In J. G. Ballard's dystopian novel High-Rise, the isolated residential tower has 40 floors.
The tower is a self-contained development with apartments, shops, recreational facilities, and other services. Its design promises residents an efficient modern lifestyle, but the building's social divisions and competition gradually intensify. Residents begin to withdraw into separate groups, and the high-rise becomes a setting for escalating disorder and violence.
The forty-floor height is a concrete detail that distinguishes Ballard's fictional building from many real apartment blocks. The novel's horror does not depend on an external invasion or supernatural force; instead, it shows how architecture, inequality, boredom, and isolation can destabilize a community.
High-Rise was first published in 1975. It is often grouped with Ballard's dystopian and disaster fiction, although its central catastrophe develops within an apparently advanced, comfortable society.