1. Inside Shanghai Tower
THE STORY OF THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF WHAT WOULD BE
‘THE TALLEST BUILDING IN CHINA’
BY: DARWIN JAYSON MARIANO
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NICKY ALMSBY and
2DEFINE ARCHITECTURE

2. Shanghai Tower: A Closer Look
Once completed in 2014, the Shanghai Tower, a super tall skyscraper, will be the tallest building in
China and the second tallest in the world. Undertaking the design for such a mammoth project is no
easy feat. With all the complexities, issues, and possibilities involved, what important lessons can
be learned? What are the main highlights of this iconic building? In this rare interview with Marshall
Strabala, Shanghai Tower’s Chief Architect, he shared some inside stories behind the design and
construction of such a super tall skyscraper.
Please talk about your recent project, the
Shanghai Tower. Could you discuss some of the
building’s highlights and design strengths? How
would you characterize its envelope design?
The Shanghai Tower has a very ambitious design. It
will be the world’s tallest double skin building. From
the beginning, we tried to minimize the amount of
façade on the building in order to increase the value
of the Project. Basically, what we’re designing is a
thermos bottle, a bottle within a bottle that actually
increase the insulation value of the building. This is
like wearing a sweater. You can take the sweater off
in the summer, and when it gets colder, you can put
it back on to achieve the desired level of comfort.
The double skin allows us to use less energy per year
than a single skin building.
The outer skin or what we call the A wall is not
attached to a slab. The A wall is attached to a
350mm dia steel girt, that is from 2 – 12m away
from any concrete slab – so there is no adjacent area
to install the wall. Yuanda and the General
contractor developed a unique set of hanging
platforms to install both the Curtain wall Supporting
structure, and the exterior wall.
Most super tall buildings are only for the use of the
tenants, and this means 95% of the building is not
public. The public is only allowed on the observation
deck through the purchase of a ticket. The Shanghai
Tower from the beginning was a building designed
for people – both public and private. The completed
building takes advantage of the 5 sky lobbies that
not only reduce the size of the core because we can
stack the elevators, but also create vertical
neighbour hoods containing restaurants and other
public uses. We call these “Amenity Floors”.
This double skin system allows a building to have an
enclosed atrium space at each “Amenity Floors” for
extra public space beyond the lobby. This “inbetween space” allows public access to the edge.
Levels 22,37,52,68 and 101 are designed like this.
The 83 floor contains a pool and gym, and 118 and
above are for the observation population.
The double skin is created in eight zones, where
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3. each zone has a central cylinder of useable space
surrounded by a rounded triangle. These crescents in
the atria are from 12m to 7m deep.
Therefore,
when you get to the edge of your office, you don’t
feel like you’re more than 14 stories above the atria,
but in reality you are 50 -60 floors above the ground.
It’s a very comforting feeling that if the glass broke,
you wouldn’t be hanging out in the middle of space
70 floors up.
Architecture is the art of making buildings both
beautiful and safe. In the Shanghai Tower, there are
redundant safety features. The exterior wall on the
outside of the building or the “A Wall” is two pieces
of Low-E and low iron glass laminated with a product
call SGP by DuPont. This is the strongest lamination
system we have in the industry, and it creates a very
safe environment if a glass panel should break. This
lamination keeps the broken pieces of glass from
falling and causing injuries. The BME system is
designed to both clean and replace the windows. All
the system’s materials are chosen for the highest
level of performance and sustainability.
The inner wall or the “B wall” was originally thought
to be a very simple and easy design; however it
became the most technically complex wall I have
ever worked on. Conversely, we thought the outer
skin would be very complicated, but it turned out to
be very easy instead. John Perry was the façade
consultant on the project, and his background in
structural engineering helped us with the interface
of the “Curtain Wall Supporting Structure” – CWSS.
The inner skin is a very rare system because of the 1
hour fire separation required between the office
space and the atria. The core of wall is a formed steel
tube clad in aluminium and glazed with a DBF high
temperature glass. This glass wall achieves both the
fire rating and visual requirements.
The lessons we learned was to always go in with
open eyes and be prepared for the worst, and just
jump for joy when something works out very well.
One of the biggest challenges is where the two wall
come together and create a structural link to the
primary building. There are three points where the
CWSS is linked to the base structure actually
touching the façade of the building.
The inner wall could actually be bolted to the slab,
and you could actually work from the slab and have
workmen and materials being delivered from the
slab area, like in any other building on the planet.
However, for the outside skin, there’s no slab, or
sometimes the slab is 10 meters away, so it’s a lot
harder to install the equipment or the exterior wall
panels. You need a platform adjacent to it as you’re
installing it, so one had to be developed and installed
by Yuanda, the contractor who’s doing the outer
skin. Yuanda, the fabricator, installed on a special set
of moveable platforms. As the façade is going up,
our role becomes that of quality control and we
assist in any odd conditions that could come up. We
work with all three contractors: Yuanda, Jangho,
and Lingyun to refine the design and make sure the
detailing is quite tidy and looks good from all angles.
Next: Facades for tall buildings
>>>

