A new phenomenon is taking over high-rise architecture around the world: Design firms are constructing buildings that look like a cleaver hacked a chunk from their otherwise pristinely shining glass facades.
There’s a name for the style, according to Fast Company’s Nate Berg: “scar-chitecture.” It’s a strategy that architects are using to bring highly desirable outdoor spaces to tall towers, by carving large terraces deep into a structure’s sides, rather than constructing tiny balconies that cling to exterior walls. You can see its application in Buro OS’ recently completed 49-story Shanghai Axiom building, as well as Bjarke Ingels Group’s 66-story New York Spiral building and Foster + Partners LA $1 billion office building concept.
We can now see the newest iteration of these high-rise outdoor spaces with the completion of One River North, a 342,674-square-foot, 15-story mixed-use tower in Denver by MAD Architects. A touch more organic in approach, it appears as though blobby stone caves have cracked through the building’s smooth glass exterior.
“Imagine living in a building yet feeling as though you’re immersed in a natural landscape—like living within a canyon itself,” MAD Principal Architect Ma Yansong said in a news release.
The striking, multistory Flintstones-esque outdoor terraces are communal amenity spaces for the building’s future residents and include seating areas and landscaping. All of the levels are connected by stairs up to a rooftop terrace with a swimming pool, spa, and garden. Here the promenade architecturale is akin to a nature walk, riffing on an ascent from the Colorado foothills through its slot canyons up to a Rocky Mountain peak, according to the architects.
The design serves a functional purpose: an outdoor respite for mental health and a way to get some physical activity without leaving the building. But there’s also an important aesthetic element for Yansong, an architect who has spent his career exploring how nature and high-rise architecture could merge. He has commented that One River North represents a future in which “high-rise office buildings and high-rise hotels introduce sky gardens, canyons, and waterfalls.” It’s a compelling vision—and a refreshing break from bland glass boxes.