CBI member, Arup recently completed work on the 392m “Bamboo-shoot’ Building in the Shenzhen Bay Area. Officially known as China Resources Headquarters, Arup’s latest skyscraper stands at 67 storeys tall and is held up by an innovative structural system of external slender columns.
Arup partnered with the US architect KPF on the design of the building, and was directly responsible for the structural engineering, geotechnics, façade design and fire safety strategy.
The building is particularly notable because it is the first time that a building has been built utilising external columns rather than a traditional mega-column within a seismic area.
The building has a sculpted form of 56 external slender columns stemming from the diagrids at the bottom and converging into a crystal cap at the top. This outer-shell is complemented by a core-structure system which does away with strengthened storeys. The result is a system that is more efficient in vertical force transmission, making the ‘bamboo-shoot’ more resistant to typhoons and earthquake. This new method of structural engineering is also more cost-effective and requires a shorter construction period.
Arup tested the new engineering system to ensure that it was sufficiently wind-resistant to be built in a typhoon area. This involved using advanced structural optimisation technologies to test models and running simulations to fine-tune the design and improve the skyscrapers behaviour under different wind loads. This allowed Arup to visualise the steelwork fabrication, identify potential problems during the construction and resolve them all in advance. After rigorous testing, outrigger dampers were added to the steelwork to reduce wind-induced vibrations and create a more comfortable environment for occupants.
The building Is not only innovative in its approaches to structural engineering however, it is also very aesthetically pleasing. By pushing the weight of the building onto external columns rather than rely on a mega-column, the architects have managed to produce a very slender form for the building. This also means that the interior is column free which increases the net floor area.
To read more about Arup’s “Bamboo-shoot Building”, please follow the link.
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