5. High performance buildings facades
In the context of tall buildings, what is your
definition of ‘high performance building facade’?
Do you notice a pattern or trend when it comes to
its engineering/design, particularly in China?
America, and I imagine they’ll overtake these
standards in a few years. So the next step is
understanding the patterns that are transferred
when it comes to envelope and engineering design.
“High performance building façade” is a label that
we attach to a building to say that it’s very
sustainable. Basically, this label refers to a unitized
system that is factory built to high-performance
specifications, be it for high- or low-rise construction
projects.
The trend in Asia is moving towards high quality and
energy efficiency.
Most building performance
criteria is controlled by the government, and there
is a certain minimum performance that the
envelope of all new construction must meet. In
addition, the building must be safe for the public,
and this is why we are seeing more laminated glass
walls to limit the chance of large glass shards falling
off buildings.
Installing a factory-assembled exterior wall system is
a lot easier, safer, and advantageous
than
constructing a system on the building from
individual parts. The latter is a basic stick system,
and the former is a “unitized system”. In a unitized
system, your tolerances are tighter, and more
consistent. You can actually get 8mm joints that
work better because, when you construct a glass and
aluminium wall in situ, weather dominates the
process. That is wind, rain and temperature can have
big impact on the wall. The contractor has to fight
the elements in a stick system, where a unitized
system is created in a controlled factory
environment at the right humidity and temperature.
The High performance coating we use on glass need
special handling to produce a well-sealed building.
Dust and dirt is another factor that goes away when
not building in situ. Right now, China is on an upward
curve – it’s approaching the standards of Europe and
Because of higher performance requirements and
sustainability goals of clients, the façade is getting
to the point where we have to increase the number
of layers in the skin to reduce the amount of energy
that transmits through the façade. We are seeing K
values of 1.4/1.35, whereas a couple of years ago we
were seeing K values of 1.6/1.7. Today, the total
envelope of the building has much more stringent
insulation requirements than it used to, and this will
continue to rise in the future.
Next: Aesthetics vs ROI
>>>
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6. The Shanghai Tower has a very ambitious
design. It will be the world’s tallest
double skin building.

