Super skyscrapers, defined as buildings exceeding 300 metres in height, pose unique challenges in interior design due to their enormous scale, which can create an oppressive sense of upper volume for building occupants. Architects and interior designers use a range of strategies to mitigate this psychological impact and create inviting, human-scale environments, including atriums, ceiling treatments, lighting design, material selection, spatial rhythm, cultural integration, structural expression and vertical zoning.
Key Points
- Atria and Sky Lobbies: Open, light-filled spaces such as atria and sky lobbies in super skyscrapers like the Shanghai Tower and Burj Khalifa create a sense of openness and community, reducing the oppressive feeling of vertical mass.
- Ceiling Treatments: Intricate ceiling designs, such as the double-curved wooden ceiling in the lobby of the Burj Khalifa, add visual interest and can make spaces feel dynamic and less imposing.
- Lighting Design: Pendant lights, ceiling lighting and layered lighting strategies help to visually lower high ceilings, creating a more intimate and warm atmosphere.
- Material Selection: Reflective and luxurious materials such as glass and polished stones increase openness and comfort and prevent the perception of height.
- Cultural Elements: Incorporating local cultural motifs, such as the arabesque designs in the Burj Khalifa, increases familiarity and reduces the alienating effect of tall buildings.
- Limitations: While these strategies can significantly improve the user experience, they may not completely eliminate the psychological impact of excessive height, especially in very tall buildings.
Atria and Sky Lobbies: Creating Openness and Community
Atria and sky lobbies are crucial in reducing the psychological weight of vertical mass by providing open, light-filled spaces that break the monolithic verticality of super-tall buildings. These spaces serve multiple purposes: they provide natural light, improve ventilation and act as communal hubs that encourage a sense of community, making the building feel more like a series of interconnected neighbourhoods than a towering monolith.
- Shanghai Tower: Designed by Gensler, the Shanghai Tower has 21 atria spaced every 12 to 15 floors along its nine vertical zones. Located between the building’s circular inner curtain wall and the triangular outer façade, these atria act as climatic buffers, modulating temperature and saving energy. They also function as “sky gardens”, providing public spaces with restaurants, cafes and lush landscaping reminiscent of traditional city plazas. These light-filled atriums create a sense of openness and visual relaxation, providing residents with a place to stop and socialise, reducing the perception of being in a tall building.
- Burj Khalifa: Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Burj Khalifa features sky lobbies on the 43rd, 76th and 123rd floors. These lobbies are designed with Middle Eastern themes, featuring Arabesque motifs and traditional Musharabia-inspired wooden slats that filter light and provide privacy. Equipped with fitness facilities, swimming pools and relaxation rooms, these spaces offer residents and visitors a luxurious and community-orientated environment. Sky lobbies break up the vertical journey, creating horizontal pauses that make the building feel more accessible and less overwhelming.
Atriums and sky lobbies offer open, light-filled spaces, eliminating the feeling of enclosure and verticality and making occupants feel more connected to their surroundings and less dwarfed by the height of the building.
Ceiling Coatings Adding Visual Interest
Ceiling designs in super-tall skyscrapers can significantly influence how occupants perceive the space above them. Intricate or visually interesting ceilings draw attention to architectural details, creating a sense of dynamism that can distract from the height and make the space feel less oppressive.
- Burj Khalifa Lobby Ceiling: The residential lobby of Burj Khalifa features a double curved timber ceiling, designed and manufactured using advanced parametric modelling by an integrated team including SOM, Imperial Woodworking and Gehry Technologies. This complex ceiling was completed over a period of 11 months, giving the space a fluid and organic quality, making it feel more dynamic and engaging. The complexity of the design shifts the focus from the height of the ceiling to its architectural artistry, potentially reducing the sense of overhead mass.
- General Strategies: Ceiling treatments such as vaulted or coffered designs can create a sense of grandeur without overwhelming occupants. For example, tray ceilings with a raised centre section can make a room appear taller while adding visual interest. In high-rise buildings, such designs can be used in lobbies or common areas to create a focal point that breaks away from the vertical scale.
These applications work by engaging the eye with intricate detailing, making the ceiling an intriguing feature rather than a reminder of the height of the building.
Lighting Design: Creating Intimacy and Warmth
Lighting design is a critical tool for managing the perception of high spaces. By using layered lighting, pendant fixtures and indirect lighting, designers can visually lower high ceilings, create warmth and enhance the feeling of intimacy in super-high interiors.
- Pendant and Dark Lighting: Pendant lights and chandeliers can reduce the perceived height of ceilings by bringing light sources closer to users. Cove lighting, where LED strips are hidden within ceiling recesses, provides soft, ambient lighting that softens the expanse of high ceilings and adds warmth. According to lighting design trends, these techniques create a more intimate atmosphere by focusing light on the human scale rather than emphasising the height of the ceiling.
- Burj Khalifa Application: While specific details on the interior lighting of Burj Khalifa are limited, the use of luxury materials such as glass and stainless steel suggests that the lighting was designed to enhance reflectivity and reinforce a sense of space. The presence of art installations, such as Jaume Plensa’s “Sounds of the World”, is likely integrated with accent lighting to create focal points that draw attention away from the height of the ceiling.
- General Lighting Strategies: Layered lighting that combines ambient, task and accent lighting ensures that spaces are well lit without being harsh. For example, wall sconces and floor lamps can add warmth and counter the expanse of high ceilings by creating an ambience on a human scale.
By carefully manipulating light, designers can create a balanced and inviting atmosphere that reduces the psychological impact of high interiors.
Material Selection: Increasing Clarity and Comfort
The choice of materials in super skyscraper interiors significantly affects how spaces are perceived. Reflective and light-coloured materials can make spaces feel more open, while luxurious textures can create a sense of comfort and familiarity.
