Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Wolfgang Schueller
VERTICAL BUILDING
STRUCTURES
Vertical building structures range from massive building blocks to slender towers. They
may occur as isolated objects or urban mega structures. This geometrical study: from
the single house to the urban building, suggests the formal variations including,
single and cluster houses, free-standing and merging buildings, terraced and
inverted stepped buildings, open and closed shapes,
and so on.
Infinite many possible building shapes depending on urban context, building function,
economy, aesthetics, etc.
Examples of Terraced
Housing
Atrium Buildings
Further floor framing patterns, floor stucture systems, corner framing and core framing
Building Organism:
structure, geometry, function,
elevators, mechanical
systems, zoning, etc.
Movement Systems
The distribution of
mechanical systems to
the various thermal zones
is studied. The flow of the
many systems is
dependent on the
function of the building: in
buldings with fixed
cellular sudivisions a
decentralized branching
may be needed, whereas
in open-office landscapes
a much more centralized
branching of the
mechanical services is
the rule.
Examples of Elevator
Shaft Systems and
Mechanical Floors
THE RANGE OF
BUILDING
STRUCTURES
It is obvious that a
slender , tall tower
must be a compact,
three-dimensional
closed structure
where the entire body
acts a unit. On the
other hand, a massive
building block only
needs some stiff,
stabilizing elements
that give lateral
support to the rest of
the building.
The development of modern building support structures has its origin in the inventive
spirit of structural engineering and the rapid progress in the engineering sciences
during the 19th century. The birth of the new era of high-rise building construction is
surely reflected by the unbelievable height of the
Eiffel Tower in Paris, 1889, with 300 m. The exponential shape of the tower is
almost funicular as vertical cantilever with respect to lateral wind pressure and as a
column with respect to weight (i.e. equal stress). The tower conveys an understanding
of equilibrium forms and expresses clearly lateral stability with its wide base similar to
the base of tree trunks.
With the 15-story Johnson Wax Tower (1950) at Racine, Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd
Wright became the first designer to break away from the traditional skeleton concept
in high-rise construction. He used the tree concept, in his urge toward the organic, by
letting the mushroom-type floor slabs cantilever from the central core, which is deeply
rooted in the ground. Wright freely used the plastic quality of concrete and helped to
even further identify the potential of the material.
Influenced by the newly found possibilities of engineering and the spirit of invention,
the Russian Constructivists experimented in the early 1920s or so with different
building shapes, the deconstruction of the building, in other words by taking a
completely opposite position to the classical tradition of faade architecture.The
constructivist art of modernism surely has influenced designers. Pioneers such as
Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo at the early part of this century in Russia, and later
Alexander Calders kinetic art and Kenneth Snelsons tensegrity sculptures.
The early development of tall buildings occurred in Chicago from about 1880 to 1900, where
block- and slab-like building forms reached 20 stories.
Then the soaring towers of New York introduced the true skyscraper, the symbol of
American cities.
Louis Sullivan integrated masterfully abstract stylistic considerations of
tripartite subdivision with the expression of load-bearing in the Guarantee
Building, Buffalo, 1895.
The Gothic style was applied to the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh
(mid 1930s) to articulate height of the tower through the upward thrust that is the skyscraper.
The Empire State Building (1250 ft), New York, 1931, Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon - the
building does not express the complexity of the building organism as the modernists do
Notice the further development of the faade and appearance as the effect of
functionalism in the resolution of the wall to a transparent weightless skin or the
deconstruction of the faade takes place.
The early development of modern tall buildings occurred in Chicago from about 1880 to 1900,
where block- and slab-like building forms reached 20 stories.
Then the soaring towers of New York introduced the true skyscraper, the symbol of American
cities.
The Gothic style was applied to the Cathedral of Learning at the University of
Pittsburgh (mid 1930s) to articulate height of the tower through the upward thrust
that is the skyscraper.
