Burj Al-Arab & Caja Torre Construction study

1.0_Introduction 2.0_Environmental Approaches + Details 3.0_Building Configuration 4.0_Construction Process 6.0_Conclusion5.0_Details and Special Features

BURJ AL-ARAB TORRE CAJA MADRID


BURJ AL-ARAB

Tom Wright Architect RIBA .

(formerly Tom Wills-Wright)

The architect and designer of the Burj al Arab in

Dubai, UAE.

The felt pen illustration was an early development

sketch of the hotel drawn by Wright .

The brief to the architect was to create an icon for

Dubai, a building that would become synonymous

with the place, as Sydney has its opera house and

Paris the Eiffel Tower so Dubai was to have the Burj

al Arab.

Tom Wright lived in Dubai during the design and

construction of the project, working as the project

Design Director for Atkins , one of the world′s leading

multi discipline design consultancies.

Tom Wright is British, born in Croydon a suburb of

London on 18th September 1957.

Educated at the Royal Russell School and then

Kingston Polytechnic school of Architecture.

Wright became a member of the Royal institute of

British Architects in 1983 and has been in practice

ever since.

THE ARCHITECT

BURJ AL-ARAB1.0_Introduction 2.0_Environmental Approaches + Details 3.0_Building Configuration 4.0_Construction Process 6.0_Conclusion5.0_Details and Special Features

• Name : Burj Al Arab

• Location : Dubai, United Arab Emirates

• Status : Complete

• Constructed : 1993–1999

• Use : Hotel, Restaurant

• Construction

type : Skyscraper

• Cost : US$ 700 million

• Structural

material : Steel, Concrete

• Antenna or

spire : 321 m (1,050 ft)

• Roof : 210 m (690 ft)

• Top floor : 200 m (660 ft)

• Floor count : 60

• Floor area : 111,500 m2

(1,200,000 sq ft)

• Elevators : 18

• No. of

rooms : 202

• Features and

amenities : Helipad is available

: National landmark

: One of the city‟s famous

buildingBurj Al Arab - the world's third

tallest hotel.

• The Burj Al Arab - Tower of

the Arabs , also known as

"Arab Sail“.

• A luxury hotel located in

Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

• At 321 m (1,050 ft), it is the

third tallest building in the

world used exclusively as a

hotel.

• Stands on an artificial

island 280 m (920 ft) out from

Jumeirah beach.

• Connected to the mainland

by a private curving bridge.

• It is an iconic structure,

designed to symbolize

Dubai's urban transformation

and to mimic the sail of a

boat.

• Located on an island of

reclaimed land offshore of the

beach of the former Chicago

Beach Hotel.

• Dubai's iconic building is a

construction of superlatives.

• The world's only 7-Star

hotel - although its formal

rating is 5 Star Deluxe, the

highest the international

rating system offers.INTRODUCTION


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DubAymx.JPG

How the idea was born

• The instruction from the client (the

Crown Prince of Dubai) was to design,

not just a hotel, but also a signature

building; one that would announce,

"Welcome to Dubai".

• The client wanted a dramatic

statement with imagery that would

immediately conjure up images of the

city.

• The reason of Burj al Arab building

look like a giant sail- Dubai is

becoming a world resort location, so

the building had to say holiday, fun and

sophistication all things associated

with yachting. This mixed with Dubai's

nautical heritage it seemed an

appropriate shape.

• The building is built on sand, which

is unusual as most tall building are

founded on rock. The Burj al Arab is

supported on 250, 1.5M diameter

columns that go 45 meters under the

sea. As there is only sand to hold the

building up the columns rely on friction.

DESIGN CONCEPT


The Burj al Arab Island

Number of piles: 230

• Length of piles: 45m

• Diameter of piles 1.5m

• Depth of lowest basement under sea is 7m below sea level.

