HRIDAY DAS

B. ARCH 2ND YR

13110014

IIT ROORKEE

ASSIGNMENT 3RD

MODERN WORLD ARCHITECTURE

30 St Mary Axe, London

Norman Foster

30 St Mary Axe, better known as theGherkin because is floor planresembled a sliced pickle, is locatedin the heart of London’s insurancedistrict.

The building gradually widens at eachfloor plan until it reaches the 16thwhere it then diminishes until itreaches its apex.

St Mary Axe building utilities are located around a circular central core (London Architecture). This allows for uninterrupted floor space for tenants and the ability to maximise daylight from every side of the building.

Service Details

30 St Mary Axe is designed to maximise daylightand natural ventilation so that it uses half theenergy typically required by an office block. Gapsin each floor create six shafts that serve as anatural ventilation system for the entire building.A double glazing effect, which insulates the officespace inside is caused by air being sandwichedbetween two layers of glazing.

Image showing atrium which allows ventilation throughout the levels

The light wells allow daylight to penetrate thebuilding to a further distance inside the buildingthen they would have had the floor gone all theway to the perimeter, helping to improve theinternal environment. Although these light wellsreduce the need for artificial lighting some is stillrequired.

The elements of the facade consist of:* Operable glass screen* Perforated aluminium louvers (internal sun-screen)* A column casing of aluminium* Facade frame of extruded aluminium

The glazing to the office areas consist of a double-glazedouter layer and a single-glazed inner screen. Sandwichedin between is a central ventilated cavity which reducesheating and cooling requirements. Its performance canbe turned to maximise benefits that the prevailinginternal and external environment might have to offer.The solar-control blinds intercept solar gain before itenters the office environment

The spiral light well arrangement allows for afire escape strategy based on a variation ofphased evacuation. The building is divided intofire safety zones at every sixth then secondfloor. This allows for the evacuation of onearea at a time as opposed to the wholebuilding at once. A system of smoke curtainsform smoke reservoirs in the ligh twells.Natural ventilation is used for smoke clearancefor the light wells. (Mace) This eliminated thespread of smoke through the light wells fromlower floors.

Shanghai World Financial Center

• Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF)

Height

• Architectural: 492.0 m (1,614.2

ft)

• Tip: 494.3 m (1,621.7 ft)

• Roof: 487.4 m (1,599.1 ft)

• Top floor: 474.0 m (1,555.1 ft)

• Observatory: 474 m (1,555.1 ft)

Technical details

• Floor count: 101

• Floor area: 381,600 m2

(4,107,500 sq ft)

• Lifts/elevators: 91

Design Concept

• A square prism—the symbol used by the

ancient Chinese to represent the earth—is

intersected by two cosmic arcs,

representing the heavens, as the tower

ascends in gesture to the sky. The

interaction between these two realms

gives rise to the building’s form, carving a

square sky portal at the top of the tower

that lends balance to the structure and

links the two opposing elements—the

heavens and the earth.

• Soaring above the city skyline, the

Shanghai World Financial Center stands as

a symbol of commerce and culture thatspeaks to the city’s emergence as a global

capital.

The most distinctive feature of the SWFC'sdesign is the trapezoid aperture at the peak.

The original design specified a circular

aperture, 46 m (151 ft) in diameter, to

reduce the stresses of wind pressure and to

reference the Chinese mythological

depiction of the sky as a circle. It also

resembled a Chinese moon gate due to its

circular form in Chinese architecture.However, this initial design began facing

protests from some Chinese, including the

mayor of Shanghai, Chen Liangyu, who

considered it too similar to the risingsun design of the Japanese flag. Pedersen

then suggested that a bridge be placed at

the bottom of the aperture to make it less

circular.

Architectural

Structural

The tower's trapezoid aperture is

made up of structural steel and

reinforced concrete. A large

number of forces, such as wind

loads, the people in the building

and heavy equipment housed in

the building, act on the SWFC's

structure. These compressive and

bending forces are carried down

to the ground by the diagonal-

braced frame (with added

outrigger trusses). The design

employs an effective use of

material, because it decreases the

thickness of the outer core shear

walls and the weight of the