skyscraper
The vanguard detachment of our builders is the one that works on the Lakhta Center formwork. They build a core and build a tower. And now they have done what they have done dozens of times since autumn 2015. But it was in this case that he was special – he brought the St. Petersburg skyscraper to the premier league of the world high-altitude club. Come with me, and I will tell you what this means.
The Lakhta Center. Photo by Sasha Sokolova
Why is the tower not the same today as yesterday
The builders finished concreting the walls of the core of the 72nd floor of the tower. In less than a day ACS will rise higher, and they will begin to reinforce the next level. The fixed height of the core is 302.4 meters.
“Lakhta Center” did not just change the fourth hundred. He became a super-tallum – now not only according to the blueprints. What are the new hundred meters different from the previous ones?
Photo of the formwork “Lahta center” on the 72nd floor from the cockpit
CATEGORY HEIGHT
High-rise buildings are divided into categories. With the first two things are not so simple. There are several international expert organizations on skyscrapers. They do not have unity in answering questions: what is a high-altitude? What is the height of building skyscrapers? In the latter case, the discussion is held around the borders of 100, 150 and 200 meters.
International organizations-experts:
CTBUH – Council on high-rise buildings and urban environment. Works since 1969. It maintains a list of 100 highest buildings in the world, holds the annual CTBUH Awards.
Emporis – the organization started in 2000 as a base for high-rise real estate Skyscrapers.com. Today is engaged in data collection and analysis for all types of construction. In their base – more than 550 thousand buildings in 200 countries, more than 640 thousand images of objects. The Emporis Skyscraper Award is annually awarded.
Associations of Engineers and Architects – IABCE ASCE CIB
The dispute is not from scratch. Still, a skyscraper is a category of unusual. It’s not just a skyscraper, it’s getting to the sky. This criterion is not so much objective height, as subjective human surprise. Today, when there are tens of thousands of high-rise buildings in the world, it is difficult to impress hundreds of meters up. The plank of the amazing moves away. It was 40 meters – it was 100 – it’s time to move to 200. It’s time, but not yet crossed.
Skyscraper – tracing paper from English. Earlier in Russia, the outstanding buildings were said to be “tucherez”. Very similar in meaning, but at the same time hints at the difference in typical weather. If the name were not obsolete, it would have been better for St. Petersburg’s skyscrapers.
The highest league of the early 20th century. “A grandiose construction is being built in Moscow. This is the house of Afremov at the Red Gate. It has eight floors with a basement. This building will not only be the highest in Moscow and in Russia, but throughout Europe ”
(From the newspapers of the early twentieth century) Photo and quote from here
On the other hand, the architectural landscape in countries and cities is different. In Hong Kong and Hamburg at a height of 100 meters are viewed from different realities. For some, a skyscraper, for others – a background building. For some – the accent, in others – lost sight of.
“Dancing Towers” in Hamburg. Photo source
Skyscrapers of Hong Kong. Photo – Base64, retouched by CarolSpearsPhoto source
With just high-rises – the same situation. For example – is the skyscraper here or not?
Puchiszča village, Croatia. Photo source.
To somehow get out of the contradictions, the Council on high-rise buildings and urban environment even suggested not to take into account the meters. A very small building can recognize a tall building. Criteria will be the architectural environment, proportions and application of specific technologies from the field of high-rise construction.
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If there is no unity with skyscrapers and skyscrapers, what to attribute to “supertallas” is understandable and even categorical: 300 meters and higher. By the end of 2016, there were just over a hundred such buildings in the world.
Seven years ago, with the commissioning of Burj Khalifa (828 m), the first object of the next category appeared – the megatollus, where those who are “for 600” are sent. While there are three megatolls in the world – another is the Clock Tower in Mecca (601 m) and the Shanghai Tower (632 m). It is estimated that in three years the number of megatolls will reach eight, and that of super-bulls will exceed 250 buildings.
By 2020, the Kingdom Tower should be completed in the CA . Declared 1000+ meters above sea level. If the bar is taken, it is likely that it will be a new category of high-rise buildings.
Kingdom Tower, render. Source
How to measure the height
This year, Chinese construction workers should enter the building of the International Financial Center Pinan in Shenzhen.
MIF Pinan. Photos of Jay Sterling Austin. Source
The height of the tower is 599 m (1965 ft). If you put the flagpole on top, will it become a megatollus? And if you make a spire a couple of meters higher, then? Maybe the length of the piles is counted – also the building element?
Often in the height of the building, three parameters are indicated: the level of the last inhabited space, the highest point where the flagstaff and the height can enter. In the constructive roof, the tower, the spire are integral architectural elements and do not include flagpoles, antennas, masts and other technical equipment. Constructive is the main criterion. If only one figure is specified in height, then it is about it.
The lower elevation is from the floor of the main public entrance to the building. Piles, teketazhi in the basement, underground parking and recessed technical inputs are not taken into account.
