TO Regional City Program: Session 3: The Hummingbird

Trevor Haskett

, Toronto

The Hummingbird is a transformational tool for controlling wind-induced motion in tall buildings. This breakthrough liquid damping technology rivals traditional dampers for safety and comfort – while delivering unparalleled levels of cost-efficiency, resiliency and design freedom.

Traditional damping systems – whether they rely on fluid or a solid mass – have extremely concentrated masses. These heavy masses need a lot of room and have to be installed near the tops of tall buildings in order to effectively limit wind-induced motion. The result is that dampers can demand large amounts of valuable space in skyscrapers.

The Hummingbird is a variation of a tuned liquid column gas damper that uses a system of water filled pipes and independently tuned air springs to mitigate wind motion in tall buildings. Unlike traditional liquid dampers, 100% of the water mass in the Hummingbird is active, which allows the Hummingbird to provide equivalent damping with a lighter and smaller footprint. Unlike traditional dampers, the Hummingbird’s modular design is highly flexible and configurable. The flexibility allows the Hummingbird to be distributed throughout the building.

The Hummingbird is an innovative engineering solution that delivers the same stabilizing performance as traditional dampers while helping building owners reclaim precious space on the uppermost floors of their developments. For architects and engineers, the Hummingbird offers dramatically increased design flexibility. And for building operators, the Hummingbird is easier to maintain, and not susceptible to single points of failure.