Wolfgang Schueller
VERTICAL BUILDING
STRUCTURES
The early development of tall buildings occurred in Chicago from about 1880 to 1900, where block- and
slab-like building forms reached 20 stories.
Then the soaring towers of New York introduced the true skyscraper, the symbol of American cities as
reflected by the cityscape with the proposal for the new World Trade Center in New York (2002) by
Rafael Vinoly.
Notice the further development of the faade and appearance as the effect of functionalism in the
resolution of the wall to a transparent weightless skin or the deconstruction of the faade takes place.
The development of modern building support structures has its origin in the inventive spirit of structural
engineering and the rapid progress in the engineering sciences during the 19th century. The birth of the new
era of high-rise building construction is surely reflected by the unbelievable height of the
Eiffel Tower in Paris, 1889, with 300 m. The exponential shape of the tower is almost funicular as
vertical cantilever with respect to lateral wind pressure and as a column with respect to weight (i.e.
equal stress). The tower conveys an understanding of equilibrium forms and expresses clearly
lateral stability with its wide base similar to the base of tree trunks.
With the 15-story Johnson Wax Tower (1950) at Racine, Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright
became the first designer to break away from the traditional skeleton concept in high-rise
construction. He used the tree concept, in his urge toward the organic, by letting the mushroomtype floor slabs cantilever from the central core, which is deeply rooted in the ground. Wright
freely used the plastic quality of concrete and helped to even further identify the potential of the
material.
Influenced by the newly found possibilities of engineering and the spirit of invention, the Russian
Constructivists experimented in the early 1920s or so with different building shapes, the deconstruction
of the building, in other words by taking a completely opposite position to the classical tradition of faade
architecture.The constructivist art of modernism surely has influenced designers. Pioneers such as
Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo at the early part of this century in Russia, and later Alexander Calders
kinetic art and Kenneth Snelsons tensegrity sculptures.
Monument to the Third International, model designed by Vladimir Tatlin, 1920, experiments
with structure, Russian Constructivism
The Shabolovka tower, 1922, Vladimir Shukhov
Experiments with structure, Russian Constructivism, El Lissitaky, 1924
Non-right solids, fundamentals of constructivism
Early 1960s, glass sculptures of Harry Saeger (2 slides)
Ribat, 1979, wood sculpture
Picasso sculpture, Chicago, 1967
Mobile, Calder, Hirshorn Museum, Washington
Tree of Bowls, Jean (Hans) Arp, Foundation Beyeler, Riehen/Basle, Switzerland, 1960
Kenneth Snelson, Needle Tower, 1968, Hirshorn Museum, Washington; this 60-ft high (18 m)
tower explores the spatial interaction of tension and compression. A network of continuous cables
is prestressed into shape by discontinuous compression struts which never touch each other.
Buckminster Fuller explained tensegrity as tensile integrity, as islands of compression in a sea of
tension.
Vertical building structures range from massive building blocks to slender towers. They may occur as
isolated objects or urban mega structures. This geometrical study: from the single house to the urban
building, suggests the formal variations including
and so on.
High-rise building shapes range from boxy, pure shapes (prisms as based on rectangle, cruciform,
pinwheel, etc.) to compound hybrid forms; the high-rise of the postmodern era seem to have complete
freedom of form-giving. The building masses may be broken up vertically and horizontally into
interacting blocks to reduce the scale of the building.
The transition of the high-rise building to the base and its interaction with the urban scale has become has
become an important design consideration.
The strength and stiffness of a building is very much related to the type and arrangement of the
vertical structural elements, as is suggested in this figure. The density and interaction or continuity,
of the elements, together with the degree of symmetry, indicate the degree of compactness of the
structure.
However, not only the horizontal building cross-section, where the location of the structure is
defined, but also the nature of the vertical structures in the vertical section (i.e. elevation of structure)
must be considered as is demonstrated in the drawing for planar structures.
Introduction to load action
The vertical force flow is investigated in this drawing. Notice that the type and pattern of force flow
depend on the arrangement of the vertical structural planes. The path of the force flow may be
continuous along the columns or may be suddenly interrupted and transferred horizontally to another
vertical line. The transmission of the loads may be short and direct, or long and indirect with a detour
as for a suspension building. When columns are inclined, gravity will cause directly lateral thrust,
keeping in mind, continuous rectangular frame action will cause indirect lateral action.
The building response to lateral load action is investigated in this drawing. The horizontal forces are
transmitted along the floor/roof diaphragms, which act as deep flat horizontal beams, to the vertical
lateral-force resisting structures which in turn respond as vertical , flexural or shear cantilevers.
