Belfast·SPG006 Tall Buildings·Page 11·4.1.5
Base Design and Street-Level Pedestrian Experience
The base of a tall building should create an attractive, active and public frontage with an interesting and welcoming pedestrian experience at street level, respectfully responding to historic plot widths. The base can be articulated as a distinctive podium or through differentiated materials and openings to achieve human scale.
The lower floors of a tall building are often referred to as the base. The role of the base is to assist in creating an attractive, active and public face to the building that provides an interesting, safe, welcoming and comfortable pedestrian experience and is respectful of historic plot widths. Depending on the scale of the tall building, the treatment/articulation of its base can take a number of different forms. One such form is that of a distinctive podium which is visually separated from the middle (tower) section but helps to achieve a transitional piece that enables more of a human scale at street level and relates more sympathetically with adjacent lower scale buildings.
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