Empire State Building (381 m, 1250 ft), New York, 1931, Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon, the
building does not express the complexity of the organism as the modernists do.
gravity flow
Johnson Wax Research Tower (8 stories), Racine, WI, 1944, Frank Lloyd Wright
development of
the faade and appearance as the
effect of functionalism in the resolution of the
wall to a transparent weightless skin or the
deconstruction of the faade takes place.
Building complex in
Amsterdam
The transition
The transition of
building to base
NordDeutsche Landesbank am
Friedrichswall, Hannover, 2002,
Behnisch
Real Life
Exchange House, London, 1990, SOM; located directly over the British Rail train tracks north of the
historic train sheds that were renovated as part of the overall development, the 10-story office block
4/15/2016
84
supported on an expressed structural frame spans the tracks in the manner of a bridge, with a parabolic
arch the basis of the overall structural engineering design.
A building structure can be visualized as consisting of horizontal planes (floor and roof
structures), the supporting vertical planes (walls, frames, etc), and the foundations. The
horizontal planes tie the vertical planes together to achieve somewhat of a box effect, and the
foundations make the transition from the building to the ground possible.
Some considerations related to wind action are studied in this drawing indicating that
wind loads are not simply uniform pressure values as given by codes.
The building response to lateral load action is investigated in this drawing. The
horizontal forces are transmitted along the floor/roof diaphragms, which act as deep
flat horizontal beams, to the vertical lateral-force resisting structures which in turn
respond as vertical , flexural or shear cantilevers.
Introduction to Response
of Building to Load Action
High-rise structures range from pure structure systems, such as skeleton and
wall construction, and systems requiring transfer structures, to composite
systems and mega-structures.
Vertical building
structure systems ,
organized according to
efficiency
STRUCTURE SYSTEMS
STRUCTURE SYSTEMS
The bearing wall was the primary support structure for high-rise
buildings before the steel skeleton and the curtain wall were introduced in the
1880s in Chicago. The traditional tall masonry buildings were massive
gravity structures where the walls were perceived to act independently; their
action was not seen as part of the entire three-dimensional building body. It
was not until after World War II that engineered thin-walled masonry
construction was introduced in Europe.
Bearing wall construction is used mostly for building types that require
frequent subdivision of space such as for residential application. Bearing
wall buildings of 15 stories or more in brick, concrete block, precast largepanel concrete, or cast-in-place reinforced concrete are commonplace
today; they have been built up to the 26-story range.
Plan forms range from slab-type buildings and towers of various shapes to any
combination. The wall arrangements can take many different forms, such as the crosswall-, long-wall-, double cross-wall-,tubular-, cellular-, and radial systems.
Study of gravity force flow along walls:The nature of gravity force flow can be visualized as the
flow of water which is distributed when an object is submerged in the uniform current thereby
displacing the flow lines. The resulting flow net depends on the type of opening in the wall and
support conditions. The degree of disturbance, that is the crowding of the stream lines, indicates
the increased speed or the corresponding intensity of load action
18-story Nederlandse
Gasunie, Groningen, 1994,
Alberts + Van Huut Arch., is
organically shaped to
reflect the constant
movement under the
change of sun and
weather. The slender
building, 1:6.7, consists of
load bearing concrete walls
anchored front to back by
nearly m thick diaphragm
walls. The 60-m glass wall
in front, which appears
almost like a waterfall, is
carried by an enormous
steel space frame covering
the atrium space.
Zollverein School of Management & Design, Essen, 2006, SANAA : Kazuyo Sejima +
Ryue Nishizawa, SAPS / Sasaki, Tokio, B+G Ingenieure / Bollinger und Grohmann
Apartment
building,
Heerlen,
Netherlands
WALDEN 7, 1974. Sant Just Desvern. Barcelona, Ricardo Bofill. The building is a vertical labyrinth
consisting of seven interior patios linked on all levels by vertical and horizontal circulation routes. The
dwellings, the combination of square 30 m2 modules, come in different sizes, ranging from the singlemodule studio to the four-module apartment, either on one floor or duplex.