- Burj Khalifa Materials: Designed by Nada Andric of SOM, Burj Khalifa’s public spaces incorporate glass, stainless steel, polished dark stones, silver travertine flooring, Venetian plaster walls, handmade rugs and Brazilian Santos rosewood. These materials have been chosen to reflect shelter, comfort and restrained luxury, combining local cultural influences with modern aesthetics. Reflective surfaces such as glass and stainless steel enhance light, making spaces feel larger and less enclosed.
- General Material Strategies: Light coloured materials such as white or pastel paints and reflective surfaces such as mirrors or glass can enhance the perception of space by reflecting light around the room. Transparent materials such as glass table tops reduce visual clutter and create a sense of openness. These strategies are particularly effective in tall buildings where the aim is to counteract the imposing nature of high ceilings.
By choosing materials that reflect light and evoke comfort, designers can create interiors that feel airy and warm, reducing the psychological weight of the building’s height.
Spatial Rhythm: Breaking Vertical Continuity
The spatial rhythm achieved through varied floor plans, horizontal elements and programmatic pauses helps to break the perception of endless verticality in super-tall towers. By introducing horizontal breaks, the designers create a sense of progression and variety.
- Vertical Zones of the Shanghai Tower: The Shanghai Tower is divided into nine vertical zones, each comprising 12 to 15 storeys and separated by two-storey atriums. This “vertical city” approach creates different neighbourhoods within the tower, with each zone offering unique spaces and views. Atriums act as horizontal anchors, providing visual and spatial relief from the height of the building.
- Burj Khalifa’s Sky Lobbies: Burj Khalifa’s sky lobbies on floors 43, 76 and 123 function as programmatic pauses, offering amenities such as fitness centres and relaxation rooms. These spaces create a sense of destination within the building, making the vertical journey less continuous and more manageable.
Spatial rhythm helps occupants to perceive the building as a series of distinct, human-scale environments rather than a single, tall structure.
Cultural Influences: Grounding Spaces in Familiarity
Culture-specific attitudes towards verticality and density shape interior design approaches in super-tall buildings. By incorporating local cultural elements, designers can create spaces that feel familiar and relatable and reduce the alienating effect of height.
- East Asian Context: In East Asian cultures, where verticality is often associated with aspiration and progress, designs can emphasise sky-facing views and open spaces. Inspired by the traditional Chinese courtyards of the Shanghai Tower, sky gardens create a sense of cultural continuity while providing open, light-filled spaces that celebrate height.
- Middle Eastern Context: In Burj Khalifa, the use of Arabesque motifs and Musharabia-inspired wood slats in the sky lobbies creates a sense of cultural grounding, reflecting the Middle Eastern heritage. These elements make the space feel more familiar and less imposing despite the extreme height of the building.
By aligning their design with cultural values, architects can create interiors that resonate with building occupants, so that spaces feel more approachable and less dominated by vertical mass.
Structural Expression and Facade Articulation: Indoor-Outdoor Dialogue
The exterior design of a skyscraper, including its structural expression and façade articulation, can influence the interior experience. Features such as tapering forms, setbacks and transparent facades allow more natural light into interior spaces, reducing the sense of enclosure.
- Burj Khalifa’s Y-Shaped Design: Inspired by the Hymenocallis flower, Burj Khalifa’s Y-shaped floor plan maximises views of the Arabian Gulf and allows natural light to penetrate deep into the interiors. This transparency creates a visual connection with the outside, making interiors feel less enclosed.
- Limitations: While visible structural elements such as exposed columns or diagonals are architecturally interesting, they can also emphasise the mass of the building if not carefully integrated. To counteract this effect, designers often use lightweight materials or open layouts to make the building feel less imposing in the interior.
By creating a seamless dialogue between indoors and outdoors, architects can increase the sense of openness and reduce the psychological weight of the building’s structure.
Vertical Zoning and Transition Floors: Creating Breathable Zones
Vertical zoning and transitional floors, such as sky lobbies and multi-storey voids, help break up the continuous verticality of super-tall towers, creating perceptual “breathing zones” that make the building feel less monolithic.
- Vertical Zoning of Burj Khalifa: Burj Khalifa is segmented by sky lobbies on floors 43, 76 and 123, each offering amenities such as swimming pools and relaxation rooms. These spaces function as destinations within the tower, providing visual and spatial relief and making the vertical journey more varied and engaging.
- The Nine Zones of the Shanghai Tower: Shanghai Tower’s nine vertical zones, each with its own atrium, create a sense of progression through the building. Separated by two-storey atriums, these zones offer occupants a range of different environments, reducing the perception of endless verticality.
These strategies create a more dynamic and engaging experience, allowing occupants to be less affected by the height of the building.
Limitations and Cautions
The sheer scale of super tall buildings can still evoke a sense of awe or unease, especially for those who are not used to these heights. Furthermore, the cost and complexity of implementing features such as atria or intricate ceiling designs can be significant and limit their use in some projects. Cultural differences also mean that design solutions may not be universally effective; what is comforting in one cultural context may not resonate in another.
Interior design strategies in super skyscrapers such as atriums, ceiling treatments, lighting design, material selection, spatial rhythm, cultural integration, structural expression and vertical zoning work together to create environments that feel open, comfortable and human-scaled. Drawing on examples such as Burj Khalifa and the Shanghai Tower, architects show how these techniques can alleviate the oppressive feeling of the volume above, making super-tall buildings inviting spaces for occupants. While limitations exist, these strategies provide a robust framework for enhancing the psychological experience of living and working in the world’s tallest structures.