Heights

Height of atrium: 182m

• Height of helipad from sea: 212M

• Height of top of accommodation from island: 190m

• Height of top of mast from island :321m

Dimensions

Distance of shore to the outer point of island: 450m

• Size of island: 150m per side

• Sea depth: 7.5m

• Length of biggest truss: 85m

• Weight of biggest truss: 165t

• Cantilever of sky view restaurant: 27m & 1.7m deep

• Size of sky view restaurant: 1000 sq m

• Weight of helicopter that can land on the pad: 7.5 tonnes

• Maximum sway at top of accommodation: 300mm

• Total volume of concrete on the island: 33,000 sq m

• Total volume of concrete in the superstructure: 36,000 sq m

• Total tonnage of steel: 9200 tonnes

• Gross area of building: 120,000 sq m

• 28 double height floors (7m floor to floor height)

• Height of atrium: 180.5m with volume of: 285,000m3

• Length of mast: 60m

• Fabric area: 8700 sq m x 2 Thickness: 1mm with 50cm air gap

VITAL STATISTIC


• The first cranes of the Cuatro Torres Business

Area complex were erected at this building despite

Torres Espacio having been started before.

• The first construction cranes were erected on

October 8, 2004.

• When works started, four test facades were

installed to find the best solution for the final façade

design.

• Steel structure of the building weights 11,000

tonnes.

• The entrance lobby is 13.85 meters high.

• The building has two concrete cores with

panoramic elevators. These cores support all the

weight of the building, with each column-free floor

framed in steel.

• This is the tallest building in Spain, rising over

Torre de Cristal by just 89 centimeters.

FACTS

1.0_Introduction TORRE CAJA MADRID2.0_Environmental Approaches + Details 3.0_Building Configuration 4.0_Construction Process 6.0_Conclusion5.0_Details and Special Features

Definitely not for Space Savings. But

Purely the need

for Country Land Marks and to prove that

their

countries are up to the Standards.

Facts& Figures

•In fact land is BOTH available and Cheap in most Modern

Cities in the Middle East. city for this reason are encouraging

Horizontal Construction

•In The last decade things started changing. bay Countries

in particular Started encouraging such Buildings.

Why the Sudden Change ?

BURJ AL-ARAB2.0_Environmental Approaches


Designed to symbolize Dubai's urban transformation and to

mimic the sail of a boat.

Several features of the hotel required complex

engineering feats to achieve. The hotel rests on an

artificial island constructed 280 m (920 ft) offshore. To

secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 forty-metre (130

ft) long concrete piles into the sand.

Engineers created a surface layer of large rocks, which

is circled with a concrete honeycomb pattern, which

serves to protect the foundation from erosion.

It took three years to reclaim the land from the sea, but

less than three years to construct the building itself. The

building contains over 70,000 m3 (92,000 cu yd) of concrete

and 9,000 tonnes of steel.

Inside the building, the atrium is 180 m (590 ft) tall.

Burj Al Arab is the world's second tallest hotel (not

including buildings with mixed use). The structure of the

Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang North Korea, is 9 m (30 ft)

taller than the Burj Al Arab, and the Rose Tower also in

Dubai, topped Burj Al Arab's height at 333 m (1,090 ft),

becoming the world's tallest hotel.



The Burj Al Arab has attracted criticism as well as praise, described

as :"a contradiction of sorts, considering how well-designed and impressive the

construction ultimately proves to be." The contradiction here seems to be related to the

hotel‟s extreme luxury. "This extraordinary investment in state-of-the-art construction

technology stretches the limits of the ambitious urban imagination in an exercise that is

largely due to the power of excessive wealth.""both the hotel and the city, after all, are monuments to the

achievement of money over practicality. Both elevate style over

body.""Emulating the quality of impressive interiors, in an

expression of wealth for the mainstream, a theater of opulence is

created in Burj Al Arab … The result is a baroque (decorative)

effect".Sam Wollaston writing in The Guardian described the hotel as

"...fabulous, hideous, and the very top of ostentation - like

Vegas



The Tower Hotel is provided with the following life safety systems:

1) Fire Detection & Alarm System including a fire telephone system.

2) PAVA System.

3) Fire Protection System (Sprinklers, Hose Reels, FM-200)

4) Staircase Pressurisation.

