Building Shapes
Classifications of Building Shapes
- Rectangular Buildings
- Sloping Roofs
- Pointed Roofs
- Sloping Façade
- Staggered Blocks
- Stepped Roofs
- Circular Buildings
Summary of Recommendations
A building’s overall form has a direct impact on the ease of cleaning of building facades. Buildings with simple and conventional tower forms are likely to incur lower cleaning costs since accessibility to the façade would be easier. On the other hand, access system of buildings with amorphous shapes may not allow workers full and safe access to the facade. It is common to find buildings whose access systems do not offer adequate coverage to its external wall areas but yet are expensive and dangerous to maintain and operate. Such systems are usually designed at later stages of the project where they are made to fit the form of the building.
In ensuring maximum and efficient coverage of external wall areas, the conceptualising of a building’s overall form should be done with adequate consideration to the design, provision and future operation of its access systems. The table below illustrates common building forms and their impacts on the provision of access systems.
