Foreword

The elevator is more than a means of ascent—it is a metaphor for ambition, exclusivity, and the fragmented realities of modern urban life. With each rise, it leaves behind not just physical spaces but social complexities, silencing the world outside in pursuit of a singular vision of progress.

In this issue, Green Room explores the elevator as both mechanism and symbol. From the narrow confines of its metallic box to the broader tensions it exposes between ground-level multiplicity and sky-high exclusion, we rethink the elevator’s role in shaping skyscrapers and redefining success.