5) Smoke Extract System.

Commercial Hotels (MEP) C-16-F

ISO 9001: 2000,ISO14001: 2004,OHSAS 18001: 1999 Registered

1) Essential electrical power (Main 11KV Generators)

for main distribution board MDB-E1 and E2.

2) 1500 KVA, 380V, 50Hz Local Generator.

3) Central Battery Emergency Lighting System.

4) Foul / Water pumping stations.

5) UPS Systems.

6) Aviation Obstruction Lighting System.

7) LPG Detection System

The Tower Hotel is provided with the following special features

under the package 1305:

1) Atrium Water Features – Internal.

2) Cascade Water Feature – Internal.

3) Upper Atrium Show Lighting .

4) Lower Atrium Show Lighting .

5) Fire Wire Lighting System.

6) External Show Lighting.

7) Sky Tracker Lighting.

8) Ellipse Water / Fire - External.

9) Fire Towers – External

10) Image projectors – External.



At 14000 channels it is the largest architectural lighting control system ever made

(Futronix). Each suite has one or more PFX-32 dimming control systems, which operate the

lighting in every room. The largest suites have five systems giving a total of 160 channels of

lighting. As if the interior lighting schemes were not enough, each suite is also

equipped with digital surround sound, multimedia enhanced 42” plasma television,

internet access, touch-screen video and teleconferencing, fax machine, photocopier, data

port and to top it all off, automated curtains (Burj Al Arab





Wind Effects Dubai’s

geographic location subjects the hotel to severe weather

conditions including strong winds and occasional violent

thunderstorms. (Halford & Walters 2000, 43) Due to the

structure‟s proximity to its adjacent hotel resort, wind tunnel

testing was considered to ensure a safe design. “Based

on the guidance issued by the UK’s Building Research

Establishment (BRE) and an analysis of 18 years of wind

data from nearby Dubai International Airport, a 50 year

return period windspeed of 45 meters per second, under

the recommendations of Dubai Municipality, was

adopted for the design

Seismic Impact Dubai

itself is not located in an earthquake

intensive zone. However, southern Iran which

is only 100 miles away to the north is

subjected to moderate earthquake risk and in

turn which could create tremors in Dubai if a

seismic event were to occur in Iran (Halford &

Walters 2000, 44). According to Building

Research Establishment (BRE) specifications,

it is strongly recommended that buildings

constructed in this region are to be designed to

resist earthquake of MM VII intensity.

Therefore, a seismic zone factor of 0.20g was

considered for the detailed design phase

(Halford & Walters 2000, 44). To further

reinforce the structure from any potential

swaying, “two tuned mass dampers,

weighing about 2 tonnes each, limit

vibrations in the tubular steel mast that

projects 60 m above the building (Reina, n.d

).”



OrientationTo counter the wind movementthrough day and night

Wind pressure more high fromthe sea

Tune Mass StamperTo counter the movement of the building andstructure due to the vortex force and seismicmovementTotal of 11 four tone Tune Mass Stamper fixedalong the exoskeleton structure.





• The hotel rests on an artificial island constructed 280 metres offthe Dubai shore and 450m to its furthest point.

•To make the foundation secure, its builders drove 230 40 metre long concrete piles into the sand.

•The foundation is held in place by the friction of the sand and the silt along the length of the piles. The surface of the island was created using large rocks which were circled with a concrete ‘honey-comb′ pattern armour which serves to protect the foundations from erosion.

•Of the hotel's total five year construction period, it took 3 years to complete the island.

BURJ AL-ARAB4.0_Construction Process _ Artificial Island


•Temporary tube piles driven into sea bed•Temporary sheet piles and tie rods driven into sea bed to support boundary rocks



•Permanent boundary rock bunds deposited either side of sheet piles•Hydraulic fill layers deposited between bunds to displace sea water and form island



•Permanent concrete armour units placed around island to protect it from the waves•2m diameter 43m deep piles driven through island and sea bed below to stabilize structure



•Island interior excavated and temporary sheet pile coffer dam inserted•2m thick concrete plug slab laid at base of island

•Reinforced concrete retaining wall built•Basement floors created



4.0_Construction Process _ Concrete works

• V shape concrete tower

• Two "wings" spread in a V to form a vast "mast", while the space between them is enclosed in a massive atrium.

