Article #4: Safety First!

City blast injures workers

Two construction workers were taken to hospital suffering burns and shock after an electrical explosion in Melbourne's inner city yesterday. Read it more here, click link.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/city-blast-injures-workers/2007/06/04/1180809394251.html?s_cid=rss_age

The Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Petronas Twin Towers

Architect: Cesar Pelli

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Building Type: Skyscraper, commercial office tower
Construction System: Glass, steel, and concrete
Climate: Tropical
Context: urban
Style: Modern Architecture

The Petronas Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the world from April 15th, 1996 until October 17th, 2003 when Taipei 101 (Financial Center) was topped out at 508m (1676ft). The 88-storey Petronas Twin Towers, developed as an integral part of the Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) project, house PETRONAS' new corporate headquarters.

Completed in 1997, the Twin Towers are a striking glass-and-steel combination with floor plans based on an eight-pointed star. The Towers were designed to symbolize strength and grace using geometric principles typified in Islamic architecture. The towers are also joined at the 41st and 42nd floors (175m above street level) by a 192ft-long (58.4m) double-decker skybridge - linking the two sky lobbies and facilitating the movement between the two towers.

Construction

The building was constructed in the middle of the city centre. It brought together the world's leading practitioners of engineering, building technology and construction. Construction planning began in January 1992. By March 1993, the excavators were hard at work digging down to 30 metres below the surface of the site. The extent of excavation required over 500 truck-loads of earth to be moved every night.

The next stage was the single largest and longest concrete pour in Malaysian history: 13,200 cubic metres of concrete was continuously poured through a period of 54 hours for each tower. This record-breaking slab, together with 104 piles forms the foundation for each of the towers. From this floor rose a 21-metre high retaining wall, with a perimeter length of over 1 kilometre. This concrete shell and the basement area it enclosed required two years of up to 40 workers on site all day and night.

As an added consideration, two different contractors were chosen for each tower to allow cross-monitoring of construction values and techniques – with one coming to the aid of the other should problems arise. The construction of the structure commenced in April 1994, after rigorous tests and simulations of wind and structural loads on the design. The 'composite' structure of the Towers employs both the flexibility of steel and the rigidity of high-strength concrete.

Each component material was used to best effect in constructing the 452 m-high buildings. About 80,000 cubic metres of high strength concrete with 37,000 tons of steel were used to form the frames of both Towers. Of particular importance was maintaining the verticality of the structures throughout the full height as they were being built. The reason for this, besides reinforcing the aesthetic design, were to ensure structural load integrity and the safe passage of the high-speed double-decker elevators.

The determination of verticality was monitored by international specialist surveyors who, with the aid of global positioning systems, checked alignments every day and every night. The same surveyor used the same instrument at the same time in every 24 hours, thereby minimising any element of differences in judgment. Construction works were done primarily at night and finishing works were done primarily during the day (to minimize the cost of artificial lighting). As a result, the entire management and construction team redefined the Malaysian industry standard of 'fast-track'.

The PETRONAS Twin Towers were finally encased in steel and glass and could be viewed as complete in June 1996.

Reference:
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/cx/?id=petronastwintowers-kualalumpur
http://www.petronastwintowers.com.my/internet/pett/pettweb.nsf/frm_home_hi?OpenFrameset

Updates!

I've updated some of the site visits and articles. which they are in my April/May blog folder. so check it out! or just browse through my older posts.. thank you!

Major Project: Final Poster and Finished Model

Final Poster

The Physical Model

Window detail - steel frame

I-Beam

• I-Beam mullions running the full height of the building
• In the style of Mies van der Rohe
• Non-structural steel

Detailed corner of the office building

Article #3: Steel and Glass Construction

For my major project, Ive searched for many information on steel and glass construction and found this particular article on Norman Foster. This article explains Foster's ideas and solutions for a steel and glass buildings. Below is the link to the article called 'Hearst Tower' by William Lebovich who is an architectural historian and photographer from Chevy Chase, Maryland who photographs new projects for architects and developers and documents properties of historical, architectural, engineering, or industrial significance throughout the continental United States.

http://www.architectureweek.com/2007/0523/design_1-1.html

Published 23.05.2007

Major Project: Development of the physical model

The development of the physical model in the scale of 1:10.

