Showing posts with label Skyscrapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Skyscrapers. Show all posts

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Iberdrola Tower by Cesar Pelli

Iberdrola Tower will be the tallest building in Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain).

The famous architect Cesar Pelli, also made Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Iberdrola Tower will have 41 floors and it will be 165 meters tall.

Construction Started in 2007 and it will be finish in 2011.


The property is Iberdrola and the constructors are Afer Group.

In the photos we can see the construction process in this phase:

The reinforced concrete structure, like in other skyscrapers, it is made by a concrete core where there will be the lifts and which also helps on the stability of the structure.

The concrete floors are made with a climbing or sliding formwork (example of an sliding formwork), which is sustained in the central core. In the Iberdrola Tower case they make 1 floor on 1 week and it slides up to continue building.

In most skyscraper the facade starts when the structure is not finished, because if not, the construction will delay a lot of time. Here we can see how the facade have been started and the structure haven´t been finished. In the photos we can see the sustentation of the facade glass to the slab.

If you have any cuestion of the construction, you can ask on my blog or in my personal email. I´m not participating in this building construction but if i can, I will help on your doubts.



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La Torre Iberdrola con sus 165 metros y 41 plantas, será el edificio más alto de Bilbao (Superando a la Torre BBVA de 97 metros) y de toda la Comunidad Autónoma Vasca.

Su famoso Arquitecto es César Pelli el cual tiene una gran experiencia en la construcción de rascacielos como por ejemplo las Torres Petronas de 452 metros en Kuala Lumpur.

La construcción comenzó en 2007 y esta prevista su finalización en 2011.

El promotor es Iberdrola, y la constructora el Grupo Afer.

En las fotos se puede apreciar el proceso de construcción en esta fase de la obra:

La estructura de hormigón armado, como en la mayoría de los rascacielos, esta realizada mediante un núcleo central que le da estabilidad a la estructura y en el cual se alojarán los futuros ascensores, un total de 21 en la Torre Iberdrola.

Para realizar la estructura del rascacielos se utiliza un encofrado trepante (ejemplo de encofrado trepante), el cual se sostiene en el núcleo central, y conforme se realizan los forjados y los muros del núcleo trepa hacia arriba para continuar con la siguiente planta. En el caso de la Torre Iberdrola se realiza una planta por semana.

Respecto a la fachada, como en la mayoría de los rascacielos, ésta comienza mientras se está realizando la estructura, ya que si no la obra tendría una duración mucho mayor. En estas fotos podemos ver como se ha empezado a colocar la fachada en una de las plantas y tambien se puede apreciar el sistema de anclaje de los paneles de vidrio a los forjados.

Si tenéis alguna pregunta sobre la construcción, o si participáis en la construcción de la Torre podéis hacer un comentario en el blog o escribirme a mi email personal. Yo no estoy participando en la construcción de este edificio, pero puede que alguna de las dudas sobre el proceso de construcción pueda resolveros.

También os recomiendo el blog:
Ya que suele adelantarnos siempre las noticias sobre las construcciones en el Gran Bilbao y entre ellas nos habla cómo no, de la Torre Iberdrola (web oficial).

Friday, June 5, 2009

Architecture in Bilbao

It´s a lucky to have born in Bilbao, and can contemplate this big architecture in the city.


Guggenheim Bilbao, by Frank O. Gehry
Isozaki towers (Isozaki Atea), by Arata Isozaki
Iberdrola Tower (Under construction), by Cesar Pelli

My first time shooting with a digital SLR camera, Canon Eos 450d 18-55mm.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Burj Dubai - UAE


The Burj Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, is the tallest man-made structure on earth.

The Tower Architect Adrian Smith, worked with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) until 2006. His works includes several major Skyscrapers.

The promoter is Emaar Properties.
The architecture and engineering firm SOM is in charge of the project.
The primary builders are Smasung Engineering & Construction and Besix along with Arabtec.
Turner Construction Company are the construction managers.

This Supertall Skyscraper construction started on September 21, 2004 and spected to be completed on September 2009.

21 July 2007: Surpasses Taipei 101 whose heigth of 509,2 meters (1.671 ft)
17 January 2009: topped out at 818 meters ( 2.684 ft), with 160 floors.


Construction of Burj Dubai 1/6




Construction of Burj Dubai 2/6




Construction of Burj Dubai 3/6




Construction of Burj Dubai 4/6




Construction of Burj Dubai 5/6




Construction of Burj Dubai 6/6





Burj Dubai on April 2009




Burj Dubai on Google Maps



This is my second post about the Burj Dubai. (My first post contains more videos about the Burj Dubai)

More information here

Monday, April 20, 2009

Some demolitions

1) Two Skyscrapers demolitions

Demolition of the Agfa building, a small skyscraper in Munich



Demolition of the second tallest building ever exploited




2) A Stadium demolition




3) We must be carful with the demolitions...

