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.

Article 2 : Arbitration in Building Industry

taken from Austin Construction News, May 2007
click thumbnail for a larger image


The article basically outlines the advantages of arbitration in dispute resolution. It also distinguishes the difference between arbitration and mediation.

Main advantages of arbitration:
• Disputes will be heard by neutral individuals with extensive experience in the specific issue. In this case could be an architect or a builder. The concept discussed and the issues raised will be familiar to the arbitrators, thus limiting the amount of time needed to educate them about the case.
• Arbitration process are not public, so its good for company’s privacy.
• Quick process and often to be very effective.

Of course, arbitration has its disadvantages as well, an arbitration decision if final; there is no right for the losing party to appeal or other recourse.

Arbitration is often confused with mediation; there is a slight difference between the two. In mediation, no dispute is actually adjudicated, simply attempts to bring the parties to an arrangement in which they settle their respective claims

I personally think arbitration is an effective approach to settle a dispute. Architect and Construction Managers are imposed to huge amount of risk, both financial and reputation. So it is really important for us to settle any dispute arises, as the industry normally involves great amount of money.

Article 1 : The 558 Meter Jakarta Tower

Jakarta to get world's tallest tower

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The fact that Indonesian people have a per capita income of only US$910 per annum according to the World Bank does not appear to embarrass the Jakarta Administration as it pushes ahead with its plan to restart the construction of the 558-meter Jakarta Tower, claimed to be the tallest tower in the world.

The Rp 2.7 trillion (US$314 million) project will stand tall in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, and will replace the capital's current landmark, the National Monument (Monas), which was built during the president Sukarno era.

The Jakarta Tower will be higher than the 553-meter Canadian National Tower in Toronto, Canada, currently the world's tallest tower.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, accompanied by State Secretary Bambang Kesowo, officiated at the restart of construction on Thursday.
"This large-scale project when completed will become a symbol of pride for Jakarta as well as Indonesia," Sutiyoso said.

He said the construction of the tower was in line with the grand design in the capital's masterplan, which positioned the Kemayoran area as a main center for development.
PT Prasada Japa Pamudja, a consortium of individuals and medium-scale companies, is the sole developer of the project.

However, company director, Ferry Sangeroki, refused to name those involved in the project, saying only that "more than 100 companies and individuals" were participating. Including The Bethany Church Group as the main Investor.


He said the project would be financed in three ways: equity participation (Rp 400 billion), syndicated loans (between Rp 600 billion and Rp 800 billion) and pre-project sales (around Rp 1.3 trillion).

The Jakarta Tower compound will cover a total of 40,550 square meters, comprising a 10,000-capacity convention center including the main preyer center for the Bethany Church Group, a four-star, 200-bedroom hotel, a 4,000-square-meter education center, 8,000 square meters of office space, a revolving restaurant and an observation deck.
The tower is expected to be open by 2010.

The project had to be suspended due to the 1997 economic crisis, which dealt a severe blow to all sectors, including construction. But investors are very opimistic that the economy will grow stronger for the next 5 year.



taken from The Jakarta Post
www.thejakartapost.com


I came across this article couple months ago and was surprised by the news. I actually made a phone call to my dad back home, as he works in the construction industry, to clarify this news. He told me that the construction has been put on hold as the government withdrew the permit for the construction. The reason for the withdrawal was merely because the main investor of the tower, The Bethany Group Church intended to use the base levels as its main praying centre. Once the tower is finished, the government intends to use it as the new landmark of the city. The government is not really fond of the idea of having the base levels as a praying centre, instead of the initial plan of tourism centre.

I recognize this is such an important issue for me as a construction manager student, because permit and legal issues are some of the key issues a construction manager needs to address.

It is important to satisfy the client wants, but it is also important to make sure the construction process goes smoothly without any impediments. Construction managers somehow need to make these two contradicting issues meet at some point.

Hard Work at the Work Shop : The Model

THE TASK

Construct an exhibition quality physical model of a typical building assembly that includes the intersection of the two elements that you have researched. This model should be at scale of 1:1 or 1:2, be constructed of real of life-like materials and should demonstrate your knowledge of construction detailing.


THE RESEARCH

In response to the task given above, I have chosen the steel apex connections, intersecting with the construction of roofing purlins and sheeting as my 2 portal frames construction process.

Before actually building the model, I have done extensive range of researches. This researches follow the pattern of researches of a professional Construction Manager in undertaking alike projects.

My journey started with a visit to an Engineering Office in Geelong West.

