Skywalking in the city: Glass platforms and the architecture of vertigo.

•The paper explores the ambivalent concept of vertigo and its significance for contemporary architecture.•It examines in particular the rise of elevated glass platforms through concepts of transparency, experience, and kinaesthesia.•Proposes that these emerging design features constitute a kind of 'sixth façade'.•Discusses this phenomenon as a spatial manifestation of the experience economy.•Concludes by highlighting the rise of 'architectures of vertigo' in relation to wider social imperatives.