Demolition without explosives




Demolition with explosives




4) ¿How strong are the structures?


On the 6th position...




On the 5th position...1/2



On the 5th position... 2/2




On the 4th position...




On the 3rd position...




On the 2nd position... 1/2    Huaquén Bridge (Chile)




On the 2nd position... 2/2    Huaquén Bridge (Chile)




On the 1st position...



Tuesday, February 3, 2009

HSB Turning Torso

HSB Turning Torso is the tallest building in Scandinavia, having 54 floors and being 190 metres tall (623 feet). It´s located in the city of Malmö in Sweden.

It´s the first skyscraper made by the spanish world renowned architect and engineer,
Santiago Calatrava. The design is based on a white marble sculpture by Calatrava called Twisting Torso which represents a twisting human being. When Johnny Örbäck, former CEO of the Turning Torso contractor and Board Chairman of the Malmö branch of the co-operative housing association HSB, saw the sculpture in 1999, he contacted Calatrava to ask him to design a building using the same concept.

The skyscraper has got 147 luxury apartments and office spaces.

Its construction started in the summer of 2001 by Swedish
NCC constructors and it was inagurated on the 27th April 2005.

In the next video we can see how the workers built floor number 36 in just one week.

Turning Torso - Building the 36th floor. 1/5




Turning Torso - Building the 36th floor. 2/5




Turning Torso - Building the 36th floor. 3/5




Turning Torso - Building the 36th floor. 4/5




Turning Torso - Building the 36th floor. 5/5




From: wikipedia and youtube

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 as its name says is in Taipei in the Republic of China (also known as Taiwan) and has 101 floors above ground and 5 underground floors. The Taipei 101 was the tallest skyskraper in the world, until the 21th July 2007 when the Burj Dubai overtook that title. It was designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners.

The construction started in 1998 and it was opened to the public on the 31st December 2008.


A engineering interesting aspect:


Taipei 101 has a tuned mass damper (also kown as active mass damper AMD or armonic absorber) of 660 metric tons suspended from floor 92 to floor 88. The particularity of this AMD is that anyone can see it, because it´s shown to the people. This AMD was designed by Thornton-Tomasetti Inc and Evergreen Consulting Engineering.


Videos:

Now we can see a video composed of 5 parts, showing the construction of the skyscraper. Then, I have put another video showing us the tunned mass dumper in action and finally 2 videos about the wind that hits the top of the Taipei 101.

I hope you´ll enjoy it.

The construction of Taipei 101

Taipei 101 1/5




Taipei 101 2/5



Taipei 101 3/5




Taipei 101 4/5



Taipei 101 5/5



Video of Taipei101´s tuned mass damper in action



Curiosity: How much wind can there be on top of Taipei 101?


Wind on top of Taipei 101 1/2




Wind on top of Taipei 101 2/2


From:
wikipedia and youtube

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Daruma-otoshi demolition technology

The Daruma-otoshi demolition system was invented by the Japanese construction company, Kajima Corporation.

This technology to demolish skyscrapers consists in replacing the support columns with gigant computer controlled hydraulic jacks. Then, the first floor is demolished and the debris is taken out. Next, the entire building is lowered down with the hydraulic jacks and the demolition of the second floor begins...till the end when the last floor is demolished.

The method is called daruma-otoshi, because of an old Japanese game called that way. It consists of hitting a Daruma doll (composed of 5 pieces one on top of each other) using a small hummer, from bottom to top, avoiding the pieces from falling during the whole game. The Daruma-otoshi japanese video game is available here.


Video: Daruma-otoshi demolition method used in floors 17 and 20 of buildings in Tokyo, Japan.



Advantages:
- City center buildings can be demolished without interrupting the traffic.
- Too much space is not needed to collect debris, because it is taken out all the time.
- The recycling process is more effective: 99% of steel and concrete and 92% of the interior materials.
- No need for explosives.
- The demolition is better controlled and safer.
- Less noise is produced.
- It's 20% faster.

Disadvantages:
- I suppose that it must be more expensive.

From: youtube, wikipedia

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Citigroup Center in New York

The Citigroup Center (First called Citicorp Center) is in New York City. There´s also another Citigroup Center in Chicago, but I´m going to speak about the skyscraper of New York. It is 278.9m (915 foot) tall, with 59 floors. It is easily distinguised in the skyline of NY because of his 45º angled top base, which was thought to have luxury apartments on it and then, solar panels, but finally they didn´t do anything.

The skyscraper, completed in 1977, was designed by the american architect Hugh Stubbins Jr. for Citibank. The engineers were William LeMessurier and Associates.