Some considerations related to wind action are studied in this drawing indicating that wind loads are
not simply uniform pressure values as given by codes.
In this study of the building response to force action, the increase of force flow towards the base is
convincingly expressed by the density of the stress trajectories and the truss analogy.
The high-rise building structure under gravity and lateral load action modeled as an engineering line
diagram.
High-rise structures range from pure structure systems, such as skeleton and wall construction, and
systems requiring transfer structures, to composite systems and mega-structures. As the building increases
in height, or buildings become slenderer, different structure systems are needed for reasons of efficiency,
i.e. a particular structure system is applicable within certain height limits, that is as the scale changes
different structure systems are required.
The effect of scale is known from nature, where animal skeletons become much bulkier with increase of
size as reflected by the change from the tiny ant to the delicate gazelle and finally to the massive elephant.
The impact of scale on structure and form is apparent from nature not only with respect to animals but also
plants. For instance, the slenderness height-to-diameter of the wheat stalk is around 500, while it
decreases to 133 for bamboo and to about 36 for a giant redwood tree, clearly illustrating again that
proportions are not constant but change. We may conclude that structure proportions in nature are derived
from behavioral considerations and cannot remain constant. Thus the dimensions are not in linear
relationship to each other; the weight increases much faster than the corresponding cross-sectional area.
This phenomenon of scale is taken into account by the various structure members and systems as well as by
the building structure types as related to the horizontal span, and vertical span or height. With increase of
span or height, material, member proportions, member structure, and structure layout must be altered and
optimized to achieve higher strength and stiffness with less weight.
For high-rise steel buildings the efficiency of a particular structure system is measured as the quantity of
material used that is the weight per square foot or the total building structure weight divided by the total
square footage of the gross floor area. The effect of the scale is clearly reflected by the change of weight for
a 10-story braced frame structure from 6 psf to 29 psf (0.29 to 1.39 kPa) for a 100-story tubular structure!
The discussion above refers only to ordinary buildings; special building configuration (in plan and
elevation) and special load transfer conditions obviously cannot be taken into account.
The efficiency of a concrete structure is evaluated to a great extent in terms of process of construction,
in additions to the quantities of materials used that is roughly between 0.5 ft3/ft2 (0.15 m3/m2) to 1.0 ft3/ft2
(0.30 m3/m2) concrete, and reinforcing steel of 2 lb/ft2 (96 Pa or N/m2) to 4 lb/ft2 (192 Pa or N/m2), in
contrast to steel, which considers only the quantity of material used.
Every building consists of the load-bearing structure and the non-load-bearing portion. The main load
bearing structure, in turn, is subdivided into:
Gravity structure consisting of floor/roof framing, slabs, trusses, columns, walls, foundations
Vertical building structure systems 1, 2: walls, frames cores, etc., tall buildings
The following classification is used to discuss the cases in my presentation:
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16-story Monadnock Building, Chicago, 1891, John Wellborn Root, clear expression of structure (no
decoration0
Plan forms range from slab-type buildings and towers of various shapes to any combination. The wall
arrangements can take many different forms, such as the cross-wall-, long-wall-, double cross-wall-,
tubular-, cellular-, and radial systems.
The walls may be continuous or perforated to various degree, as is suggested in the study of the effect
of lateral load action upon walls with openings.
Study of gravity force flow along walls
The nature of gravity force flow can be visualized as the flow of water which is distributed when an
object is submerged in the uniform current thereby displacing the flow lines. The resulting flow net
depends on the type of opening in the wall and support conditions. The degree of disturbance, that is
the crowding of the stream lines, indicates the increased speed or the corresponding intensity of load
action.
High-rise cantilever walls shown in SAP2000
Perforated Concrete Wall shown in SAP2000
18-story Nederlandse Gasunie, Groningen, 1994, Alberts + Van Huut Arch., is organically shaped to
reflect the constant movement under the change of sun and weather. The slender building, 1:6.7,
consists of load bearing concrete walls anchored front to back by nearly m thick diaphragm walls.
The 60-m glass wall in front, which appears almost like a waterfall, is carried by an enormous steel
space frame covering the atrium space.
Dormitory of Nanjing University, Zhang Lei Arch., Nanjing University, Research Center of
Architecture
Neuer Zollhof, Duesseldorf, Germany, 1998, Frank O. Gehry
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Unite dHabitation, Marseille, France, 1952, Le Corbusier, which is 450 ft (137 m) long, 80 ft (24 m)
wide and 184 ft (56 m) high and the cross walls are spaced at circa 4 m.