• Reinforced concrete tower


• Prefabricated Concrete

4.0_Construction Process _ Concrete works


• The front (shore-facing) facade is constructed of two tiers of huge, steel 'X' trusses.

• Together the reinforced concrete and the exoskeleton act as a composite and provide the structure horizontal

stability in all directions

4.0_Construction Process _ Steel Bracing (Inner Reinforced Concrete V)


4.0_Construction Process _ Steel Bracing (Inner Reinforced Concrete V)


• A steel exoskeleton wrapped around a reinforced concrete tower.

• 2 main structure :i. diagonal trussii. ‘Yacht’ structure

• The assembled segment were lifted and erected in position using the tower cranes from ground floor to top.

4.0_Construction Process _ Steel Exoskeleton


i.

4.0_Construction Process _ Diagonal Truss


4.0_Construction Process _ Yacht’ structure


4.0_Construction Process _ Sky view restaurant


• The tallest atrium lobby in the world, at 180 meters (590 ft).

• The atrium dominates the interior of the hotel, and takes up over one-third of interior space.

• Prefabricated concrete

4.0_Construction Process _ Interior


•The space between the wings is enclosed by a Teflon-coated fiberglass sail, curving across the front of the building and creating an atrium inside.

4.0_Construction Process _ Fiberglass fabric


BURJ AL-ARAB5.0_Details and Special Features _ Artificial Island

Artificial Island During Construction Phase

The building itself stands on a foundation of 250 tubularpiles with a diameter of 1500mm driven into the seasoil. The foundation’s exterior comprises ofconventional rock bunds coated with a layer of whitecement concrete and hydraulically filled with sand. Thesurface of this armor system is covered by many shedunits of white cement concrete to reduce tide impactand to facilitate water drainage. The construction of theconcrete island was completed in March 1996.


The island took 3 years to construct as compared to the buildingitself which only look less than 3 years.

The architect rejected the idea of using natural rock blocksbecause it makes the artificial island higher and wider as thearchitects want the island to be lowest as possible. Thereforeconventional honey comb concrete block is introduced.

Interior View of Fabric Fiberglass Wall

The huge Teflon to resemble a huge sail

For the hotel to feature the largest atriumof 200m high, the largest Teflon glassfiber fabric available is used

It is composed of two layers of PTFEcoated fibreglass fabric, tensionedbetween the steel trusses which span50m between the accommodation wingsstair cores at the double story heightintervals

During the day, the fibreglass fabric actsby filtering intense sunlight and diffusingit into the atrium space to allow naturallighting within the building

During the evening, the fabric wallequipped with a MAC 500 lighting system,functions as a projection screen for lightperformances of high quality patterns toimpress the in-house guests.

BURJ AL-ARAB5.0_Details and Special Features _ Fiber Glass Teflon


Exoskeleton_A term to describe the cross-braced frame; a building technique used to provide a structure support and prevent sliding.•Pair of diagonal steel trusses rising 273 m above ground•provide the structure horizontal stability in all directions•each steel truss weighs 165 ton each and total weight is about 2,800 tons

BURJ AL-ARAB5.0_Details and Special Features _ Exoskeleton Structure


Video of connection pin

Rear Brace FrameThis brace ties both the cores together

to give stability to the structure.The shape of the Rear Brace is similar

to “X “are erected in segments

HorizontalThe horizontal weighting about 200 tons

connects the core wall to the exoskeleton rear leg

DiagonalsThe Diagonal connects with a 300mm diameter pin connection to the core-wall and the Rear-

leg structure

MastOval shape of 2.5m x 5m at the

bottom and gradually decreases to 2.5 x 2m at top

Exoskeleton Rear legThe exoskeleton is made up of two legs on both

sides of the building starting from the ground level to 273 meters and connected to the front

legs

BURJ AL-ARAB5.0_Details and Special Features _ Exoskeleton Structure


• A 24 meter (79 feet) wide helipad projects

from the building 210 meters above the ground.