Visual study of LA
MURALLA ROJA
Black castle,
Spain, Ricardo
Bofill
Visual study of Stufendomino Lyngberg, Bonn- Bad Godesberg, Wetzel Wohnbau, 1975
The fractal space of Moshe Safdies Habitat 67 in Montreal, Canada, consists of load bearing precast concrete
boxes which were stacked 12 stories high and are tied together by post-tensioning. The vertical elevator shafts
and stair cores together with elevated horizontal streets give lateral support in frame action to the asymmetrical
assembly.
Sky Villageas the mixed-use building is being calledsteps out in more than one direction.
Designed by Rotterdam-based MVRDV and its Danish codesigners, ADEPT, the 380-foot-tall
stacked neighborhood features a combination of apartments, offices, retail, and parking.
The basic design starts with a square grid of 36 units, or pixels, each two stories tall and
measuring 2512 feet wide by 2512 feet long, a dimension arrived at for its flexibility for use
as a suitable parking grid, housing unit, and office type. The four central pixels make up the
core. Surrounding pixels are removed and stacked on top of each other in various
configurations, though no single floor comprises all 36 pixels. The building gets fattest
about a third of the way up, where floors contain up to 26 pixels. Were very fond of
Legos and use them in the office for conceptual designs, says Anders Peter Galsgaard, one
of the Copenhagen-based engineers. We try to build the same way.
Galsgaard also likens the structure to a Christmas tree, with a very stiff base, in
this case consisting of two levels of underground parking, and a main trunk, the
cast-in-place concrete core made up of elevators, stairs, and shafts. The pixels,
which have a column at each of the corners and diagonal bracing on two
sides, will hang from the core from steel trusses rather than cantilever in the
traditional sense. According to Galsgaard, Hanging the pixels this way creates a
lot of compression in the core, so even under very high wind loads there is very
little tension, which allows us to use steel more efficiently.
CORE STRUCTURES
Many multi-core buildings with their exposed service shafts have been
influenced by the thinking of the Metabolists in Japan of the 1960s, who
clearly separated the vertical circulation along cores and the served spaces.
Their urban clusters consisted of vertical service towers linked by multilevel
bridges, which in turn contained the cellular subdivisions.
The linear bearing wall structure works quite well for residential buildings where functions are
fixed and energy supply can be easily distributed vertically. In contrast, office and commercial
buildings require maximum flexibility in layout, calling for large open spaces subdivided by
movable partitions. Here, the vertical circulation and the distribution of other services must be
gathered and contained in shafts and then channeled horizontally at every floor level. These
vertical cores may also act as lateral stabilizers for the building.
Marina Towers (179 m, 62 stories), Chicago, 1964, Bertrand Goldberg Marina City. The first 18 stories of
each tower consist of continuously rising circular slabs for parking. The remaining 62 stories consist of
pie-shaped apartments with cantilevered balconies which give the towers a scalloped form. (Chicago,
Illinois)
Federal Reserve Building, Boston, 1972, Stubbins Arch, Le Messurier Struct. Eng., 3-story
transfer trusses carry 30 floors to the end cores
OCBC Center (197.7 m (649 ft), Singapore, 1976, I.M. Pei, Arup,,
concrete mega-frame
Buildings in Madrid are typically founded on drilled piers that bear on a stiff clay layer called Tosca. At the
Cuatro Torres site, the Tosca clay is approximately 20 meters below grade, and it was presumed that a
mat foundation supported on drilled piers would be the appropriate foundation.
North-south lateral loads are resisted by pure cantilever action of two cores, and since the gravity load for the entire building is
carried by the cores, there is no uplift or tensions in the core walls, even with an aspect ratio of 11 to 1.
For east-west lateral loads, the cores are too narrow to provide adequate strength and stiffness as pure cantilevers, and the transfer
trusses are used to link the two cores together, such that the system behaves like a large moment-frame to resist lateral forces.
