SUPERTALL BUILDINGS
SHANGHAI TOWER
Special points of GENERAL INFORMATION
interest: Shanghai Tower is a 632
meter multipurpose building
 Form and Function
that is the most forward
 Development Pro- looking of the three towers
gram that anchor the commercial
district of Lujiazui. Designed
 Structural Features by local teams to realize the
rich culture of the city.
 Curtain Wall
Shanghai Tower embodies
 A Construction Chal- the transformation of the
lenge Pudong district of the city.
In less than a quarter of a
 Transparent Skin century, a towering district
of factories, warehouses and
 Development sys-
tems and power rice fields has developed
plants with high effi- into a high-powered global
ciency financial center, with Shang-
hai Tower as a unifying land-
mark.
DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM
Zone 9
Observation / Cultural
Shanghai Tower consists of 9
vertical zones, mainly nine
small buildings piled together.
Zon
Each zone is 12 to 15 storeys
high. These divisions help
manage the building's mixed-
Zon
use program, while simplify-
ing heating, cooling and verti-
Zon cal circulation. This tower
fills the ground with a 6 level
retail podium and 5 zones
Zon
(70 floors) of Class A and
above commercial office
Zon space which are 2 zones that
house luxury hotels. At the
very top is the indoor obser-
Zon
vation floor and, on the
121th floor, an open obser-
Zon
vation deck. there is also a
high-speed elevator.
(CHINA)
FORM AND FUNCTION
There are 3 main strategies
architects and structural
engineers improve the shape
of the tower, check its pro-
portions and study the opti-
mal rotation to deflect wind
because the tower is not
symmetrical, the profile is
sharp and the corners are
rounded. The ultimate solu-
tion, which reduces building
wind loads by 24 percent,
results in a lighter structure
that saves $ 58 million in
expensive materials.
STRUCTURAL FEATURES
The structural design of the
210° 180° 150° 120° 90° 60°
Shanghai Tower responds to
many challenges due to its
location namely a windy cli- CURTAIN WALL
mate, active earthquake zone
Shanghai Tower Has a complex
and land-based soil. The heart
shape with design implications
of the structural system is the
for the outer shell of the build-
concrete core. The core acts
ing which is more than 20,000
in conjunction with the steel
curtain wall panels (including
outrigger system and the su-
more than 7,000 unique
per column, with double belt
shapes). the facade would be
coils that support the basis of
difficult to imagine using tradi-
any vertical environment.
tional computer-aided design
Sheltered and mechanical
tools. However, with paramet-
floors extending outward at
ric software, the team can learn
the base of each zone mark
many alternatives and create
the division of the building.
systems that balance perfor-
mance, construction, mainte-
nance, and design.
 SHANGHAI TOWER

Transparent Skin

Shanghai Tower is designed to achieve LEED

Platinum certification and a Green China
Building 3 Star rating. The central aspect of
A Construction Challenge the design is a transparent second skin that
acts like an insulating blanket, reducing ener-
Unlike a more conventional
gy use for heating and cooling. inner and out-
building, in which the walls
er curtain walls have a spectral selective E-
are built from the ground up,
low layer which also reduces the cooling
the outer curtain wall of
load.
Shanghai Tower was most
efficiently constructed from
the top down within each
zone. A system of rods and
cables suspended from above
solved a difficult design chal-
lenge. On the exterior, a
deep V-notch in the façade
makes the spiraling geometry
readily apparent, while con-
fusing the winds that swirl
around the building.

Development systems and

power plants with high
efficiency

Shanghai Tower combines intelli-

gent building control by lowering
energy costs by monitoring and
adjusting systems such as lighting,
heating, cooling, ventilation, and
self-generated power. 270 wind
turbines at the top of the build-
ing provide power for building
exterior lighting, while a 2,130-
kW natural gas-fueled cogenera-
tion system provides electricity
and heat energy to low zone
areas.
DICTIONARY

Concrete Cores
Concrete cores are used for testing
of actual properties of concrete in
existing structures such as strength,
permeability, chemical analysis, car-
bonation etc.

Structural System
Structural system, in building con-
struction, the particular method of
assembling and constructing structur-
al elements of a building so that they
support and transmit applied loads
safely to the ground without exceed-
ing the allowable stresses in the
members.

Belt Truss
The belt truss is the bracing around
the building at the same floor which
are located between adjacent col-
umns. The belt truss and the outrig-
ger together combined stiffens the
building and mitigate the rotation of
the core, storey displacement and
storey drift.

Shear Wall
Shear wall is a vertical element of a
seismic force resisting system that is
designed to resist in-plane lateral
forces, typically wind and seismic
loads.

Mass Damper
A tuned mass damper (TMD), also
known as a harmonic absorber or
seismic damper, is a device mounted
in structures to reduce the amplitude
of mechanical vibrations.

Curtain wall system

A curtain wall system is an outer
covering of a building in which the
outer walls are non-structural, uti-
lized only to keep the weather out
and the occupants in.