• Burj Al Arab is the world's tallest structure with

a membrane facade.

• This is the tallest operating hotel building in

the world.

• The building's external lighting schemes, from

white light to a multicolored one, change from one to

another every 30 minutes expressing the evening's

progress.• The diagonal trusses on the side of the Burj al

Arab building are as long as a football pitch and

weigh as much as 20 double-decker busses.

• They were built 15 KM from the site and brought by

road on huge 80 wheel lorries which had to be

specially imported from South Africa. The highest

truss took a day to lift into place.

• If one man was to build the building himself it would

take about 8,000 years to finish.

FACTS


• The building's design is

influenced by the profile of an

Arabian sailing ship.

• The Al Muntaha restaurantis located 200 metres above the

Persian Gulf, offering great views

of Dubai. It is accessed by a

panoramic elevator.

• The atrium is 180 metres

high, one of the tallest in the

world.

• The hotel features a total of

eight restaurants and bars.

• All of the hotel's 202 roomsare two-storey suites, ranging in

size from 170 square metres

(1,830 square feet) to 780

square metres (8,396 square

feet).

FACTS



TORRE CAJA MADRID

THE ARCHITECT

Designer : Foster & Partners

Norman Foster is one of the world's most famous and influential contemporary architects.

The practice has won over 440 awards for excellence and has won in excess of 70 national and international competitions.

In 1999, he garnered the accolade of 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate.

The practice has works on permanent display in London's Victoria & Albert Museum, New York's Museum of Modern Art and Paris' Pompidou Centre.

Norman Foster was the recipient of the Premium Imperial for architecture, 2002.

In June 2006, Norman Foster was awarded the British-German Association Medal of Honour for services to Anglo-German relations.

Foster + Partners is the world's only architectural practice to have won the Emporis Skyscraper Award on two occasions: London's 30 St. Mary Axe in 2003

and New York City's Hearst Tower in 2006.


• Name : Torre Caja Madrid

• Location : Madrid, Spain

• Status : Complete

• Constructed : 2002 - 2008

• Use : Commercial , Office

• Construction type : Skyscraper

• Cost : 815 million Euro

• Structural material : Glass, Steel, Concrete,

Reinforced

• Height : 249.89 m

• Façade material : Aluminum, glass

• Façade system : Curtain wall

• Floor count

(above ground) : 45

(below ground) : 5

• Floor area : 110,000 sq m

• Climate : Warm temperature

• Architectural style : High tech

INTRODUCTION

• Torre Caja Madrid - Spanish: Caja Madrid Tower

• Skyscraper located in the Cuatro Torres Business Area in

Madrid, Spain.

• The tallest of the four buildings in the Cuatro Torres

Business Area complex, surpassing Torre de Cristal by less

than a metre.

• First known as Torre Repsol and would have served as

headquarters for Repsol YPF oil and gas company.

• During the construction of the tower, Repsol decided to

change the location of its future headquarters and the financial

institution Caja Madrid purchased the building for €815 million

in August 2007.


Caja Madrid Tower is a great building in

Spain. This new headquarters building for

Caja Madrid – the largest bank in Spain –

continues investigations into the flexible

workplace that can be traced through a family

of recent office towers, most notably for

Swiss Re and Commerzbank. This degree of

flexibility results in part from pushing the

service cores to the edges of the plan – a

strategy first used in the design of the

Hongkong Bank – to create uninterrupted

1200-square-meters floor plates.

ABOUT THE BUILDING


ABOUT THE BUILDING

At ground level, a 22-meter glazed atrium

provides the transition from the street, and

accommodates a „floating‟ glass-walled

auditorium set into a mezzanine.

At the top of the building, there is a void

space beneath the uppermost section of the

„portal‟ frame is designed to house wind

turbines as a possible future innovation.

