VANKE CENTER
---FLOATING HORIZON ᠋᠌᠍
ARC 631 CASE STUDY Chen Han , Liang Xia, Liang Yu, Xi Wu , Chia-En Hsu
Overview
Vanke Center ---Horizontal Skyscraper, supported over a
landscape garden in Shenzhen , China.
This project has been awarded with a 2010 Honor Award by AIA
Sufficient Identification Evidence
The building appears as if it were once floating in a higher sea
that has now subsided : leaving the structure propped up high on
eight legs.
The Concept
Uses the concept of a floating
ground line that results in a
horizontal skyscraper over a
maximized landscape
The horizontal length of Vanke
Center is 1250 ft as the Empire
State Building height.
Building Layout
Vanke Center is consisted of three
parts: office area, apartment area
and hotel. Each part is connected
by the stairs or elevations from the
ground level.
1st, 2nd basement: parking pots
1st, 2nd F: hotel, condo
3rd, 4th F: hotel, condo, soho, conference
5th, 6th, F: soho, conference, office
Function
Structure Features
During the structural design process, compared steel frames, mega
steel-transfer structures, cable structures, concrete frames and their
available composition (Table 1, Table 2).
The concept of building on cable-stayed bridges was chosen from
several possible structure system.
Structure Features-Table1
Structure Features-Table2
Components
1.Steel beams on the first floor to control cracking
2.Wide RC beams on the upper floors provided a better option to
coordinate structural deformations.
3. Pre-stressed cables reducing the moments at the base of the
super columns.
Main Structural System
The structure spread out under the 35 meter height limit on the
site, supported on eight cores using bridge- building technology
and a concrete frame to maximize the area available for
gardens beneath.
Eight cores
Main Structural System
Suspended on eight cores , as far as 50 meters apart, this
floating horizontal skyscraper is a sophisticated combination of
cable-stay bridge technology merged with a high strength
concrete frame.
The first structure of its type , it has tension cable caring a record
load of 3280 tons.
Main Structural System
Self-Balanced Construction
Architectural requirements mandated that deflections caused
by arching following pre-stressing go cable at the mid-span
and cantilever ends of the beams on the first floor needed to
be restricted .
It is very different with conventional cable-stayed because the
number of cables used is small but the tension forces
developed in the cables are large.
Connection Description
Cast steel joint is a new type of structural joint developed with
the application of the large-span steel truss. Top joint is fixed
in core wall or wall, welding with structural steel inside;
bottom joints is fixed with two-story steel beams, welding with
the steel beam.
Column
Beam
Beam
Expansion Joint
Two structure joints were introduced between the districts, in which the
positions of the tube and wall can be identified. The joint clearance
was 100mm, which accounted for the lateral movement because of
design level earthquake forces.
Loading Summary
The loads carried by the slabs and tubes were introduced in two
stages. First, the loads were transferred through pre-stressed
cables where the loading process was fairly rapid and the
loading intensity was high.
As the construction of the superstructure proceeded, the structural
loads were transferred to the slab and the tube in a slow and
steady manner.
Loading
Summary
Roof load
Floor dead loads and live loads.
Foundation
Foundation
Load Transfer Path
Gravity loads from the superstructure were transferred to
tubes, walls, and columns by the inclined pre-stressed cables.
Lateral Loading Behavior
Lateral load created by wind.
Lateral Load
Lateral Load
Tension(cable)
Tension(cable)
Lateral Resisting System
The shear wall and core wall constitute the inner lateral resisting
system. It can suffer the lateral load like wind force by the
outside lateral resisting system. Primary truss beam and primary
truss brace are the outside lateral resisting system.
Lateral Resisting System
Horizontal diagonal beams were added at the first floor and
roof levels to add horizontal stiffness and increase the resistance
of these floors to the horizontal component of the cable tension
forces.
Lateral Resisting System
seismic joint
Multiframe Analysis
Bending moment
diagram
Multiframe Analysis
Shear diagram
Wind%loads%on%the%left%
% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %
Multiframe Analysis
Axial diagram
Multiframe Analysis
Deflection diagram
Foundation and Soil
Shenzhen was originally a hilly area, with fertile agrarian land.
However, after becoming a special economic zone in 1979,
Shenzhen underwent tremendous change in landscape. The once
hilly fishing village is now replaced by mostly flat ground .
Vanke Center built on flat area, and it has rarely earthquake in
Shenzhen. So the foundation is mat foundation for Vanke Center.
Columns
Floor Slab
Reinforced concrete mat
Foundation-Mat Foundation
Mat foundation uses bearing capacity of the soil at or near the
building base to transmit the load to the soil.
It used to distribute the bearing pressure over a large footprint
and /or to resist significant uplift forces that can develop.
