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Category Archives: Construction
Old school construction building the Empire State Building in 1930
Brave Men Building the Empire State Building (1930). It took 410 days to build, 3400 workers to help construct, 5 lost their lives and for 40 years it stood as the world’s tallest building. It opened in May 1931 during the Great Depression.
5 innovations in high-rise #construction & #AEC design | call or click 1-888-BUILDER.com
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has named two winners and three finalists of its 2013 Innovation Award. The highlighted innovations stand to revolutionize the technology, sustainability, and efficiency of tall building construction and operation, according to the organization.
The Innovation Awards will be presented at the CTBUH 12th Annual Awards Ceremony and Dinner at the Illinois Institute of Technology, November 7, in the iconic Crown Hall, designed by Mies van der Rohe.
Here’s an overview of the winners and finalists (descriptions and images courtesy CTBUH):
1. BSB Prefabricated Construction Process
The Broad Sustainable Building (BSB) Prefabricated Construction Process captured the industry’s attention when Broad Group constructed T30, a 30-story hotel building in 15 days in Changsha, China, using pre-assembled components.
The process uses a factory-fabricated steel structure system and on-site installation, using flanges and high-strength bolts to join the construction members. It also incorporates integrated, installable floor slabs, light wallboard, and other prefabricated materials.
It has the advantages of magnitude-9 earthquake resistance, five times the energy efficiency of a conventionally built structure, at between 10 and 30 percent lower cost. The process produces less than 1 percent of the waste when compared with conventional site-built construction.
“This is a clear and innovative way of looking at tall building construction,” said Jeanne Gang, awards jury chair and principal of Studio Gang Architects. “Fundamentally rethinking how we build a tall building is fascinating, and this serves as a great platform for the next stage of development.”
2. KONE UltraRope
KONE UltraRope is a new carbon-fiber hoisting technology, the weight and bending advantages of which effectively double the distance an elevator can travel in a single shaft – to 1,000 m (1 km).
Comprised of a carbon fiber core and an epoxy-based high-friction coating, KONE UltraRope is extremely light, meaning elevator energy consumption and machine room size in high-rise buildings can be cut significantly.
The drop in rope weight means a reduction in elevator moving masses – the weight of everything that moves when an elevator travels up or down, including the hoisting ropes, compensating ropes, counterweight, elevator car, and passenger load.
Currently, elevators are limited to a single-shaft height of 500 meters, the point at which the mass and thickness of steel rope makes further height impractical. With UltraRope, elevators can travel up to 1,000 meters without the need for transfer lobbies.
“This is finally a breakthrough on one of the ‘holy grail’ limiting factors of tall buildings – that is, the height to which a single elevator could operate before the weight of the steel rope becomes unsupportable over that height,” said awards juror and CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood. “So it is not an exaggeration to say that this is revolutionary. However, it is not just the enablement of greater height that is beneficial – the greater energy and material efficiencies are of equal value.”
3. Megatruss Seismic Isolation Structure
The jury awarded the Building Team’s use of a megatruss seismic isolation structure on the Nakanoshima Festival Tower, Osaka, Japan
The designers of the multi-purpose high-rise in seismically active Japan were able to resolve two very different requirements in one building through the use of an intermediate structural solution that transfers forces safely through the transition.
One part of the program was a concert hall, constructed out of reinforced concrete walls to form a rigid frame that supports sound isolation and acoustic performance. Above, the program called for offices, which are ideally column-free for maximum flexibility.
The intermediate seismic isolation, comprised of a megatruss with diagonals, megacolumns, a belt truss, lead rubber bearings, and oil dampers, enables these contrasting requirements to coexist in the same building.
“This innovative structural system allowed the designers to construct an unprecedentedly tall seismically isolated building,” said awards juror David Scott, Lead Structural Director of the Engineering Excellence Group at Laing O’Rourke. “It deserves recognition for integrating base isolation and transfer systems into isolated systems in a high seismic area.”
4. Raster Façade Precast Concrete System
The jury awarded the Building Team’s use of a raster façade precast concrete system as used in Tour Total in Berlin.
The raster façade is a load-bearing precast concrete frame that eliminates interior columns, allowing floor-to-ceiling glass by way of triple-glazing with exterior retractable protective louvers. It also generates more usable floor area than other systems.
The precast façade generates a ratio of 60 percent glazed to 40 percent closed surfaces, improving insulation values. Heating and cooling systems are integrated into suspended ceiling panels, which is more efficient than installing those systems in the floor.
Precast concrete is also an inherently fireproof building material, eliminating the need for additional fire protection.
“This innovation shows that load-bearing precast concrete offers an alternative to the glass curtain wall for tall building construction,” said awards juror Richard Cook, Partner, CookFox Architects.
5. Rocker Façade Support System
The jury awarded the Building Team’s use of a rocker façade support system in the Poly Corporation headquarters, Beijing.
The Poly Corporation Headquarters features a unique design component that was created specifically for this building – The Rocker, which supports the world’s largest cable-net glass wall while actively releasing the effects of earthquakes and heavy winds. Additionally, it facilitates the suspension of an eight-story, lantern-like museum structure within the office building’s atrium.
Structural analysis showed that the support for the 22-story-tall glass atrium wall could not be reasonably achieved using a conventional two-way cable net, but could be achieved if the 90-meter-high by 60-meter-wide enclosure was broken down into smaller segments. A cable-stayed system was introduced by using two large-diameter parallel strand bridge cables in diagonal fold lines while anchoring to the eight-story suspended lantern-like museum structure.
