Highrise Community 2.0

The latest in the National Film Board of Canada’s documentary series HIGHRISE, One Millionth Tower uses HTML5/webGL to show the imagined potential of urban spaces. The film explores vertical living in suburbs around the world, virtually redesigning what it calls “a universal thread of our global urban fabric”— the dilapidated highrise neighbourhood.

In the film, highrise residents work with architects to re-envision their vertical neighbourhood. Their sketches are then animated and woven together in a 3D virtual environment.

While this film focuses on a highrise on Kipling Avenue in suburban Toronto, filmmakers say it could be any city in any country. It’s fitting that it should take in Toronto, the North American city with the most tall buildings under construction. According to data compiled by Hamburg-based Emporis, with 148 skyscrapers and highrises being built, Toronto easily eclipses all other North American cities. New York is in second place with just under 60.

According to filmmakers, this highrise community is facing the same issues as many around the globe: deteriorating buildings; physical and cultural separation from the downtown core; poor access to social services and commerce; poor public transit and long-distance commutes, resulting in a reliance on cars and long travel times; little or no community play space for children; as well as no community space and fabric between the residential buildings themselves. One Millionth Tower suggests these problems can be solved — it just takes some imagination.