High-rise

Music and architecture often meet, such as when Beyoncé inspired a skyscraper and Kanye West's attempts to get his affordable housing project off the ground. Now Pharrell Williams has helped design a pair of high-rise residential towers for Toronto.

High-profile Italian architect Renzo Piano's firm recently completed its first residential project in New York City. Consisting of two identical glass towers, 565 Broome Soho offers luxury residences, with high-end amenities to match.

Glass-clad skyscrapers need to be inspected on a regular basis, in order to ensure that the glass panes are securely attached and undamaged. Doing so might soon become much quicker and safer, with a little help from a special drone.

Fundamental Architects offers a rather unusual take on the high-rise with its Tower of the Sun concept. The eye-catching design is defined by a large circular hole at its center and would feature significant sustainable technology, drawing energy from the river it bridges.

Stefano Boeri received several awards for Milan's greenery-covered Bosco Verticale, and has since conceived similar buildings around the world. His studio's latest iteration on the Vertical Forest design is slated for Tirana, Albania, and will be covered in over 3,200 shrubs and bushes.

High-profile French architect Jean Nouvel's upcoming luxury high-rise recently topped out in Miami. Named Monad Terrace, the project is expected to be completed in late 2019 and will offer plush apartments overlooking the famous Biscayne Bay starting at US$1.7 million.

MVRDV rarely seems content to play it safe and with its latest work, Downtown One Tirana, the firm shows another example of its out-of-the-box thinking. The mixed-use building is defined by a pixelated facade that depicts the map of Albania.

The municipality of Nacka in Stockholm is moving ahead with rail extensions and real estate developments as it prepares for an impending population boom, and an offbeat new tower is set to become a symbol of its new modernity and growth.

Vincent Callebaut Architectures recently unveiled a new conceptual mixed-use tower named Arboricole. Envisioned for Angers, France, the project features Callebaut's usual blend of greenery and high-tech sustainable technology, and would produce fruit and vegetables for its residents to pick.

The Silo was once used to store massive amounts of grain but following a refurbishment by COBE Architects, it has been turned into a new mixed-use high-rise. The firm maintained the original look inside, but transformed the exterior with a galvanized steel facade.

​Singapore's Housing & Development Board recently called for proposals to automate the painting of its high-rise buildings. In response, ELID Technology International and Nanyang Technological University teamed up to create a robotic system that does the job.

We regularly cover Vincent Callebaut's sustainable architecture concepts, but have wondered how well his eye-catching renders would translate to real buildings. We need not wonder for long, as the Belgian architect's twisting, greenery-clad Agora Garden Tower is taking shape in Taiwan.