Vertical Streets
Urban design and architecture that activates vertical and underutilized spaces within city streets and neighborhoods.
Vertical streets represent a design approach that maximizes density and community function within constrained urban environments. This includes strategies for stacking residential and commercial uses, reclaiming overlooked spaces beneath infrastructure, and creating multi-layered public areas that serve diverse populations.
The community explores adaptive reuse of bridge underpasses and rail infrastructure, food markets that anchor cultural identity, residential towers integrated into street-level neighborhoods, and interventions that transform voids into gathering spaces. Projects demonstrate how vertical thinking can support neighborhood resilience and growth.
Popular projects
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Latest journals
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Floating Street: A Vietnamese Water Market Where Fishing Boats Become the Counters
A floating revetment that rises and falls with the river becomes the trading street, with bridges and pavilions held lightly above the water.
JVST Wraps a Raised Public Garden in Brick and Green Block for 118 Social Homes in The Hague
In The Hague's post-war Zichten district, Steenzicht 1A trades open slab planning for a courtyard block lifted over parking and opened to the street.
Barcelonas Vein: A Landscaped Spine That Bends Cerdà's Grid Toward a Pedestrian Barcelona of 2050
A green diagonal cuts through Barcelona's octagonal blocks, opening chamfered corners into courtyards and the hyperblock interior into civic ground.
Gardiner Architects Stacks Thirteen Unique CLT Apartments on a Melbourne High Street
In Thornbury, a cross-laminated timber apartment building treats every unit as an individual home with its own identity and orientation.