This building was pioneer in using a shock absorber, technically called tuned mass damper (TMD). They were used in bridges but not in buildings. Nowadays the tuned mass dampers are used in skyscraper architecture to reduce movements of the building in windy days or when earthquakes happen. The Citigroup Centers TMD is a 400 tonne concrete block moved by a hydraulic system.

In these 2 videos we can learn how engineers resolved structural problems before the design and once the skyscraper was built.

Citigroup Center´s secrets 1/2




Citigroup Center´s secrets 2/2




From:
wikipedia, PBS, tuned mass damper, youtube

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Shangai World Financial Center

The Shangai World Financial Center (SWFC) is located in China. It was designed by Eugene Khon and William Pedersen from Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. William Pedersen is one of the best North American Architects. The structural engineers have been Leskie E. Robertson Associates (LERA).

This project has been named the 2008 Best Tall Building Overall, by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).

It is one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world, 492.0 meters (1,614.2 ft) tall. It is currently the world's tallest completed building by roof.

The aperture at the peak was originally circular. But this changed because on the one hand it was difficult to build and on the hand it was too similar to the rising sun of their economic rival's flag: Japan. Finally, they decided chose a trapezoidal hold. Some people say that it looks like a giant bottle opener. In my opinion, it´s a really elegant and supertall skyscraper.

Its construction began on 1997 but was it interrupted by the Asian Financial crisis. Finally, the construction restarted on 2003 and it was inagurated on the 28th of August of 2008.

5 videos showing how it was constructed, 1 video showing the observatory nowadays and 1 video showing the 2 auto
shock absorbers of the skyscraper.


Shangai World Financial Center 1/5



Shangai World Financial Center 2/5




Shangai World Financial Center 3/5




Shangai World Financial Center 4/5




Shangai World Financial Center 5/5




The observatory of the Shangai World Financial Center




The 2 auto shock absorbers of the SWFC



From: Youtube and wikipedia

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Burj Al Arab

The Burj Al Arab is the most luxurious hotel, the only one in the world which holds 7 stars. It´s located in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum wanted it to be the symbol of Dubai. The designer was the British Architect, Tom Wright. He took the inspiration from the sail of a boat. That´s why it´s located in the sea on an artificial island 280 metres (919 ft) out of the Jumeirah beach. It became the symbol of Dubai. Nowadays, I think that the Burj Dubai, The Palm Islands and The World islands are also symbols of Dubai.

The designers and engineers behind Burj Al Arab were Atkins. The interior of the building was designed by the chinese designer Khuan Chew.

It is actually the highest building used exclusively as hotel which is 321 meters (1,053 ft) tall. But when Rose Tower, 333 meters (1,093 ft) tall in Dubai and Ryuyong Hotel 330 meters (1,083 ft) tall in Pyongyang, North Korea will open their doors, it will become the third tallest hotel.

It has got 202 bedrooms, all of them suites, between 169 square meters (1,819 sq ft) and 780 square meters (8,396 sq ft). It also has two really special restaurants. The first one, Al Mahara (Arabic meaning "The Oyster") is a simulated submarine restaurant with a very big aquarium. The second one, Al Muntaha (Arabic meaning "Highest" or "Ultimate") is located 200 metres (660 ft) above the Persian Gulf.

Its construction began on 1994 and was inagurated on the 1st of December of 1999.

There are 5 videos that teach us how the Burj Al Arab was constructed.

Burj Al Arab - Megastructures 1/5




Burj Al Arab - Megastructures 2/5




Burj Al Arab - Megastructures 3/5




Burj Al Arab - Megastructures 4/5




Burj Al Arab - Megastructures 5/5



From: youtube and wikipedia

Friday, December 26, 2008

Space Tower

Space Tower or "Torre Espacio" in Spanish, located in Madrid, is actually the 4th highest building of Spain. It´s designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. It is 224,5 meters (736,5 ft) long and it has got 57 floors.

Its construction started in 2004 and it is being finished now.






5 videos showing how one floor on the Space tower was built during one week.

Space Tower - Extreme Engineering 1/5




Space Tower - Extreme Engineering 2/5




Space Tower - Extreme Engineering 3/5




Space Tower - Extreme Engineering 4/5




Space Tower - Extreme Engineering 5/5



From: youtube

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Burj Dubai

I want to start with the tallest skyscraper in the world at this moment, the Burj Dubai. I have put the best 2 videos I´ve seen of its construction. The second video is composed of 5 videos.

Burj Dubai - Step by step



From: Ingenieria y construccion


Burj Dubai - Big, Bigger, BIGGEST 1/5




Burj Dubai - Big, Bigger, BIGGEST 2/5




Burj Dubai - Big, Bigger, BIGGEST 3/5




Burj Dubai - Big, Bigger, BIGGEST 4/5




Burj Dubai - Big, Bigger, BIGGEST 5/5



From: youtube