Typical cross shear wall structure
The behavior of ordinary cross shear walls
Typical long-wall structure
Apartment building, Heerlen, Netherlands, the faade walls are probably not load-bearing
WALDEN 7, 1974. Sant Just Desvern. Barcelona, , Spain, Ricardo Bofill
Visual study of the structure of Walden 7
LA MURALLA ROJA, 1973. Calpe, province of Alicante, Spain, Ricardo Bofill
Black castle, Spain, Ricardo Bofill
Stufendomino Lyngberg, Bonn- Bad Godesberg, Wetzel Wohnbau, 1975, terraced building
The fractal space of Moshe Safdies Habitat 67 in Montreal, Canada, consists of load bearing precast
concrete boxes which were stacked 12 stories high and are tied together by post-tensioning. The
vertical elevator shafts and stair cores together with elevated horizontal streets give lateral support in
frame action to the asymmetrical assembly.
Visual study of box-type wall arrangements
Ramot Housing Complex, 1970s,The Cube and the Dodecahedron in My Polyhedric Architecture, Zvi
Hecker
CORE STRUCTURES
Many multi-core buildings with their exposed service shafts have been influenced by the thinking of
the Metabolists of the 1960s, who clearly separated the vertical circulation along cores and the served
spaces. Their urban clusters consisted of vertical service towers linked by multilevel bridges, which in
turn contained the cellular subdivisions. The linear bearing wall structure works quite well for
residential buildings where functions are fixed and energy supply can be easily distributed vertically.
In contrast, office and commercial buildings require maximum flexibility in layout, calling for large
open spaces subdivided by movable partitions. Here, the vertical circulation and the distribution of
other services must be gathered and contained in shafts and then channeled horizontally at every floor
level. These vertical cores may also act as lateral stabilizers for the building.
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SUSPENSION BUILDINGS
The application of the suspension principle to high-rise construction rather than roof structures is
essentially a phenomenon of the late 1950s and 1960s. The structuralists of this period discovered a
wealth of new support structure systems in the search to minimize the material and to express
lightness allowing no visual obstruction with heavy structural members. The fact that hanging the
floors on cables required only about one-sixth of the material compared to columns in compression,
provided a new challenge to designers. Tree-like buildings with a large central tower, from which giant
arms are cantilevered at the top or intermediate levels, to support tensile columns, are quite common
today. The typical suspension systems use the rigid core principle (single or multiple cores with
outriggers or beams, mega-frames, tree-like frames, etc.), the guyed mast principle, and the tensegrity
or spacenet principle.
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Lake Shore Drive Apts, Chicago, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, at Chicago, 1948 to 1951
The drawing of Mies van der Rohes 52-story, 212-m IBM Tower in Chicago (1973) expresses the
structural action and organization of the steel frame; the building is controlled by the grid of 9 x 12 m;
the grid seems almost to subdue the structural action
National Permanent Building 1775 & 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, NW, Hartman-Cox
Visual Study of skeleton structures: although the pure, boxy shapes of the 1960s are closely associated
with skeleton construction, as derived from Miesian minimalism, other building skeleton forms based
on quite different philosophies, have been built.
Typical skeleton structures in elevation
Frame behavior
The skeleton structure in plan
Beijing Jian Wai SOHO, Beijing, Riken Yamamoto, 2004
Tsinghua University, 2006
Ching Fu Group Headquarters, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 2007, Richard Rogers
The Colonnade (28 stories), Singapore, 2001, Paul Rudolph
Wisma Dharmala Sakti (30 stories), Jakarta, Indonesia, 1988, Paul Rudolph adopted local character
of Indonesian architecture
Lippo Center (44 floors, 172 m), Hongkong, 1988, Paul Rudolph
The Netherlands Architectural Institute, Rotterdam, 1993, Jo Coenen
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Visual study of the skeleton as assembly: the various systems can only suggest the infinite variation in
which the linear beam and column elements can be formed and related to one another
Visual study of flat slab building structures: from a behavioral point of view flat slabs are highly
complex structures. The intricacy of the force flow along an isotropic plate in response to uniform
gravity action is reflected by the principal moment contours.
Hinged frame + core/ outrigger building construction: the stiffness of the structure can be greatly
improved by using story-high or deeper outrigger arms that cantilever from the core or shear wall at
one or several levels and tie the perimeter structure to the core by either connecting directly to
individual columns or to a belt truss. This makes the structure act as a spatial structure similar to a
cantilever tube-in-tube.
