Roof tops in the city

Credit: Laura Cionci.

Credit: Paul Warcol. The steel dome of the structure inspired the radial design of 13 new apartments and gardens built into the roof. Credit: Elizabeth Felicella. Credit: Donna Dotan Photography. Other rooftop structures are a marked contrast to the building beneath. Tasked with adding three penthouses to a densely populated area of Copenhagen, the Brussels architects JDS re-imagined the rooftop.

Fichtebunker, Berlin, by Verde Gartengestaltung Some projects absorb themselves into the original structure.

World's best rooftop bars

Some projects absorb themselves into the original structure. By Fiona Macdonald 5th January A new book celebrates amazing urban spaces in the sky. Fiona Macdonald picks out ten projects that have helped transform cities across the globe.

While the penthouse is prized real estate, some spaces have been overlooked. A diagonal slope is dotted with plants and seating, so that the slanted roof becomes another part of the usable area of the house. At the other end of the scale, this penthouse in the shadow of the Empire State Building was created from a truck container. Built in as a gasholder to supply the lanterns of Berlin, and converted into an air-raid shelter during World War II, the Fichtebunker is the only surviving structure of its type in Berlin.

Part of a broader urban renovation project in Milan, the towers were designed for a total of inhabitants, but also 1, birds and butterflies. Inserted into a typical older New York roofscape with a water tank, the modest house includes a compact bedroom beneath a patio — with a bed that moves in and out of the wardrobe on tracks.

Yet despite its height, the urban rooftop has often been neglected. In an area between Osaka and Kobe, Sou Fujimoto has managed to squeeze a roof garden onto a house with a floor area of just sq m 1, sq ft. Inspired by military camouflage, Smith used plastic rocks, crushed glass, recycled rubber mulch and roof ballast to sculpt artificial nature high above the streets.

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Windows are made out of refrigerators and newspaper dispensers, and an internal steel ladder connects the bedroom to the living room. We imagine cities where people will be the last measure of the environment. Share using Email.