Major Project: Development

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

Elevation detail of the north wall

horizontal section of the corner

This drawing is to show the materials involved in the building. How the glass and steel combines together and with the I-Beams to give architectural style to the building, they are non-structural steel.

vertical section of the corner

Once again to show the materials and construction of the office complex from footings to the roof. However, i haven't labeled it yet, I just want to show the drawings that I have done for the project.

Article #2: Timber

NEWS
Construction with timber highlighted by Development Program

http://www.nafi.com.au/news/view.php3?id=451



For a more detailed information on timber construction, click below:

http://www.timber.org.au/menu.asp?id=131#bottom

Major Project: References

http://en.wikipedia.org.wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_frame

Werner, Blaser. 'Mies van der Rohe.' 1972. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Yehuda E. Safran. 'Mies van der Rohe.' 2001. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili.

Article #1: Sustainable Architecture

Green Architecture is becoming popular, this is because of the state that we are going through which is global warming. I have found this interesting article at Architecture Week which provides information on sustainable architecture.


GreenBuild Conference
by ArchitectureWeek

The GreenBuild Conference, held in Denver, Colorado in November 2006, provided an important rallying of forces against global warming. Architects, builders, nongovernmental organizations, building product manufacturers, and other private companies gathered to announce ambitious plans for confronting the problem.

Rick Fedrizzi, president of the U.S Green Building Council (USGBC), which organized the conference, announced a long list of proposals intended "to bring about 'immediate and measurable' carbon dioxide reduction and to advance the green building industry. The USGBC will develop a CO2 offset program and require that, to achieve LEED certification, commercial buildings must reduce CO2 emissions to half of current levels.

That the USGBC is adding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the established concerns of conserving energy and fighting pollution is good news for activists alarmed by the role of the construction industry in global warming. One of these activists is Edward Mazria, founder and executive director of Architecture 2030. This group's goal is that all new buildings will be carbon neutral by the year 2030.

Mazria said at the conference: "The task we face is daunting. Working separately, we could accomplish something significant in each of our respective spheres. But by working together, we actually have a chance to influence the course of history."



Read it here, http://www.architectureweek.com/2007/0110/news_1-1.html


Published 10.01.2007

Major Project: Mies van der Rohe

Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)

His aesthetic theories and his completed buildings reveal a preoccupation with industrial technology that shows quality and perfection of detail. Mies has set himself the task of re-establishing fundamental values in architecture. The fundamental values are the qualities of space and of form; and of proportion and of detail. Mies's works are great, that is because of his concentration upon pure form and pure detail.

When he opened his own office in 1913, he designed several villas and also produced daring design of a scyscraper that started modern architecture. In 1919, the sketches that Mies developed were for an all-glass tower, twenty storeys in height. For these projects revealed a quality in Mies which has been his most impressive characteristic throughout his career. That quality is the ability to produce architectural statements of such overwhelming precision, simplicity and a major revelation impact.

Below, are two of Mies's great buildings, the Lake Shore Drive Apartments and the Seagram Building.

As you can see from his designs, Mies developed the concept of 'skin and bones' architecture. Where steel and concrete represents strength; these would be the 'bones' of his building. Glass is the veil that draped over the skeleton to form the 'skin'. He always wanted to emphasize on structure.

The building that I have chosen is the Crown Hall, at the Illinois Institute of Technology (1950-56). Crown Hall incorporates a clear span of 220 by 120 feet. The building are framed in steel with deep steel girders or trusses spanning the distance between outside columns that spaced 60 feet apart. As a result, there is no need for any interior supports at all, so that the enclosed space can serve any functions.

The deep girders are above the roof plane, so that the roof ceiling (which was hung from the overhead girders) becomes a flat slab uninterrupted by any dropped beams. The building is famous for its clear strutural expression, the transparency building that shows Mies's style with its steel and glass facade, and the open, column free interior space.

I chose Mies van der Rohe as my master architect for this project because of his design where eventhough his style is simple, with the use of only steel, concrete and glass; but he wanted to emphasize on the structure of the building itself.

Reference:

Blake, P. 1960. 'Architecture and Structure.' Middlesex: Penguin Books

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mies_van_der_Rohe

Site Visit #4: Federation Square, Melbourne

Federation Square, Melbourne (or Fed Sq). It comprises a series of buildings containing a public broadcaster, art galleries, a museum, cinemas, exhbition spaces, restaurants, bars and shops around two major public spaces; one covered (The Atrium), the other open to the sky, and composed of two spaces that flow into one another (St. Pauls' Court and The Square). The majority of the precinct is built on top of a concrete deck over busy railway lines.