Although the building is conceived as a

corporate headquarters, it also has the

flexibility to be partly sub-let, enabling Caja

Madrid to expand or contract its

accommodation easily in the future as

required.

Vertical circulation routes occupy minimal

space as a result of an intelligent lift system

that requires fewer lift cars than conventional

systems.

The cores are strategically positioned so as

to block west/east direct sunlight, a move

that has the added benefit of framing

spectacular views of the hills of Sierra de

Guadarrama to the north and the center of

Madrid to the south.


– and is carefully positioned to maximise the exceptional

qualities of its site.

Madrid At the top of the building, the is a void space beneath the

uppermost section of the „portal‟ frame is designed to house wind

turbines as a possible future innovation. Although the building is

conceived as a corporate headquarters, it also has the flexibility

to be partly sub-let, enabling Caja Madrid to expand or contract

its accommodation easily in the future as required. Vertical

circulation routes occupy minimal space as a result of an

intelligent lift system that requires fewer lift cars than

conventional systems. The cores are strategically positioned

so as to block west/east direct sunlight, a move that has the

added benefit of framing spectacular views of the hills of

Sierra de Guadarrama to the north and the centre of Madrid

to the south.

CAJA MADRID2.0_Environmental Approaches


CALCULATION AND MECHANICAL REPRESENTATION

Complete finite element models have been developed of this

building to obtain their vibration modes and frequencies, as

well as to calculate the

50-year along-wind displacements. The human comfort is

assessed, according to the

recommendations of Eurocode, in terms of the 5 and 10-year

along-wind building

acceleration at the top occupied floor. The across-wind structural

response is not considered in



The wind displacement can be thought of as consisting of three

parts:

1-a static part due to the 10-minute averaged extreme wind

velocity

2-a static part due to the wind turbulence

3-A dynamic response caused by resonance with the turbulent

wind breeze.

The vibration frequency, on one hand, is needed to calculate the

resonant response.

On the other hand, it is the fundamental mode shape in

combination with the mass distribution along the height that

determines the building mass in the fundamental vibration

mode. The

accelerations due to along-wind turbulence are higher for lower

fundamental frequencies and fundamental modal mass.



The bending-dominated lateral load resisting system in x-direction is composed of the two

concrete cores. In y-direction, a megaframe behaviour is obtained due to the rigidly connected

transfer trusses; about 60% of the stiffness in y-direction is attributed to this frame action. Note

that the top steel structure does not have any influence on the global frame action. P-delta

effects were found to be rather small, being 4% and 5% respectively in the x and y-direction.

The frequencies of the first three harmonic vibrations are provided in table 5.

Lateral load resisting characteristics

The result shaow that the x-direction is the governing wind direction, having the

highest fundamental period and wind excitation. The force coefficient is constant

along the building height and equals.



• The tower use the mat foundation system supported on drilled piers

1.0_Introduction

4.0_Construction Process _ Foundation

TORRE CAJA MADRID2.0_Environmental Approaches + Details 3.0_Building Configuration 4.0_Construction Process 6.0_Conclusion5.0_Details and Special Features

• The tower design includes 5 parking levels below grade

1.0_Introduction

4.0_Construction Process _ Basement Parking


• Basement parking (5 level )

1.0_Introduction

4.0_Construction Process _ Ground Floor


• The structure of this building consists of twoconcrete cores that are linked together at three locations over the height of the building.

1.0_Introduction

4.0_Construction Process _ Reinforced Concrete Cores


• The links between thecores are a pair of two-storytrusses, which not only linkthe cores but also supportthe 11 to 12 floors aboveeach truss

1.0_Introduction

4.0_Construction Process _ Steel Truss


• 34 office floors (a totalof approx. 110,000 sqmeters) divided into threedistinct office blocks of11, 12 and 11 floors.

1.0_Introduction

4.0_Construction Process _ Office Blocks


1.0_Introduction



1.0_Introduction



1.0_Introduction



1.0_Introduction



• Façade system : Curtain Wall• Façade Material : glass and aluminum

1.0_Introduction



1.0_Introduction

The links between the cores are a pair of two-story trusses,

which not only link the cores but also support the 11 to 12

floors above each truss.