At each of the three truss levels, the system of trusses consists of the following: two primary trusses that span east-west32 meters
between the cores; and two secondary trusses that cantilever 10 meters north and south from the primary trusses and transfer the
eight gravity columns back to the primary trusses. Ideally, the primary trusses would be simple span between the cores; however,
since the primary trusses also interact with the cores to resist lateral loads, the top chord of the truss would need to be connected to
the core. Connecting the top chords of the truss to the core walls would induce negative bending moments in the truss under gravity
loads, resulting in top-chord tensions at the connection to the core. To minimize the gravity-load negative moments, the top-chord
connection of the primary trusses to the core has been detailed to allow horizontal movement; this connection was not fully tightened
until the full structural dead load had been applied to the truss. Therefore, in the permanent condition, top-chord tensions only result
from live loads and east-west lateral loads.
The connection of the primary trusses to the cores is one of the most critical in the building. Transmitting the large gravity and lateral
loads to the cores is accomplished with a robust and positive connection of the truss chords to an embedded, built-up steel column
within each core (four total). During erection, the tension force that would develop in the bottom chord of the primary truss actually
resolves itself as a horizontal thrust against the cores, since the bending stiffness of the cores is larger than the axial stiffness of the
truss chord. The thrust on the cores caused complexity with the diaphragm-to-core connection details of the floors above and below
the truss levels. To eliminate this thrust, post-tensioning tendons are provided along the bottom chord of the primary truss and
anchored to the embedded column in the cores. In addition to minimizing the axial thrust, the post-tensioning provides a level of
redundancy for the critical truss to core connection.
At each level where the truss top and bottom chords attach to the core, a 1,900-millimeter-thick slab is provided within the core. The
thick slabs provide a means of engaging the full cross-section of the core to resist the truss chord forces. The 1,900-millimeter slabs
are reinforced with both mild reinforcement and post-tensioning tendons in two directions.
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1973, I. M. Pei, constructivist sculpture
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1973, I. M. Pei, constructivist sculpture
Hypobank (21 stories), Munich, Germany, 1981, Walter and Bea Betz
Triangle building,
Friedrichstr/ Mauerstr.
Berlin, 1996, Josef Paul
Kleihues
Yamanashi Communications
Center, Kofu, Japan, 1967,
Kenzo Tange
The Hong Kong Club and Office Building, Hong Kong, 1983, Harry Seidler, 112-ft (34 m)
curved prestressed concrete girders are shaped according to the intensity of force flow
and carry the loads to four huge S-shaped corner columns
The Hong Kong Club and Office Building, Hong Kong, 1983, Harry Seidler, 112-ft (34 m)
curved prestressed concrete girders are shaped according to the intensity of force flow
and carry the loads to four huge S-shaped corner columns
SUSPENSION BUILDINGS
The application of the suspension principle to high-rise construction rather than
roof structures is essentially a phenomenon of the late 1950s and 1960s. The
structuralists of this period discovered a wealth of new support structure systems
in the search to minimize the material and to express lightness allowing no visual
obstruction with heavy structural members. The fact that hanging the floors on
cables required only about one-sixth of the material compared to columns
in compression, provided a new challenge to designers.
Tree-like buildings with a large central tower, from which giant arms are
cantilevered at the top or intermediate levels, to support tensile columns, are
quite common today. The typical suspension systems use the
rigid core principle (single or multiple cores with outriggers or beams, megaframes, tree-like frames, etc.),
guyed mast principle,
tensegrity or spacenet principle.
Lille Europe Tower (115 m), Lille, France, 1995, Claude Vasconi, where the floors are
suspended from a huge cross-beam on top which, in turn, is supported by the end cores
SKELETON STRUCTURES,
FLAT SLAB BUILDING STRUCTURES
When William Jenney in the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago
(1885) used iron framing for the first time as the sole support structure
carrying the masonry faade walls, the all-skeleton construction was born.
The tradition of the Chicago Frame was revived after World War II when the
skeleton again became a central theme of the modern movement in its search
for merging technology and architecture. A typical expression of this era are
Mies Van der Rohes buildings, which symbolize with their simplicity of
expression the new spirit of structure and glass.
