Every year, Bentley Systems holds its Year in Infrastructure conference, which sets the stage for the Be Inspired Awards. These awards put the spotlight into projects from across the globe and from various industries, from building and construction to mining to project delivery.
This year’s Innovation in Building finalists presented their projects on Nov. 1 before the winners were announced on the evening of Nov. 2. The winner? The Hanking Center Tower by Morphosis.
Hanking Center Tower is a 1,148-ft (350-m) mixed-use building in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It has a unique design; the base, full of folded angles that resemble an origami shape, houses retail and dining space, while the remainder of the tower is reserved for offices.
A Unique Core
So what got the tower its winning title?
The defining feature of the structure is its structural steel system and detached core. The core runs along the outside of the tower, much like a spine, and houses the elevator systems. It connects to the main structure using sky bridges.
By moving the core to the exterior of the building, the design team at Morphosis was able to open up floor space and use equally sized floor plates as the building ascends from the ground. The detached core also enabled an open floor plan to facilitate HVAC and maximize daylighting.
The remainder of the structure stands using a structural steel skeleton and two secondary cores, which hold VIP and freight elevators as well as mechanical servicing areas.
Designing the Core
The building’s design necessitated a few iterations. To come up with the design for Hanking Center Tower, the team at Morphosis used rapid prototyping and CNC machining to determine the feasibility of each design.
After this process, the team created a miniaturized version of the tower in the context of its building site to understand how it would look relative to its neighbors.
Using BIM for the Hanking Center Tower
A complex design such as the Hanking Center Tower’s folded angles necessitated the use of building information modeling (BIM). The team used Bentley’s AECOsim Building Designer to create the unique geometries for the facade.
This model was also used to review changes every two weeks in the preconstruction phase. The team will be maintaining an as-built model for architectural reference, but the client didn’t require one for facility management.
For more information on the Hanking Center Tower, check out the Morphosis website.