Useful useless meters
Empire State Building – the first building of the category “supertoll”, for 40 years it was the highest in the world. Its height is 443.2 m and this is the construction of 1931! It’s like going to Mars right now.
Empire State Building and Chrysler Building in the background. Photo source
In the skyscraper – 103 floors. And the planned 80. The difference arose because simultaneously with the “imperial” was built Chrysler Building – another applicant for the highest building in New York. Raskob, who supervised construction of the ESB, was afraid that competitors would hide the retractable rod in the spire and get it at the last minute. Therefore, thoroughly insured – not only floors, but also a spire of 62 meters.
Do you think something has changed since then? Here are the stories from modern times – Burj Khalifa kept the altitude secretly all the way. The only “leak” was in 2006, ostensibly about 808 meters. Perhaps twenty meters above were built because of it. Well, if there was a competitor, the builders were ready to add more heights.
Burj Khalifa. Photo source
This is a story not only about the legislation that allows you to build up how many build. CTBUH describes similar cases as “vanity meters” or “useless meters”. They include the entire height between the last exploited space and the highest point of the building.
Flagstaff on the spire, for example. Burj Khalifa has such meters – 244, if you count all the uninhabited top space and 190 – if only the spire. The spire of Burj Khalifa could become the third tallest building in St. Petersburg.
The highest figure of vanity meters is at Burj Al Arab: more than a third of the building’s growth, 121 meters out of 321, or 111 m, if we count the helicopter pad on the roof for the last space.
It is estimated that 61% of superthalls, having lost useless meters, would have become simply skyscrapers.
On the other hand, the opinion of CTBUH can be argued. Most of the ultra-high would look clearly unfinished, they stay without such an architectural detail as the spire. Continuing the idea of CTBUH, to the meters of vanity it is possible to include all “architectural excesses” without exception, everything that decorates buildings determines the style and makes them individual.
The opera in Sydney. Well, is not she beautiful vain? Photo by Diliff
By the way, Lakhta Center would have remained a super-tallall anyway. The last habitable space, a survey site, will be located at a level of 360 meters.
Superhigh in the form of
It turns out that the supertall is only about the height? Yes. But height is itself an equivalent to the complexity of construction.
The architectural “raisins” are often added to the task of conquering the sky-high marks and the complex construct of the object that forms them. In the compilation below, we can see how diverse the forms of superthalls are. It is often impossible to create such a thing on buildings of lower storeys – there are not enough meters to disclose the idea.
I will briefly focus on a couple of interesting architectural trends.
Ultra-thin buildings. To the category are superintolls 432 Park Avenue, 111 West 57th Street, One 57 and a number of others – all in New York. The ratio of width to height in hyperfine can reach 1:23.
One 57. Photo by Godsfriendchuck
The spiral-shaped buildings . There are only 28 such in the world, the angle of rotation of the building is from 38 to 360 degrees. The highest is the Shanghai Tower, 632 meters. It rotates 120 degrees.
The Shanghai Tower. Photo author – Ermell
“Lahta Center” – the second in the list, the rotation angle is 90 degrees at 462 meters height.
A rotating skyscraper should appear in 2020 . Dynamic Tower Hotel in Dubai. With the help of voice commands, hotel guests can rotate the whole floor at different speeds and directions. It remains unclear – if there are more than one guests on the floor, will they have to somehow agree on the topic, where to rotate and what will the negotiation process look like.
Supertalls. Selection
Chicago, Sears Tower. Since 2009, for a period of 15 years, the name has been changed to Willis Tower, than the local residents were outraged. The height of 442 m. Was a record among skyscrapers for almost a quarter of a century – from 1973 to 1996. On the observation deck (103 floor) there are retractable glass balconies, which caused a great interest of readers in the post about glass here.
Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. Both – on 88-storey and a height of 451, 9 meters. The highest “twins” in the world. “Heavenly Bridge” between the towers is at level 41 floors. Photo source.
World Trade Center or Freedom Tower. Height of 541 m, in feet – 1776, they say that it’s no accident – 1776 – the year of the adoption of the US Declaration of Independence. The tallest building in the western hemisphere is built on the site and in memory of 9/11 events. Photo source
Shanghai World Financial Center, 492 m. Called “the opener”. Photo source
432 Park Avenue, New York, 425.5 meters. One of the tallest residential buildings in the world. It is part of a group of ultra-thin skyscrapers. Photo source
The eastern tower of the Federation complex of the Moscow-City MIBC. The height is 373 m.
These are all super-trunks. But in life we often use simply the word “skyscraper”, not as a category name, but simply as a collective image of tall and surprising buildings.
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Other pleasant and useful news – Lakhta Center “acquired a channel in Telegram where we regularly rejoice our subscribers with fresh and beautiful photos of the project.
