Yesterday's brief online research concerning Trellick Towers in London, triggered by an excellent article on Ballardian, quickly led to the fact that Ernö Goldfinger, the building's architect, had designed an earlier version of the project, called Balfron Tower, where he lived in the penthouse apartment so that he could mingle with the tenants and identify problems to be cured in later buildings. At least in this respect, Goldfinger is the obvious blueprint for Anthony Royal, the aristocratic architect of the Unité d' habitation in JG Ballard's High-Rise.

So far, so good. But it might not be known in the English-speaking world that Goldfinger/Royal had a prominent Swiss counterpart. In the 1960s, the eminent Zurich writer Max Frisch - himself a modernist architect - moved into a penthouse apartment in the high-rise Wohnsiedlung Lochergut, built from 1963 to 1966, then one of the very few high-rises in Zurich. Frisch also wanted to share the experience of fashionable high-rise living and enjoy the anonymity of the place. He held out for two years and then moved out.

Anyway, my location for a contemporary movie version of Ballard's High-Rise would be the totally stunning Wohnpark Alt-Erlaa in Vienna. Alt-Erlaa is Royals High-Rise, complete with swimming pools and all the knick-knacks 1970s social architecture had to offer. But in stark contrast to Ballard's vision, Alt-Erlaa actually functions in accordance to its architect's plans and it's said that its tentants hold their homes in high esteem.