6 Karl Fender of Fender Katsalidis explains his Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur Towers Karl Fender is a Director of Fender Katsalidis Architects based in Melbourne where the firm has designed and built a number of very tall residential towers. Karl outlined the evolution of the firm’s portfolio of projects where the company has often taken the development risk in projects as well as being the architectural designers. The Eureka tower is one of the tallest in Melbourne and has a mixture of uses including commercial space, retail facilities, a hotel and apartments. The latest Melbourne tower is Australia 108 which at 100 storeys will be the tallest in Melbourne when it is completed. Karl explained the design approach behind both buildings and the relationship in design terms between the two. He also dramatically indicated the impact on suburban Melbourne if the same number of dwellings as contained in the high rise towers were distributed as detached houses in a horizontal as opposed to a vertical format. Karl then went on to explain the design of a 116 storey tower for Kuala Lumpur on an important site in that city. Karl Fender MERDEKA PNB118, Kuala Lumpur www.fkaustralia.com