Various Colunmn
Exposures
Curtain Walls
Frame behavior
3 Sp @ 20' = 60'
Analysis of frames
7 Sp @ 25 ft = 175 ft
15 Sp @ 12' = 180'
2(180)/3 = 120'
180/2 = 90'
The drawing of Mies van der Rohes 52-story, 212-m IBM Tower in Chicago (1973)
expresses the structural action and organization of the steel frame; the building is
controlled by the grid of 9 x 12 m; the grid seems almost to subdue the structural action
Simmons Dorm, MIT, Boston, 2002, Steven Holl. The undergraduate residence is envisioned with
the concept of "porosity." It is a vertical slice of city, 10 stories tall and 382' long, providing a 125 seat theater, a
night caf, and street level dining. The "sponge" concept transforms the building via a series of programmatic and
bio-technical functions. The building has five large openings corresponding to main entrances, view corridors, and
outdoor activity terraces. Large, dynamic openings are the lungs, bringing natural light down and moving air up.
Each of the dormitory's single rooms has nine operable windows. An 18" wall depth shades out the summer sun
while allowing the low angled winter sun to help heat the building. At night, light from these windows is rhythmic
Visual study of the skeleton as assembly: the various systems can only suggest the
infinite variation in which the linear beam and column elements can be formed and
related to one another
Typical Braced
Frame Structure
Gravity action
Multi-bay concrete shear wall steel frame building: under gravity and lateral load action
Visual study of shear wall/ core frame interaction systems in plan: typical structures
are shown, in some cases the core is the stiffest element and resists nearly all the
lateral loads, in other building the resistance to lateral force action is shared.
Daley Center Building; this 31-story steel frame building is constructed in Cor-Ten
steel. It is a larger scale frame consisting of 89-ft. wide bays, the horizontal beams
being deep I-beams with web stiffeners. The steel sculpture in the plaza in front of
the building is by Picasso. (Chicago, Illinois)
Inland Steel Building, Chicago, 1957, Walter Netsch + Bruce Graham (SOM)
First National Bank Building (844 ft, 60 stories). Chicago, 1969, C. F. Murphy, This 60story building completed in 1969 has a concrete frame with a curved taper giving the
structure a broad base. (Chicago, Illinois) First National Bank Building. View of the
half-width of the base of the building. At the right is the center line of the building,
and this line is vertical (also seen to the right in GoddenF22). The sloping members
to the left are the main outside columns which form the continuous taper of the
building width. (Chicago, Illinois)
Transamerica Pyramid,
San Francisco, 1972,
William L. Pereira
Staggered wall-beam buildings: story-high wall beams span the full width of the building on
alternate floors of a given bay and are supported by columns along the exterior walls; there
are no interior columns. One can visualize the apartment units to be contained between the
Bridge Structures
Denari, like OMA, was faced with a narrow Manhattan lot, which was further
constrained by the presence of the High Linea 22-block-long former railway
that rises almost 20 feet above gradeimmediately adjacent to it. But unlike
OMAs tower a few blocks east, which is completely (and surprisingly) as-ofright, Denaris building his first ground-up designrequired a number of
waivers. There were a lot of restrictions for this site, but the developer was not
interested in conforming to the building code, Denari admits. He really wanted
to push boundaries. Fortunately for both the architect and the developer, the
city was behind the project, particularly because of its relation to the High Line,
which is currently being transformed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Field
Operations from its disused state into a nearly 7-acre, elevated urban park.
Denaris project also takes a much different structural approach than 23 East
22nd Street. Because the building is wider at the top than at the bottom,
there is a natural instability, explains Stephen DeSimone, president of
DeSimone Consulting Engineers, who is working with Denari. By using
steelwhich is a much lighter building materialyou automatically
reduce the effect of the building wanting to topple over. So, unlike 23 East
22nd Street, which can be described as a brute-force solution with its thick
concrete walls, HL23 is made up of slender structural members, including
canted steel columns (at a maximum 24-degree angle and located mostly along
the long, steel-clad eastern facade) and diagonal bracing (composed of 8-inch
pipes and forming a tripartite composition on the glazed north and south
elevations).