Page-Green & Associates Pty. Ltd.
Consulting Engineers
5 Villamanta St, Geelong West
Phone (03) 52 221 899
email pga@pipeline.com.au

The Engineer gave me his design drawing for a portal frame project. However, he advised me to visit a steel fabricator to get more insights of the actual design of the rafter beams that used for the Apex connection.

p.s. I didn't do any visits to the architect as i can get all the drawings that i need from the Engineer.


The next step of my research is to visit a steel fabricator that often deals with long span beams and columns as required for the this project.
After looking through some site on the net and yellow pages, i finally found the Steel Fabricator i needed.

ATEX STEEL
Structural Steel Fabrications & Erect
2 Moon St. Moolap, Geelong 3221
Phone (03) 52482440

After some consultation, they understand the purpose of my visit and help me accordingly. They gave me a shop drawing for steel apex connection details that spans around 20 meters, which is long enough for the proposed ware house as stated in the assignment description.

I got couple of shop drawings from the fabricator , you can see an example of it.



This Shop drawing helps me greatly in designing my model, as i can just follow all the measurement and sizes that are already calculated in the drawing.

In addition to those visits above, i also have done some online research ( mainly for drawings and pictures) and shops visit ( various shops from Bunnings to Steel Manufacturer to buy the materials i needed for the model )



BUILDING THE MODEL

I have decided to use MDF timer as the base of my model. This will be used to replace the steel used for the beams, plate and cleats.

In designing my model, I strictly follow what it says in the shop drawing as i know this drawing has been consulted carefully between the Engineer the fabricator.
I measured all the elements according to the drawing to make sure it structurally sounds and be able to withstand all the load imposed to it when its being erected.

I worked closely with Des in the workshop in cutting and jointing the MDF, honestly speaking I dont think i would be able to make it without his help.

Once all the materials are cut into the right shape and measurement, I assembled them together using real sized bolts and some nails (this is just for the purpose of the assignment, as I am using mdf for my steel replacement)

These are some pictures of the process









After the structual elements have been put together, the next step is to put the roofing elements, such as the klip lock roof, insulation ( made out of foil and cotton balls ) and safety mesh. To give the real steel effect , i paint the moedl with greyish steel colour and used sealant to give the welding effect, as you can see below.








The last two pictures are the finished model, notice that i have done a little bit of alteration with the size of the purlins. The purlins supposed to be bigger and go over the cleats, whereas in my case, the top of the cleats are levelled with the top of the purlins. This is because the cost to get the right size of the pulins was just too high for me to afford.

Portal Frame Series : Portal Frame Structure

Below are pictures of various part of portal frame.
Some of the key elements are the rafter and Staunchion, roofing structure with its elements,
footing for the staunchion, connection between rafter with the concrete panel , etc. ...


Main Benefit of Portal Frame : Long Span !








Connection between the steel structures with concrete panel.






Rigid Connection for the Post Coloumn




Roofing Structure, notice all the elements ... Purlins, safety mesh, sisalation, roof sheeting, etc
Also notice the bracing put in place.

Portal Frame Series : Post - Tensioned

Post Tensioned floor system is a common technology used these days.Engineers use post-tensioning as a way to reinforce concrete by prestressing it. The compression is done after the concrete has been poured and cured. A set of tendons are tensioned by hydraulic jaks that react against the concrete memeber itself.
When the tendons have streched sufficiently, they are wedged in position and maintain tension after the jacks are removed, tranferring the pressure to the concrete.

Main Benefits of this system:
While concrete is strong in compression, it is weak in tension. Steel is strong under forces of tension, so combining the two elements results in the creation of very strong concrete components. Post-tensioning can help create innovative concrete components that are thinner, longer and stronger than ever before. Many of today's "High performance" concrete structure, including many landmark, bridges and buildings employ this system of reinforcement.

Portal Frame Series : Bracing and Propping

Bracing and propping an important element in tilt up concrete panel construction. it resists wind as well as construction loads. It needs to stay there until the construction process is nearly finish.



The bottom of the props are rigidly bolted to the slab insert




Series of props ready to be connected




Props connected to cast-in inserts , normally 2/3 heights of the panel height.
45' Angle of the props will give the best result of support for the panel.



Construction Managers need to be aware of petty issue such as the props placement. A corner of tilt up panels requires some special arrangement of the props so they do not block each other way.
You can see in this picture , the props are well placed as suggested in the drawing below.








After the panel is erected, in some case, it is required for the worker to cast some concrete to fill up the gap.



a 15 - 20 mm Flexible Sealant fills the gap between the two panels