in High-Rise Buildings defined a high-rise as "any structure where the height can have a serious impact on evacuation"
• The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines a high-rise as "a building having many stories".
• Massachusetts General Laws define a high-rise as being higher than 70 feet (21 m).
• Most building engineers, inspectors, architects and similar professions define a high-rise as a building that is at least 75 feet (23 m) tall.

High-rise structures pose particular design challenges for structural and geotechnical engineers, particularly if situated in a seismically active region or if the underlying soils have geotechnical risk factors such as high compressibility or bay mud. They also pose serious challenges to firefighters during emergencies in high-rise structures. New and old building design, building systems like the building standpipe system, HVAC systems (Heating, Ventilation and Air conditioning), fire sprinkler system and other things like stairwell and elevator evacuations pose significant problems.

An example of challenges posed to firefighting crews is in this real example. Fire companies were dispatched to a high-rise hotel in Lexington, Kentucky with reports of smoke in the building. When the fire companies investigated the source, they found smoke in the hallways, but not in the guest rooms. This in turn helped the fire companies determine that the problem was in the HVAC system and that a real hazard wasn't actually posed.

High-rise buildings actually began in the time of early America during the rise of industry. Using light materials, they were able to create over 8 stories of building. The Asch Building had 10.

See also

• Skyscraper
• Tower block

Plot summary

The building seems to give its well-established tenants all the conveniences and commodities that modern life has to offer: swimming pools, its own school, a supermarket, high-speed elevators. But at the same time, the building seems to be designed to isolate the occupants from the larger world outside, allowing for the possibility to create their own closed environment.

Life in the high-rise begins to degenerate quickly, as minor power failures and petty annoyances over neighbours escalate into an orgy of violence. The high-rise occupants divide themselves into the classic three groups of Western society: the lower, middle, and upper class, but here the terms are literal, as the lower class are those living on the lowest floors of the building, the middle class in the centre, and the upper class at the most luxurious apartments on the upper floors.

Soon, skirmishes are being fought throughout the building, as floors try to claim elevators and hold them for their own, groups gather to defend their rights to the swimming pools, and party-goers attack "enemy floors" to raid and vandalize them. It does not take long for the occupants of entire building to abandon all social restraints, and give in to their most primal urges. The tenants completely shut out the outside world, content with their new life in the high-rise; people abandon their work and family and stay indoors permanently, losing their sense of time. Even as hunger starts to set in, many of the characters in the novel still seem to be enjoying themselves, as the building allows them a chance to break free from the social restrictions of modern society and toy with their own dark urges and desires. And as bodies begin to pile up and the commodities of the high-rise break down, no one considers alerting the authorities.

The tenants of the high-rise abandon all notions of moral and social etiquette, as their environment gives way to a hunter/gatherer culture, where humans gather together in small clans, claim food sources from where they can (including the many dogs in the building, and eventually even the other tenants), and every stranger is met with extreme violence.

As he did in Concrete Island and Crash, Ballard here offers a vision of how modern life in an urban landscape and the advances of technology could warp the human psyche in hitherto unexplored ways.

The book has been cited as an influence upon the Doctor Who episode Paradise Towers.

Film adaptation

For nearly 30 years producer Jeremy Thomas wanted to do a film version of the book. It was nearly made in the late 1970s, with Nicolas Roeg directing and a script by Paul Mayersberg. However, funding fell through and Roeg and Thomas did Bad Timing instead. In recent times Thomas has revisited the project, and it has been in development with Canadian filmmaker Vincenzo Natali attached to write and direct.

External links

• The Terminal Collection: JG Ballard First Editions