Though the forms of each of these buildings are new, the technology that
makes them possible is not. And while they seem to push the limits of
structural engineering, they have only just begun to scratch the surface of
whats possible for 21st-century buildings.
Hinged frame + core/ outrigger building construction: the stiffness of the structure can be
greatly improved by using story-high or deeper outrigger arms that cantilever from the core
or shear wall at one or several levels and tie the perimeter structure to the core by either
connecting directly to individual columns or to a belt truss. This makes the structure act as
as a spatial structure similar to a cantilever tube-in-tube.
TUBULAR STRUCTURES
As the building increases in height in excess of circa 60 stories, the slender interior core and the
planar frames are no longer sufficient to effectively resist lateral forces. Now the perimeter
structure of the building must be activated to provide the task by behaving as a huge cantilever
tube. Much credit for the development of the system must given to the eminent structural
engineer Fazlur Khan of SOM in Chicago.
Various types of wall perforations and wall framing for tubes are shown in the next figure:
Perforated shell tube (j): concrete wall tube, stressed skin steel tube, composite steelconcrete tube
Framed tube or Vierendeel tube (H)
Deep spandrel tube (I)
Framed tube with belt trusses (L)
Trussed or braced tube (M)
Latticed truss tube (N)
Reticulated cylindrical tube (O)
Combination (K)
Further organization of tubes according to behavior (cross section):
Pure tubular concept: Single-perimeter tubes, tube-in-tube, bundled tubes (modular tubes)
Modified tubes: interior braced tubes, partial tubes, hybrid tubes
Tubular Structures:
various
types of tubular systems are shown:
perforated shell tube ( stressed skin
steel tube, concrete wall tube,
composite steel-concrete tube), framed
or Vierendeel tube, deep spandrel tube,
framed tube with belt trusses, trussed
or braced tube, latticed truss tube, any
combinations. The organization
according to the cantilever crosssection is: single perimeter tubes, tubein-tube, bundled or modular tubes, and
modified tubes (interior braced tubes,
partial tubes, hybrid tubes)
Hearst Tower, New York, 2005, Foster Associates Architects, Green Highrise: the diagrid frame used 20%
less steel than the average astructure, the building glass has a special coating that lets in natural light
while keeping out the solar radiation that causes heat. It is the double-wall technology that dissipates the
sun's heat; ventilation that runs under the floor rather than through overhead ducts; carbon-dioxide
monitors that assure adequate fresh air; and a system that collects and reuses rainwater and wastewater,
saving 10.3 million gallons of water each year.
John Hancock Center (100 stories, 344 m), Chicago, 1968, Bruce Graham/ Fazlur Kahn (SOM)
Fountain Place (219 m), Dallas, 1986, I.M. Pei, is of elaborate formal geometry where the
perimeter trussed steel frame for the lower 40-story portion is the primary support structure
Bank of America Center (238 m, 56 stories), Houston, 1984, P. Johnson, the tower has the appearance of
three adjoining towers, where the tallest tower consist of a perimeter tube closed on the inside with a
Vierendeel hat truss following the gabled roof line that ties the braced frame of the interior core to the
exterior tube; the intermediate tower consists of a channel-shaped partial tube and the low-rise tower has
a planar welded frame along the end face.