Allied Bank tower (71 stories), Houston, 1983, SOM
Trump tower(68 stories), New York, 1982, Swanke Hayden Connel
Visual study of composite building structures
TUBULAR STRUCTURES
As the building increases in height in excess of circa 60 stories, the slender interior core and the planar
frames are no longer sufficient to effectively resist lateral forces. Now the perimeter structure of the
building must be activated to provide the task by behaving as a huge cantilever tube. Much credit for
the development of the system must given to the eminent structural engineer Fazlur Khan of SOM.
Various types of wall perforations and wall framing for tubes are shown in the next figure:
Perforated shell tube (j): concrete wall tube, stressed skin steel tube,
composite steel-concrete tube
Combination (K)
Further organization of tubes according to behavior (cross section):
Pure tubular concept: Single-perimeter tubes, tube-in-tube, bundled tubes (modular tubes)
by floor diaphragms to a high-strength reinforced concrete core nearly 75 ft (23 m) square. The core
columns are connected at the corners to the perimeter tube by four reinforced concrete Vierendeel
trusses at the 38th floor above ground. The slenderness of tower is 8.6!
Jin Mao Building (88 stories, 1380 ft), Shanghai, China, 1999, SOM, recalling the ancient pagoda
forms, gently stepping back to create a rhythmic pattern as it rises upward. The tower is organized into
8 segments (considered a lucky number) where each one is reduced in height by 1/8 of the base height.
The composite structure comprises a concrete core, 8 concrete mega columns, eight steel columns, and
steel floor framing.
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MEGASTRUCTURES AND HYBRID STRUCTURES
The term megastructure refers not to the visionary concepts of the 1960s expressing the
comprehensive planning of a community, but solely the support structure of a building. However, the
megastructure is still formulated on the basic concept of a primary structure that supports and services
secondary structures or smaller individual building blocks. In the early 1970s, Fazlur Khan proposed
to replace the multicolumn concept by four massive corner column supporting superframe. The
principle can be traced back to the John Hanckock Center in Chicago.
Study of new generation of structures (hybrid structures): the current trend away from pure building forms
towards hybrid solutions as expressed in geometry, material, structure layout, and building use, is apparent.
In the search for more efficient solutions for unique conditions, a new generation of structural systems has
developed with the aid of computers which, in turn, have an exciting potential of architectural expression.
Mathematical modeling with computers has made mixed construction possible, which may vary with
building height, thus allowing nearly endless possibilities that one could have not imagined only a few
years ago:
- Hotel de las Artes (154 m, 44 floors), , Barcelona, Spain, 1992, SOM/Iyengar, diagonally braced tube
in the form of mega portal frames
- Overseas Union Bank Center (280 m, 63 floors), Singapore, 1986, 280m, Kenzo Tange, hybrid system
of steel frames with concrete walls to increase rigidity (the core consists of hybrid steel frame with
concrete wall zones) allowing for column-free floor space.
- Proposal for the new World Trade Center in New York (2002), Rafael Vinoly
- Visual study of mega-structures
- Examples of mega-structures: the Bank of Southwest Tower (82 storries), Houston, proposal,
Murphy/Jahn + LeMessurier, 1982, similar to Greek cross in plan; Medical Mutual Building,
Cleveland, Stubbins + LeMessurier, 1983
- Citicorp Center (59 stories), New York,1977, Stubbins + William LeMessurier
- The Bank of Southwest Tower (82 stories, proposal), Houston, 1982, Murphy/Jahn, LeMessurier
- Bank of China Tower (369 m, 70 stories), Hong Kong, 1989, I. M. Pei + L. E. Robertson; space-frame
braced tube organized in 13-story truss modules, where the 170-ft (52 m) square plan at the bottom of
the building is divided by diagonals into four triangular quadrants. The mixed construction of the
primary structure consists of the separate steel columns at the corners (to which the diagonals are
connected), which are encased and bonded together by the massive concrete columns. The giant
diagonal truss members are steel box columns filled with concrete.
- Commerzbank (259 m, 60 stories), Frankfurt, Germany, 1997, Norman Foster + Arup, the triangular
steel tower has a central atrium where the corner core columns support the Vierendeel trusses which, in
turn, carry the floors and skygarden while allowing column-free interior spaces.
