Session 3: State-of-the-Art Engineering for Supertall Residential Buildings

Murali Guruvappan
Director
WME Consultants, Dubai

When completed at 468 meters, the SRG Tower in Dubai will be one of the world’s slenderest residential towers. The 111-story supertall tower will be built on a 30-by-30-meter footprint with a slenderness ratio 1:15.6. The top of tower will feature two wind turbines with a 360-degree viewing platform above. State-of-the-art innovative, multi-disciplinary engineering ideas were required to deliver its iconic architectural form, whilst achieving a robust, efficient and highly sustainable building in line with the client's ambitious brief.

Structural design embraced the design intent and advanced technologies in the development of SRG tower. It implemented the cutting-edge lateral load-resisting system "tube-in-tube with mega diagrids” integrated with the façade to form a unique structural system and optimum internal floor spaces; and it developed bespoke wind engineering solutions such as tapering the top third of the building, intermediate open garden floors, and a large opening on the roof crown structure. As the project was targeting a LEED Platinum rating, every aspect of the Building Service design required careful consideration and optimization: wind turbines, façade-integrated PVs, simultaneous domestic water heating and cooling via an integrated heat pump, high-efficiency chillers with magnetic-bearing compressors, extensive water recovery, and a distributed HV electrical network all contribute to the significant reductions in energy consumption against the ASHRAE Baseline Model. Furthermore, the compact floor plate and heavily-loaded structure required careful consideration at all design phases. A cloud-hosted Building Information Modeling (BIM) used from the outset ensured a fully-coordinated solution was achieved during the design.