Messeturm (256 m), Frankfurt/M, 1991, Jahn/Murphy, tube-in-tube in concrete, 50% of wind
moments is carried by the perimeter tube
The 355-foot-tall OMA building would tower over its neighbors on 22nd Street, a mostly residential block lined with a mix of
10- to 12-story structures and smaller town houses in the shadow of the Flatiron Building. The original motivation for the
growth spurt in the OMA buildings midsection was to provide a good mix of apartment unitsa total of 18 luxury units,
including several duplexes and terraceswith varying floor plans and ceiling heights. OMAs initial design included a much
more dramatic cantilever. Working from the earliest stages of design development with structural engineers at WSP Cantor
Seinuk, however, OMA modified that element so that the cantilever became more gradual. The first cantilever, on the
seventh floor, where the building sets back slightly, is the greatest, at 10 feet 5 inches, with successive ones above it
stepping out at every other floor for a total overhang of 30 feet 8 inches above the adjacent five-story town house to the
east. (The developer purchased air rights from a number of nearby
Spanning 10 floors of the 24-story building, the cantilever resembles an inverted staircase. At such a scale, the daring
design is impressive, but the concept is an ancient one. In a corbel, which predates vaults, a block or brick is partially
embedded in a wall, with one end projecting out from the face. The weight of added masonry above stabilizes the
cantilever and keeps the block from falling out of the wall. The same theory holds true for this building, though steel
plates are added at each of the cantilevered floors to counter overturning due to lateral, or wind, forces. In the absence of
such forces, the building would be completely stable without additional support because of plans to use post-tensioning
cables to anchor it into the bedrock.
The primary structure of the building, however, is not steel but concrete. The facades are composed of 12-inch-thick, highstrength structural concrete and act as sheer walls (thinning out to 10 inches above the 21st floor). The structural strategy
can alternately be described as a tube with punched-out window openings or a series of stacked Vierendeel trusses
that form a tube. The structure fits nicely with the architecture, explains Silvian Marcus, C.E.O. of WSP Cantor Seinuk.
Because the floor area is so small, putting the structure in the perimeter keeps the interiors free of columns. It also
suits the architects desire for varied fenestration.
In fact, the vertical window openings, which mimic those of nearby buildings, play a significant structural role. The size of
the openings correlates to moments of stress. In areas under greatest stress, the window spacing is modified to
provide increased structural area and rigidity, supporting the building like a structural corset. In the towers
midsection, where the forces generated by the cantilevers are greatest, openings are smallest. There, ceiling heights
are also at their lowest at 11 feet. Where forces are minimal, as at the top of the building, ceiling heights increase to 15 feet,
and openings get bigger, creating loftlike interiors. All of the forces from the upper part of the building travel down the
east and west side walls to the buildings base, where a 46-foot-tall, column-free screening room for the Creative Artists
Agency is located. The box-in-box construction at the base acoustically isolates the screening room from the apartments.
Adds Long, In some ways, the base is more complicated structurally than the cantilever above.
MEGASTRUCTURES
AND HYBRID STRUCTURES
The term megastructure refers not to the visionary concepts of the 1960s
expressing the comprehensive planning of a community, but solely the support
structure of a building. However, the megastructure is still formulated on the basic
concept of a primary structure that supports and services secondary structures or
smaller individual building blocks. In the early 1970s, Fazlur Khan proposed to
replace the multicolumn concept by four massive corner column supporting
superframe. Theprinciple can be traced back to the John Hanckock Center in
Chicago.
Study of new generation of structures (hybrid structures): the current trend
away from pure building forms towards hybrid solutions as expressed in geometry,
material, structure layout, and building use, is apparent. In the search for more
efficient solutions for unique conditions, a new generation of structural systems has
developed with the aid of computers which, in turn, have an exciting potential of
architectural expression. Mathematical modeling with computers has made mixed
construction possible, which may vary with building height, thus allowing nearly
endless possibilities that one could have not imagined only a few years ago.
Proposal for the new World Trade Center in New York (2002), Rafael Vinoly
Overseas Union Bank Center (280 m, 63 floors), Singapore, 1986, 280m, Kenzo Tange, hybrid
system of steel frames with concrete walls to increase rigidity (the core consists of hybrid
steel frame with concrete wall zones) allowing for column-free floor space.
Petronas Towers (88 stories, 452 m), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1996, mixed construction, core-outrigger:
the towers are each framed by a 152-ft (46 m) diameter concrete perimeter tube connected by floor
diaphragms to a high-strength reinforced concrete core nearly 75 ft (23 m) square. The core columns are
connected at the corners to the perimeter tube by four reinforced concrete Vierendeel trusses at the 38th
floor above ground. The slenderness of tower is 8.6!