- Visual study of hybrid structures hybrid structures
Hongkong Bank (180 m), Honkong, 1985, Foster + Arup, steel mast joined by suspension trusses
acting in portal frame action
Duesseldorf City Gate (67 m, 19 stories), Duesseldorf, Germany, H. Petzinka + Fink Arch (and Ove
Arup for preliminary design of structure), is presented as an introduction to the new generation of
high-rise structures. The 56 m high interior open space atrium is a typical characteristic of this new
generation of urban buildings. The twisted composition of the rhombus-like arched building (circa 51 x
66 m in plan) is laterally supported by two triangular trussed framed core towers or mega-columns
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which are connected to form three portal frames that is a Z-like bracing system in plan view. The steel
pipes of the trussed frames are filled with concrete.
Shinjuku, Tokyo, Kenzo Tange, 2009
Messe-Torhaus (116 m, 30 floors), Frankfurt, 1985, O.M. Ungers
Seoul Broadcasting Center, Seoul, proposal 1996, Richard Rogers Arch. and Buro Happold Struct.
Eng.: the 37-story tower is approximately 90 m long, 18 m wide, and 180 m high from foundation
level. The ladder-like macro frame structure with infill framing is laterally braced in the narrow
direction by outrigger buttresses. The mega-trusses support the infill framing from above in
compression and from below in tension. The supper-structure is concrete encased steel, the secondary
structure is steel, and the slabs consist of steel deck and concrete.
Samsung Life Insurance Jong-Re Building, Seoul, 1999, Rafael Vinoly Arch, Structural Design
Group Co. Ltd, Tokyo, Japan: the 33-story building is about 157 m high from foundation level, 35 m
wide, and 75 m long. It consists of a mega-structure, that is three cylindrical steel cores at the corners
of a triangular plan, which are tied together at the top by a space frame head truss to form a portal
frame, which encloses infill framing in between. The innovative glass curtain (one of the largest in the
world) is suspended on vertical stainless steel rods supported by cantilevered steel brackets at the 11th
floor and uses glass beams (or blades) for support. The 45 m hanging glass and steel curtain comprises
panels 1 m tall and 2.2 m wide. The horizontal glass beams are formed of 5 pieces of tempered glass
and span 11 m between columns.
Paoli Soleri,
Pompidou Center,
Manfredi Nicolettis helicoidal skyscraper,
Carlo Morettis residential tower,
etc.
Eric Mendelsohn modeled the Einstein Tower in Potsdam (1930) in the spirit of German Expressionism.
The building form seems to symbolize an optical instrument by using the plastic character of concrete as
the media although brick was used as a substitute material. Naturally, there are no limits to the formal
expression as demonstrated by the LAX Control Tower, Los Angeles, 1995, by Katherine Diamond. This
78 m high tower reflects a high-tech tree-house using structural elements imaginatively but in a somewhat
decorative, fragmented fashion.
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Norddeutsche Landesbank (84 m, 18 floors), Hannover, 2002, Behnisch; The 23-story multiuse tower's
stepped-glass profile and giant cantilevers pierce the skyline of the city's Friedrichswall district. In
addition to an intriguing appearance, the building features an environmentally innovative design. A
soil-heat exchanger in the foundation distributes cool air to upper levels, and a daylight-redirection
system is integrated into a glare-eliminating sunshade.
Swiss Reinsurance Headquarters (180 m), London, 2004, Norman Foster + Arup; Arup have provided
an elegant structural engineering response to the building's radical form by creating the 'diagrid' system
of intersecting steel elements around the tower's perimeter. This structure combines vertical support to
the floors and resistance to wind forces, whilst following the curved shape and allowing the lighwells
to spiral up through the building.
Burj Al Arab (Tower of the Arabs 321 m, 56 stories),, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 1998, W. S.
Atkins; the hotel is constructed on a man-made island approximately 300 m offshore
HIGH-RISE APARTEMENT TOWER, Malm, Sweden, 2003, Calatrava, based in form on the
sculpture Turning Torso
Phare Tower, La Dfense, Paris. 2006, Thom Maynes (Morphosis, LA)
Skyscrapers. Dubai, United Arab Emirates Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback Arch, Arup Eng., The four
towers: Ranging from 54 to 97 floors designed to represent the movement of candlelight. Over 6
million sq ft of office, hotel, and residential space Base podium of the business district can hold 35,000
automobiles. Each floor plate is unique to itself
Computer generated image of the Up Town Project in Bahrain
Manama, Bahrain Financial Harbor
Turbine building, Bahrain Financial Harbour
Nakheel Tower (1000m), Dubai
CCTV Headquarters and TVCC Building, Beijing, 2008, Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren
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