BEYOND GLASS TOWERS: Towards a Biophilic Regenerative Mixed-Use High-Rise

Abstract

Global South has witnessed significant environmental consequences due to rapid urbanization. Frequent agricultural land loss, increasing urban heat island effects, and the systematic erosion of ecological footprint within metropolitan centers. Lahore is a city where this pattern has reached alarming threshold. Decades of uncontrolled horizontal urban sprawl have consumed productive lands, highly stressed municipal systems, and generated climate stresses that continue to reshape the city's environmental baseline. Ironically, Lahore's most significant and advertised urban response is the development of a Central Business District. This proposal risks reinforcing the same architectural typology that contributes to this degradation i.e. the energy-intensive, ecologically indifferent commercial high-rise. The architecture within high-value urban districts has historically preferred economic gain over environmental accountability. This premium development has largely contributed to energy consumption, heat-island effect, and land displacement. This thesis operates on the premise that the capacity to build well carries with it the obligation to build responsibly. Therefore, the elite urban districts are not exempt from environmental ambition, but most obligated to it. This thesis proposes a regenerative mixed-use high-rise prototype for Lahore's CBD. The main idea behind this building is to present ecological systems as an environmental infrastructure and not merely an aesthetic gesture. The ecological layer is in addition to commercial, residential, and public programs. The research investigates the impact of façade-integrated productive landscapes. Suspended greenhouse structures, sky gardens, and bioclimatic design strategies can be used as an architectural language in the skyscraper. The research is based on the climatic realities of Lahore where temperature, intensifying urban heat island effects, deteriorating air quality, and near-total loss of productive agricultural land has led to serious climatic concerns. The design is based on ecological urbanism, compact city theory, and bioclimatic high-rise design. Precedent studies of the EDITT Tower, PARKROYAL Collection Pickering, Pasona Group Headquarters, and the Milan Expo 2015 pavilions show the practical feasibilty of the proposed approach. The thesis concludes that in most economically strong districts of Lahore, skyscrapers should be more than mere commercial performers. Ultimately, this thesis argues that in Lahore’s most economically powerful district, the skyscraper can do more than perform commercially. It can 6 respond to environmental responsibility and has the capacity to become a prototype for regenerative vertical urbanism. Thus, bringing commercial ambition and ecological intelligence in a single framework.