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

Ting Kau Bridge

The Ting Kau Bridge (Chinese: 汀九橋) is a 1177 meters (3861,55 ft) long cable-stayed bridge in Hong Kong, China. The bridge connects North-west New Territories with Hong Kong Island, crossing the Rambler Channel.

It was designed and constructed by a joint venture composed by:
- Cubiertas y Mzov (22%), Entrecanales y Tavora (22%), now both part of Acciona, from Spain.
- Ed Züblin AG (22%), from Germany.
- Downer and Co (Downer EDI) (22%), from Australia.
- Paul Y (12%), from Hong Kong.

The construction began in 1994 and it was finished in 1998.

The video, composed of 5 parts, it´s really interesting because it explains the building of the bridge step by step.

Construction of Ting Kau Bridge & Approach Viaduct 1/5




Construction of Ting Kau Bridge & Approach Viaduct 2/5




Construction of Ting Kau Bridge & Approach Viaduct 3/5




Construction of Ting Kau Bridge & Approach Viaduct 4/5




Construction of Ting Kau Bridge & Approach Viaduct 5/5




From: wikipedia and youtube

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