Federation Square occupies roughly a whole urban block. The open public spaces are directly opposite Flinders Street Station and St Pauls' Cathedral. The layout of the precinct helps to connect the historical central district of the city with the Yarra River. The result of an international design competition, Federation Square was designed by Don Bates and Peter Davidson of Lab Architecture Studio.

Details:

Construction
The construction of the deck beneath the Square is understood to be the largest expanse of railway decking ever built in Australia. The deck is supported by over 3,000 tonnes of steel beams, 1.4 kilometres of concrete 'crash walls' and over 4,000 vibration-absorbing spring coils and rubber padding. The deck is designed to support some of the most sensitive uses imaginable - galleries, cinemas, and radio and television studios - and it needed to isolate them from vibration and noise.

The Facade
The building façade system, utilising new understandings of surface geometries, allows for the individual buildings of Federation Square to be differentiated from each other, whilst simultaneously maintaining an overall coherence.

Three cladding materials: sandstone, zinc (perforated and solid) and glass have been used, structured within a triangular pinwheel grid. This modular system uses five single triangles (all of the same size and proportion) to make up a self-similar triangular (but larger scale) "panel". Five panels (following the same geometrical logic) are joined together to create a larger scale, self-similar triangular "mega panel", which is then mounted on to the structural frame to form the visible façade.

Through the varying proportions of façade materials within this triangular grid and their combinations within a changing set of patterns or figurations, unique surface qualities have been developed not only for each building, but also for the different orientations of each façade.

The Square
The square was the civic and spatial component for Federation Square, establishing connections with the diverse context of the city and the surrounding urban and riverside landscape. The design allows for a vast array of uses, from the largest scale public gathering of up to 15,000 people to intimate areas for relaxation and thoroughfare.

To distinguish it from the city's existing pavement, the square was surfaced in hand-laid (approx. 500,000) cobblestones of variegated coloured Kimberley sandstone. The sandstone paving has been laid in a patterned design as one of the collaborative components of the public artwork programme. Paul Carter, writer and artist, linked this overall design to a separate artwork called nearamnew, set within the Square's surface. This work of sandblasted paving records and voices the site's history through the cultural encounters that have marked it as a site. Consisting of a series of overlapping stone tablets inlaid with layers of typographically scaled and interwoven texts, the artwork reflects different and often conflicting subjects and stories throughout the site's history.




Reference:
http://www.federationsquare.com.au/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_Square

Site Visit #3: at Yarra Street & Malop Street, Geelong

The construction of the Westfield Bay City Plaza. Below, are the pictures of the site and its development.

Site Visit #2: Geelong Waterfront - Carousel

The Carousel

A stunning pavilion of steel and glass was designed to house the ride, its steam engine and the large band organ. In the heart of Geelong, beside Steampacket Quay on the Waterfront. The custom-made pavillion has been recognised for its design excellence, winning the 2002 Victorian Architectural Award for its architects, McGlashan Everist.

Below, are some of the details of the building itself:

Detailed pictures of the exterior

These pictures shown above is to show you the connection style of the building with the use of bolts. Really strong connections to prevent from strong winds since it is near the bay.

Detailed pictures of the interior (ceiling)

For more detail, visit this website:

http://www.gaa.com.au/case_studies/case_gc.html

Site Visit #1: Hope Street, Geelong West.

The Site

Tilt-up Construction

Tilt-up concrete construction is a proven method for building office buildings, retail centers, warehouses, distribution centers, call centers, manufacturing facilities and other commercial / industrial structures with speed, safety and construction cost benefits.

In a tilt-up construction project, the building's walls are poured directly at the jobsite and are created horizontally in large slabs of concrete called "panels". These panels are then raised into position around the building's perimeter forming the exterior walls. This means the tilt-up structure's exterior wall is virtually finished when it is tilted into place. Tilt-up construction allows general contractors to build a wide range of commercial buildings more quickly and with lower construction costs than what is typical for traditional masonry construction projects.

Proppings

The tilt-up panels are supported by proppings/bracings. The proppings are screwed onto the concrete slab for a temporary brace stiffening. The line of slots on the bottom of the tilted up panels allow the concrete slabs to join up with the panels, allowing the panels to act as a structural component to support the whole building. When this is done, the propping will be removed.

Related websites:

http://www.tiltup.com/

http://www.kmgtiltconstruction.com.au/html/about_tilt_construction.html