Fun Stuff : Asia's Best Secret

Exciting Skylines of Asia

Jakarta - Indonesia













Bangkok - Thailand












Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

Fun Stuff : My Top 5 Skyscraper Projects ...

It would be my ultimate dream to be the construction manager of buildings this caliber ...
dream big ... !!!!

1. CCTV Building - CHINA




2. The Regatta Hotel and Apartments - Jakarta, Indonesia




3. Westin Hotel- Jakarta, Indonesia




4. (of course ) Burj Dubai , Dubai, UAE





5. Korean Rail Corp Tower, Seoul - Korea

Fun Stuff : What the ... !!!

Hey guys,

Finally finished my blogs, i ve just completed commenting on some of the interesting blog ive found. Now, im officialy done with my blog. What a relief .

Now let the fun begins ...

Look at these buildings, it made me go what the ....

Article 6 : 30 St. Mary Axis, London

The Swiss Re tower, the City of London's latest landmark Photo: Norman Foster & Partners


London’s first sustainable skyscraper

London’s Swiss Re Tower, officially known as 30 St Mary Axe, is the city’s first environmentally sustainable tall building. In keeping with its commitment to sustainable development, the Swiss re-insurer, Swiss Re, sought to minimise the building’s impact on the environment. Among the building’s most distinctive features are its windows, which open to allow natural ventilation to supplement the mechanical systems for a good part of the year.

The building takes maximum advantage of natural light. This is largely thanks to the lightwells that are one of the building’s hallmarks. The lightwells create the distinctive spiral design that wraps around the exterior. These triangular cutouts, six in each floor, allow penetration of daylight and fresh air to penetrate deep into offices. Floor-to-ceiling windows also contribute to the sense of openness.

Natural daylight and ventilation
The six fingers of accommodation on each floor, configured with lightwells between, maximise daylight penetration, reducing the time that artificial lighting is required. Light level and movement sensors prevent unnecessary lighting, reducing energy consumption and cooling loads.

Wind pressure differentials generated by the building’s aerodynamic form assist natural ventilation through the lightwells and reduce the requirement for conventional air conditioning. As a result energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions are significantly reduced.

External envelope
The ventilated double skin façade reduces heating and cooling requirements. Its performance can be tuned to maximise benefits that the prevailing internal and external environment might offer. Blinds located within the cavity of the ventilated double skin façade intercept solar gain before it enters the office environment, intercepted heat can then be reclaimed or rejected depending on the requirement for heating or cooling.

Building systems
The building’s primary fuel is gas, one of the cleanest available. Low energy light fittings are specified wherever possible. De-centralised on-floor plant offers the flexibility to supply and control mechanical ventilation on a floor by floor basis. By closely matching supply with demand, energy consumption is reduced compared to a central system for the whole building.

Transportation
Comprehensive public transport facilities surround the site to reduce dependency on private cars without placing undue load on any one element of infrastructure. The provision of cycle spaces within the basement is three times that of the minimum standard required, which together with shower and changing facilities, encourages this alternative means of transport. There are no private car parking spaces in the building.

A common definition of sustainable development is given by the World Commission on Environment & Development 1997: “…development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

taken from http://citymayors.com/government/london_corp.html



30 St Mary Axis, or known as the Gurkhin, is one of the most popular land mark in the world right now. There are so many elements of the building that can be used as a discussion topics, from the sustainable materials use to the unusual shape of the building.

However, as I have said in earlier post, I love skyscrapers in general - the taller the better :) , but I particularly have interest in the ones with glassy façade. The 30 St. Mary Axis will be a perfect example of the topic. I have done an extensive research on this particular building for my previous assignment, but for the purpose of this blog, i will focus on the most interesting technology it adopts.

The building uses the double skin façade system, which means there are two layers of glass skins. In this case both of the skins are single glazed, with open able internal skin mainly for fresh ventilation and maintenance.