Petronas Towers (88 stories, 452 m), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1996, mixed construction, core-outrigger: the
towers are each framed by a 152-ft (46 m) diameter concrete perimeter tube connected by floor diaphragms to a
high-strength reinforced concrete core nearly 75 ft (23 m) square. The core columns are connected at the corners
to the perimeter tube by four reinforced concrete Vierendeel trusses at the 38th floor above ground. The
The composite
structure comprises a
concrete core, 8
concrete mega
columns, eight steel
columns, and steel floor
framing.
Bank of China Tower (369 m, 70 stories), Hong Kong, 1989, I. M. Pei + L. E. Robertson; space-frame
braced tube organized in 13-story truss modules, where the 170-ft (52 m) square plan at the bottom of
the building is divided by diagonals into four triangular quadrants. The mixed construction of the
primary structure consists of the separate steel columns at the corners (to which the diagonals are
connected), which are encased and bonded together by the massive concrete columns. The giant
diagonal truss members are steel box columns filled with concrete.
Hongkong Bank (180 m), Honkong, 1985, Foster + Arup, steel mast joined by suspension
trussesacting in portal frame action
Seoul Broadcasting Center, Seoul, 2003, Richard Rogers Arch. And Buro Happold Struct. Eng
New Museum of
Contemporary Art, New
York, 2008, Kazuyo
Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa
/ SANAA, Mutsuro
Sasaki Struct. Engineer
Phare Tower (68 stories), La Dfense, Paris. 2012, Thom Maynes (Morphosis, LA)
Shinjuku, Tokyo,
Kenzo Tange, 2009
HIGH-RISE APARTEMENT TOWER (190 m, 623 ft, 54-floor), Malm, Sweden, 2005,
Calatrava, based in form on the sculpture Turning Torso
Fusionopolis (15-story),
Singapore Green
Building, Ken Yeang
Commerzbank (259 m, 60 stories), Frankfurt, Germany, 1997, Norman Foster + Arup, the triangular steel
tower has a central atrium where the corner core columns support the Vierendeel trusses which, in
turn, carry the floors and skygarden while allowing column-free interior spaces.
Doha High Rise Office Building (45STORY), Qatar, 2010, JEAN NOUVEL
The curtain wall is composed of four butterfly aluminum elements of different scales. This overall pattern
changes in order to provide maximal protection from the strong east and west sun. In other words, the glassclad building is wrapped in a metal brise-soleil based on a traditional Islamic pattern. Butterfly aluminum
elements 'echoing the geometric complexity of the mashrabiyya are set on the facade according to the specific
orientation of each part of the building - 25 % toward north, 40 % toward south, 60 % on east and west. Beneath
this layer, a slightly reflective glass skin complements the system of solar protection. Roller blinds are also
provided inside."
use of auxiliary
damping systems
Vortex-shedding phenomenon:
When a building is subjected to a wind flow, the originally parallel
wind stream lines are displaced on both transverse sides of the
building and the forces produced on these sides are called vortices.
At low wind speeds, the vortices are shed symmetrically (at the same
instant) on either transverse side of the building, and the building
does not vibrate in the across wind direction.
On the other hand, at higher wind speeds, the vortices are shed
alternately first from one and then from the other side. When this
occurs, there is an impulse both in the along the wind and across
wind directions. The across wind impulses are, however, applied
alternatively to the left and then to the right. This kind of shedding
which causes structural vibrations in the flow and the across
wind directions is called vortex shedding.
The problem of excessive building motions and their effect on comfort
of the occupants can be more difficult one to solve in the case of very
tall and slender buildings.
fins
setbacks
buttresses
horizontal and vertical through-building openings
tapering the shape to reduce the frontal area at the top of the tower
drop-off corners
sculptured building tops
92nd floor
87th
floor
Nakheel Tower (1400 m, 4593 ft, 228 floors), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2010 - ,