7. The great debate: Aesthetics vs ROI
In proposing a façade engineering design, do you
see a conflict between aesthetics and ROI?
Always! All commercial buildings, anywhere in the
world, are built for a return on investment. Even
museums are built to a budget. Buildings need
identity, just like people. Some attract people to the
city and others bring people to different parts of the
city. A large corporate office building or hotel
expects a certain level of return, and every operator
has a different set of criteria. These design criteria
set the cost, acoustics, and performance levels for
the project. If done at the beginning, the project
becomes better. If changed often during design and
construction, it will lead to a less than satisfactory
result. Every hotel operator requires acoustic
separation from room to room, and the façade must
meet this criteria. This is done so guests in one room
don’t hear the people in the next room through the
façade. Putting acoustic separation between hotel
rooms is rather easy through drywall and insulation
but sometimes, the weak point is in the façade or the
interface between wall and façade.
So, this struggle between return on investment,
performance and aesthetics is always out there, and
what you try to do is to achieve the criteria with as
minimum amount of material as possible. This
minimum amount of material always has a safety
factor. The wall should be robust enough so it does
not deflect when the average wind blows or creak
and break when the building moves.
In all exterior walls, movement is required. In super
tall buildings, the movements are more extreme and
require another level of solutions. Too much
movement and the wall leaks, not enough and the
wall breaks under pressure. In terms of ROI, the
exterior wall of any building is about 20% of the cost,
yet the wall is 90% of the look of the building. This
piece of equipment is an investment and should be
treated as such. You need to maintain it, clean it ( at
least twice a year) and repair it, and even replace it,
because it really contributes to the image of the
building and the image of the building is the first
thing people react to. Buildings gain reputation. If
something does not work well, people talk and the
building becomes a bad place to live or work. This
Curbside feeling of quality is very important to
leasing. Also, if you let the dirt build up on the
façade, it will take longer to clean and hurt the
image of the project. So is it easy to clean? Is it easy
to replace? Does it look good between cleanings?
These are the questions we always ask.
Here’s a key thing: if you can design your façade so
the dirt and the rain don’t actually show up between
cleanings, you’re ahead of the game. The gaps
between the façade pieces actually channel the rain
and the particles in the air, so it doesn’t look like it’s
dirty between cleanings. That’s what we strive to
do. We try to plan where the water goes so we’re not
getting stains and dirt doesn’t build up where we
don’t want them; we always specify weeps in our
building to get internal moisture out of the building.
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8. We actually look for a high return on investment not
5 or 6 years, but 50 years, and I think that looking
longer-term is the right way to do it. All commercial
buildings, anywhere in the world, are built for a
return on investment. Even museums are built to a
budget.
Do you think building owners are receptive to
these ideas?
Yes, all building owners want a good ROI and these
criteria help improve the profit. Sometimes with
very complex and unusual shapes the fabricators can
help you achieve the right aesthetics with the lowest
cost. The owner sets the price, the architect sets
the look, the façade team sets the performance and
the fabricators pull them all together. And
sometimes, the fabricator comes up and says, if we
change this and adjust that, we can reduce the cost
of façade and make it look like 90% of what the
architect had in mind. You should always be a little
flexible and listen. Allowing the fabricator input early
on is always good for the ROI.
All commercial
buildings, anywhere in
the world, are built for a
return on investment.
Even museums are built
to a budget.

9. Sometimes, with very complex and unusual
shapes, the fabricators can help you achieve
the right aesthetics with the lowest cost.

10. Dear Colleague,
Did you know that 9 of the 10 tallest towers worldwide are now in Asia, with
595 tall buildings currently in construction? Join us to learn about
technological advancements, planned and in construction projects and iconic
designs at Tall Buildings Asia 2013 happening on 23-25 October in Singapore.
Take the opportunity to hear from the architects, engineers, construction
companies and project managers of the most significant tall building projects
in Asia today.
Personally, I’m really looking forward to learning more about the current
development opportunities in Indonesia and other emerging markets.
Based on past IQPC events, the speakers and delegates in attendance will be
top class. At this event, speakers will include lead architects, chief
structural engineers and key decision makers from project management,
developer and construction companies in Asia.
Come and join me to hear about iconic designs, high-tech materials and the
innovative structural design techniques that make the changing Asian
landscape possible.
Marshall Strabala
Design Partner - 2Define Architecture

11. To attend the 7th Annual Tall
Buildings Asia 2013
happening on 23-25 October
in Singapore, call +65 6722
9388 or email
enquiry@iqpc.com.sg
Benefits of Attending:
• Learn from 18 leading
architects, property
developers, engineers and
construction companies
• Meet the key decision
makers from the latest tall
building developments,
including planned
projects with open tenders
Driving
Innovative Tall
Building Projects
through
Sustainable
Business Models
and State-OfThe-Art
Technological
Advancements
• Explore new technological
solutions that will take
your tall buildings to new
heights
Click to download Brochure
www.tallbuildingsasia.com
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