Essentially the building floors are divided into three segments, where each segment is an 11 to

12 story structure that is supported on trusses that span

between the two cores. All mechanical floors for the

building are located with in the two-story truss levels.

The Long-Span Trusses not only support loads but also to

provide rigidity to the 2 cores

5.0_Details and Special Features _ Long-Span Transfer Trusses


The Long-Span Transfer Trusses consists of•Two “primary” trusses that span 105 ft between the cores•Two “secondary“ trusses that cantilever 33 ft to the north

and south past the primary trusses and transfer the four exterior columns back to the primary trusses

To Provide RigidityThe bottom chord and end diagonal of the trusses will push the cores apart, while the top chords will pull the

cores together.

Primary Trusses Secondary Trusses


TORRE CAJA MADRID1.0_Introduction 2.0_Environmental Approaches + Details 3.0_Building Configuration 4.0_Construction Process 6.0_Conclusion5.0_Details and Special Features

The trusses induce both vertical and horizontal forces into the core walls; for this reason two steel columns are

embedded with in each core. The embedded steel column allows for a direct connection of the trusses to the core.

Since the trusses induce a large vertical load to the embedded steel column, shear studs welded to the flange

and web of the columns will transfer the vertical load from the steel column to the concrete cores.




5.0_Details and Special Features _ Floor Framing System

Basic PrincipleThe floor framing at each level is supported by four interior and four

exterior steel columns.The two exterior columns on the north and south sides are supported

directly on the secondary trusses.

Floor SlabLevel 1, 12 and 24 - 0.075 m metal deck plus 0.150 m of normal

weight concrete the thicker slab was provided to minimize sound transmission from the mechanical rooms

Other Level - 75mm deck plus 75mm of light weight concrete

5.0_Details and Special Features _ Vierendeel Frame

The architectural design intent was to minimize thenumber of exterior columns on the typical officefloors and eliminate corner columns.

This was achieved by providing only two columns onthe north and south faces of the building. Thesecolumns have been detailed to allow for verticalmovement at the mid-height between each floor.

To eliminate the columns from the corners, spandrelbeams on the east and west side of the buildingwould cantilever from the cores out to the 23 ftcantilevers on the north and south faces of thebuilding.

The perimeter spandrel beams and exterior columnsform the Vierendeel frame.


1.0_Introduction

5.0_Details and Special Features _ Basic Load Distribution


Load from the floor slab –Internal and external column

Internal and external column –Long Span Steel Truss

Loads transferred to cores Loads transferred to foundation and piles and finally to the earth

• The first cranes of the Cuatro Torres Business

Area complex were erected at this building despite

Torres Espacio having been started before.

• The first construction cranes were erected on

October 8, 2004.

• When works started, four test facades were

installed to find the best solution for the final façade

design.

• Steel structure of the building weights 11,000

tonnes.

• The entrance lobby is 13.85 meters high.

• The building has two concrete cores with

panoramic elevators. These cores support all the

weight of the building, with each column-free floor

framed in steel.

• This is the tallest building in Spain, rising over

Torre de Cristal by just 89 centimeters.

FACTS


COMPARISON STUDY

1. Core and Planning

Burj Al-Arab Torre Caja Madrid

1.0_Introduction

BURJ AL-ARAB &TORRE CAJA MADRID2.0_Environmental Approaches + Details 3.0_Building Configuration 4.0_Construction Process 6.0_Conclusion5.0_Details and Special Features

2. Environmental Approach


1. Building

Orientation

Wind displacement

2. Exoskeleton Structure


BURJ AL-ARAB &TORRE CAJA MADRID

COMPARISON STUDY

3. Load Transfer




COMPARISON STUDY

4. Building Materials


Fiber Glass Teflon Façade system : Curtain Wall

Façade Material : glass and aluminum



COMPARISON STUDY

5. Technology




Exoskeleton Structure Long-Span Transfer

Trusses

COMPARISON STUDY

Documents

Burj Al-Arab & Caja Torre Construction study