Dense Downtown vs. Suburban Dispersed: A Pilot Study on Urban Sustainability

This paper presents the initial findings of a ground-breaking two-year CTBUH-funded research project investigating the real environmental and social sustainability of people's lifestyles in a number of high-rise residential towers in downtown Chicago, and a comparable number of low rise homes in suburban Oak Park, Chicago - based on actual energy bills and other real data. The study is ground-breaking because, to date, similar studies have been mostly based on very large data sets of generalized data regarding whole-city energy consumption, or large-scale transport patterns, which often misses important nuances. This study has thus prioritized quality of real data (based on around 250 households in both high rise and low rise case studies), over quantity. In both urban and suburban cases, the following factors have been assessed: (i) home operational energy use, (ii) embodied energy of the dwelling, (iii) home water consumption, (iv) mobility and transport movements, (v) urban/suburban Infrastructure, and (vi) quality of life. The full results of this seminal study will be published in the form of a CTBUH Research Report publication in 2017. Presented below is an overview of the initial (and, currently, unverified) findings of the research, together with the limitations of the study that should be taken into account, as well as future plans for developing this important pilot study.