The ventilated double skin façade also reduces heating and cooling requirements. Its performance can be tuned to maximise benefits that the prevailing internal and external environment might offer. The way this works is by having an air buffer in the cavity of the two skins, this air buffer will prevent heat loss form the inside of the building.

Article 5 : Market Trend in Concrete

taken from The Mix Tribune, Fall 2004 - issue 3

The main point of this article is outlining the advantages of big companies being able to invest money into research to make a more high tech concrete production equipment that enables them to manufacture cutting edge concrete products in a more precise, efficient and safe manner. This in turn translates into increased sales, labor savings and shorter lead times.

There are many break through have been invented, one of them is, as stated in the second paragrapgh of the first page, self-consolidating or selfcompactingconcrete (SCC).
Its ability to flow three-dimensionally and compact itself without any or very little vibration means it has far fewer, if any, surface defects and is much stronger than conventional concrete.

I dont think as a second year CM students you need to know all the latest tech in building material, as we are still learning all the basics. But it is good to be aware of the issue.

Article 4 : Torre Agbar Illuminates

The Torre Agbar - 21st Century Illuminate Architecture
Agbar Tower

The Torre Agbar, or Agbar Tower, has been designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. It opened in June 2005 and it was inaugurated officially by the Kings of Spain on 16 September 2005.

The Torre Agbar is a colored lighting illuminate skyline that pretend to become one of the 21st century landmark of Barcelona.
The building is characterized by its nocturnal illumination: it has more than 4,000 luminous devices that use technology LED. A total of 4,500 L3 RGB lights were installed to illuminate the 32 floors of offices in the Agbar tower. The lighting system, which contains 4,500 L3 RGB lights, is controlled from a single computer.

Jean Nouvel wrote on this project: “This is not a tower, a skyscraper, in the American sense. It is a more an emergence, rising singularly in the center of a generally calm city. Unlike slender spires and bell towers that typically pierce the horizons of horizontal cities, this tower is a fluid mass that bursts through the ground like a geyser under permanent, calculated pressure.”
via: glass on web & blog wired
Photo: LedsMagazine.com

Atricle taken from www.ledlighttray.com



I chose this article because of my interest for skyscraper, especially the ones with glass facade. Torre Agbar building is one of the most well known buildings in Barcelona.
People can amost mention only two building in Barcelona, Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia and this amazing building.

The main focus of this article analysis will be the LED lights that placed behind the facade to light up the building at night. The building's enclosure system consists of multicolored aluminum "pixels" — seemingly innumerable — shimmering behind a veil of fritted glass louvers. Color flares over the surface: oranges, pinks, and reds rise hot from the base, cooling through blue into white, and finally fading into clear glazing over the tip. Rogue splotches complete a composition of shifting intensity, luminosity, and depth.

Every single light bulbs operates individually and controlled by computer system.

What a technology !!!

Article 3 : Steel for Life

www.bluescopesteel.com
above the is link to the article published by the company,
click Steel for Life, its a Pdf file.

The reason i choose the article is because the fact that the company tries to promote steel to become a more sustainable material by combating the current challenges we are facing these days such as green house gas emissions, climate change, air pollution and drought.

Steel is notoriously famous for its high Embodied Energy and manufacturing process.

Blue Scope steel as Australian major steel company addresses these issues and comes up with these solutions below:
• The traditional steel making technologies requires a lot of water. In many areas in which the company operates, water shortages and water quality have become significant issues for the community.
To solve this issue, the company’s manufacturing operations have extensive water reduction and recycling program. As a result, this will lowered the embodied energy of the material and helps the community conserving the water in the area.
• Coal (Carbon) is an essential ingredient in the chemistry of blast furnace iron making. No other commercially viable method for producing raw steel exists.
Blue Scope Steel is participating with others big steel manufacturers around the world to develop new technology to reduce the amount of carbon required in producing the steel, hence reducing the Greenhouse gas emissions.

Steel is probably one of the most widely used material in modern building these days. I think, It will be great if these companies could make steel becomes more sustainable material to use. This will help the building industry become less notorious for damaging the planet.