The museum structure acts as a counterweight for the cables, introducing pre-stress and providing the required stiffness to resist out-of-plane loads caused by wind on the cable-net. In addition to the diagonal cables used at the atrium glass wall, two additional cables and a Rocker were introduced at the rear of the museum structure to assist in its suspension.
“This innovation could be adapted for use in other situations that might be encountered in unique high-rise buildings, where brace-like members might need to be freed from participation in the lateral systems of the structures,” said Laing O’Rourke’s Scott.
bdcnetwork.com 5 innovations in high-rise building design.
iPads Supplanting Construction Blueprints Boosts Productivity
Armed with iPads linked to the newest plans, work orders and information requests, specialists are leading a shift to building information modeling, or BIM. New types of jobs are being created, such as modelers, and updated skills are becoming mandatory for designers and contractors. As builders recover from the worst downturn since World War II, such tools are changing processes used in design and construction.
“The goal is to eliminate problems before they happen,”
via IPads Supplanting Blueprints Boosts Builder Productivity – Businessweek.
Bluebeam® Revu® for iPad lets you work without limits. Watch this video (displaying Revu iPad 1.0) to learn how to access and navigate your PDF files on the go, from anywhere, and redline PDFs with industry standard symbols. Save custom markups for reuse across sessions, and collaborate with colleagues across the globe in real time using Revu’s cloud based solution, Bluebeam Studio™. All it takes is a tap and swipe to experience the difference.
A few taps is all it takes. Use Revu’s list of markup tools, including text, notes, highlighter, lines, clouds, callouts and more to redline your PDFs. Customize your markups by easily changing the color, fill, opacity, line type or font. Want to cut, copy or delete a markup? Just tap and hold down on the markup in question to bring up its context menu.
AutoDesk BIM 360 Field: iPad Basics
@Related_Group : 6 Condo Projects Underway, 10 More Planned For South Florida
With six new condo projects already at various stages of development from Greater Downtown Miami to Hollywood Beach, the Related Group – Florida’s most prolific vertical condo developer – is planning to build an additional 10 projects in the South Florida region, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com. “I have already bought the elevators for 10 jobs,” Carlos Rosso, the president of new condo development division of the Related Group, told a sold out crowd of 200 people at the CondoVultures.com 5th Annual State Of The South Florida Condo Market Seminar on Feb. 27, 2013 at the Met 1 condominium in Greater Downtown Miami. “I have already bought the tonnage of steel in futures for those 10 projects. We have done that. Why? Because we are Related. We can buy in bulk” to achieve attractive discounts on construction materials in a highly competitive industry. Rosso added: “If there is one developer that comes to try to compete in any [South Florida] submarket with Related, he is going to have a hard time to match the prices that Related will be able to offer. That gives us a tremendous advantage.”
via Related Exec: 6 Condo Projects Underway, 10 More Planned For South Florida.
Drilling caisson shaft at Jade Signature
The Basics of Hybrid Designs in Construction Equipment
Hybrid is a slippery word. By one definition, anything of mixed origin or composition is a hybrid: thus, we have hybrid roses and hybrid languages. A more narrow definition has hybrids as single functioning units that juxtapose different technologies. That definition makes hybrids of decades-old hydrostatic and diesel/electric drive systems—since they juxtapose mechanical with hydraulic or electric technology—but these systems seldom are so classified. When considering the innovative energy-use systems being applied today in heavy equipment and trucks, then, perhaps “hybrid” definitions need a second look.
The most precise definition we encountered is that from Caterpillar: A hybrid is “a machine equipped with a device to collect, store and release energy during operation.”
By that definition, a number of machines and trucks with innovative energy-use technology would qualify as hybrids. A few machines, however, with technology just as innovative, would be ruled out on technicalities—the Cat D7E crawler dozer, for instance, because its distinctive electrical/mechanical power train neither collects, stores nor releases stored energy, and several wheel loaders—the Cat 966K XE, Deere 644K Hybrid, and Deere 944K—which collect and use energy that otherwise would be wasted, but do not store it.
via The Basics of Hybrid Designs in Construction Equipment | Construction Equipment.
New app coming soon construction equipment rental from your mobile phone startup investors include @a16z @sacca
With $1.8M From Andreessen, Chris Sacca & More, Rental Marketplace Getable Digs Into The $32B Construction Market
Getable has identified a more appealing opportunity. Today, the startup is unveiling a new product (and another new direction) aimed at the largest segment of the rental industry: Tools and equipment. As part of this transition, Getable is becoming a mobile-first business and has created a product that is geared exclusively to general contractors and those to whom they rent their construction equipment.
Considering there are over 10M general contractors in the U.S., the tool and equipment category represents a $32 billion market and one that’s projected to reach $46 billion by 2016. While that’s still a sizable market, it’s a fraction of the $85 billion rental industry, which includes tools, party supplies, sports equipment and more — the one Getable was initially targeting when it launched as Rentcycle back in 2009.
“It’s funny, because construction truly represents the original mobile workforce, so it’s hard to believe that contractors and construction workers lack access to great mobile products that help them manage such key components of their jobs,” Rogers says of Getable’s new direction
Post Tension concrete construction. Stressing a post-tension tendon, a video safety first, I’ve seen these cables snap!
All is calm, form deck is ready for inspection and concrete.
For you contractors and engineers’ tech jargon: Stressing an unbonded post-tensioning tendon with a hydraulic jack (8-inch stroke). This tendon was roughly 130 feet long so it required two strokes. The elongation for a 100-foot-long tendon is roughly 8 inches.