TECHNOLOGY in HIGH-RISE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION

High-rise buildings play an increasingly important role in contemporary architecture. Their raising is a necessity for the process of population growth and its concentration in cities, as well as for the high demand for areas in city centers.

According to the Global Tall Buildings Database of the CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) now were erected 1,647 buildings taller than 200 m. The high-rise building construction is characterized by high demand for construction technology and complex engineering works.

The change in the approach in building design in the last two decades is reflected in the models for shaping a sustainable, energy-saving environment, which is specified in the context of comparable methods for assessing buildings with various criteria.

The high-rise buildings implemented today are astonishing in terms of the multitude of their architectural and constructional solutions, as well as their technology. Conducting a comprehensive analysis of technological innovations used in these buildings, due to the size of the issue, requires a special approach. Therefore, a methodology was developed that includes the following elements:

Gathering information on innovative technologies of modern high-rise buildings and completing photos and videos documenting their erection.

Interpretation of collected information on the basis of literature, generally addressing the problem of advanced technologies used in completed buildings.

Conducting, according to a structured diagram, architectural and construction analysis of selected high-rise buildings, in which the applied technologies were significantly more advanced than those of previous projects.

Such a system facilitated the conducting of structured analysis, with particular emphasis being put on the building's body, construction system, vibration damping system, ultra-strong concrete and steel, low-emission glass, double or triple skin facades, and elements decisive for energy saving of the building.

Technological innovations in high-rise buildings

New design trends in geometrical forms: Geometric solids (such as polyhedra, cones, cylinders, spheres, ellipsoids, and toruses) and curved surfaces appear as the components of each modern skyscraper.

Analysing the form of a building can identify the specific types of basic solids or surfaces used in all or parts of the building. In addition to creating the composition of a building, different kinds of distortion of the solids or surfaces are used. Generally, spatial forms can be geometrically divided into polyhedra, solids of revolution, and surfaces. Polyhedra are solids limited by a closed surface and constructed with a finite number of flat polygons. They are divided into Prismatoids (pyramids, prisms, anti-prisms, and octahedrons), polyhedra (platonic solids), semiregular polyhedra (the Archimedean solids), and other polyhedra compounds (Catalan, Johnson, and toroidal).

The second group of geometric forms is the solids of revolution, which are limited by a closed surface of revolution or toroidal based on a circle, ellipse, or other closed figures. In them are a sphere, ellipsoid or torusoid of revolution with a normal section in the shape of a circle or ellipse.

The last group of spatial forms is surfaces, which include: Ruled surfaces (Catalana, conical and cylindrical), curved surfaces of a constant generatix (rotary, torusoidal and translational), and curved surfaces of a varying generatix (wedge, parabolic-elliptic and minimum). From an architectural point of view, modern skyscrapers can be categorized into the following groups: Extruder, rotor, twister, tordos, and also free form.

Innovations in structural systems

Structural systems: The relationship between structure and architectural form has reached its peak in present times. Form and structure have become inseparable and complementary. The primary structural skeleton of a high-rise building can be visualized as a vertical cantilever beam with its base fixed in the ground. The structure has to carry vertical gravity loads, the lateral wind and also earthquake loads. The building must therefore have adequate shear and bending resistance and must not lose its vertical load-carrying capability.

Innovative diagrid system: Currently, the diagrid system is one of the most innovative and adaptable approaches to structuring high-rise buildings (Capital Gate Tower (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Swiss Re (London, UK), Hearst Tower (New York, NY, USA), and CCTV headquarters (Beijing, China)). This kind of structure has evolved from a diagonalized tube. A diagrid is a special form of spatial truss.

Advanced vibration damping systems: The development of the advanced damping system has been characterized on the basis of Japan, which has the most active seismic zone in the world and which paradoxically occupies third place in terms of the number of skyscrapers.

Use of advanced materials: Technological achievements in material engineering have gradually shaped the form, height and construction, as well as energy efficiency of buildings. Initially, steel was the leader in building constructions, as the technology of concrete was not sufficiently developed, and because the produced concrete had a much lower strength than steel.

Innovative energy systems in high-rise buildings: The achievement of high energy efficiency in modern high-rise buildings requires many environmental conditions to be taken into account at the stages of design and construction. Satisfying these requirements allows the maximum use of available ambient energy, the reduction of heat loss from the building, and also a smaller demand for heat and electricity. One of the most finance-intensive requirements is the ventilation and heating of buildings, accounting for about 30% of the energy demand in high-rise buildings.

New technologies of facades: One of the most significant changes in technical solutions and the aesthetics of high-rise buildings was caused by the role of the contemporary glass facade of the building. Architects Norman Foster and Thomas Herzog [34] in the European Charter for Solar Energy in Architecture and Urban Planning stated that the building's exterior walls in terms of light, heat, air and transparency must be susceptible to change and ultimately be controllable to respond to changing local climate conditions.

- Sandeep Raheja

Chairman, K Raheja Realty

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