Download How to create a landmark building

How to create a landmark building
2512010220153 孔建洪 建筑与土木工程
A landmark building is referred to as a building which contains
notable features in its architectural design, historical significance, culture
sense and so on. In other words, it is quite easy to distinguish landmark
buildings from other buildings. The most important characteristics of a
landmark building are its durability, unique character and fame.
There are a lot of landmark buildings existing in the past and present.
Some of them are very famous all over the world. For example, the
Palace Museum( the Forbidden City) in Beijing is the world’s largest
royal palace. Pyramids are stone buildings with four triangular sloping
sides in ancient Egypt, which are constructed to
contain the bodies of their kings and queens.
The Beijing National Stadium (Bird’s Nest),
with a capacity of 80,000 and an impressive
retractable roof, hosts sporting events, operas
and ballet performances. The Burj Al Arab Hotel, which is a luxury hotel
built on an artificial island in Dubai, is designed to resemble the sail of a
dhow. The instantly recognizable, elegant shape of the building now
becomes an symbolic statement for Dubai.
In recent years, more and more citys have a passion to construct
landmark buildings. Why do we need to construct so many landmark
buildings? The reasons may vary from person to person, in my opinion,
there are five reasons to be listed.
First, a landmark buildings is an iconic or symbolic statement for a
city. That is to say, it will enhance city’s visibility and promote city’s
development of economy. Due to the rapid urbanization development, a
new landmark will emerge to a certain extent. Nowadays, under the
influence of globalization, the competition among cuontries is very severe.
A landmark building will attract business opportunities and has appeal to
qualified people .
Second, landmark buildings will enhance our sense of belonging and
pride. “Centennial Olympics- A Fulfilled Dream for China”. As the
symbol of a rising Chinese nation, “Bird’s Nest”
has now become a landmark for a modern China
and a new Beijing as well as a must spot for
tourists both at home and abroad. When
foreigners express appreciation for the “Bird’s Nest” Stadium, we feel
proud and excited.
Third, landmark buildings are the center of people’s life. It can meet
our demands such as commercial affairs, social gathering, entertainment
and so on. Usually a hise-rise building consists of different portions, each
of which has a designated function. The Jinmao Tower is located in
Lujiazui metro station in Shanghai. The building has 3 main entrances to
the lobby, two for the office portion and one for the hotel. Additionally, a
6-story podium at the tower base houses the Hyatt’s
conference and banquet facilities as well as a shopping
mall, restaurants and nightclubs. The 3-story basement
has a food court, express elevators to the obserbation
deck. The lower 50 floors are made up of 123,000 m² of
offices, divided into 5 elevator zones. When we get into
the Jinmao Tower, we will be impressed by its versatile functions.
Fourth, a landmark building is likely to save more land resources
compared to a normal building. The covered area of Shanghai Tower is
30,368 m², and its total floor area is 574,058 m². The ratio of total floor
area to covered area is 18.9. However, the number of normal building is
usually 1 to 3. So a landmark building will save considerably large land
resources.
Fifth, landmark buildings will improve the development of science
and technology. Generally speaking, the structure of a landmark building
is very complex. Before construct the building, engineers need to do a lot
of tests in order to ensure that the building is safe enough. In the
meanwhile, engineers are concerned with finding new construction
materials and structural systems to reduce the cost and make the building
more green and energy-efficient. The design of Shanghai Tower's glass
facade is intended to reduce wind loads on the building by 24%. This
reduces the amount of construction materials needed. The Shanghai tower
used 25% less structural steel than a conventional design of a similar
height. As a result, the building's constructors are
expected to save an estimated $58 million in material
costs. The double-layered insulating glass facade is
intended to reduce the need for indoor air conditioning,
and is composed of an advanced reinforced glass with a
high tolerance for shifts in temperature. In addition, the
building's
heating
and
cooling
systems
will
use
geothermal
energy sources.
Landmark buildings do improve our life in many aspects, but how to
create a landmark building? The probability of creating a landmark
building is related to some factors such as the economic strength of a city
or country, the design skill of high-rise buildings drived by culture and
the structural engineering technology.
On one hand, a landmark building is a symbolic statement for a city
or country. On the other hand, it cost a lot to construct a landmark
building. So the economic strength of a city or country should be an
important factor. Moreover, a landmark building should reflect the culture
of a city or country. If the design does not reflect the regional culture,
then it will not be unique and turn out to be commonplace. Also the
structural engineering technology is important. Withou a strong skelecon,
a building can not support loads safely. These three factors determine
whether a landmark building will be constructed or not. Let take some
examples to further understand these three key factors in creating a
landmark building.
The Burj Al Arab Hotel is a luxury hotel located in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates. Today, Dubai has emerged as a cosmopolitan metropolis
that has grown steadily to become a global city and a business and
cultural hub of the Middle East and the
Persian Gulf region..The city has become
symbolic for its skyscapers and high-rise
buildings,
in
addition
to
ambitious
development projects including man-made
islands, hotels, and some of the largest
shopping malls in the region and the world. Dubai's gross domestic
product as of 2011 was US $83.4 billion. Although Dubai's economy was
built on the back of the oil industry, revenues from oil and natural gas
currently account for less than 7% of the emirate's revenues. The
government's decision to diversify from a trade-based, oil-reliant
economy to one that is service and tourism-oriented made property more
valuable, resulting in the property appreciation from 2004 to 2006. As of
2012, Dubai is the 22nd most expensive city in the world, and the most
expensive city in the Middle East. According to the above information,
the economic strength of Dubai is quite strong and it can afford the
investment of creating the landamark building. Most importantly, Dubai
invested the The Burj Al Arab Hotel in order to improve its economy.
The Burj Al Arab Hotel was built to resemble the sail of a dhow, a
type of Arabian vessel. Two "wings" spread
in a V to form a vast "mast", while the space
between them is enclosed in a massive atrium.
Dubai wanted a building that would become
an iconic or symbolic statement for it. This is
very
similar
to Sydney with
its Opera
House, London with Big Ben, or Paris with the Eiffel Tower. The Burj Al
Arab Hotel was just designed to become synonymous with the name of
the country.
Several features of the hotel required complex engineering feats to
achieve. The hotel rests on an artificial island constructed 280 m offshore.
To secure a foundation, the builders drove 230 forty-meter
long
concrete piles into the sand. Engineers created a ground/surface layer of
large rocks, which is circled with a concrete honeycomb pattern, which
serves to protect the foundation from erosion. It took three years
to reclaim the land from the sea, while it took fewer than three years to
construct the building itself. The building contains over 70,000 m3 of
concrete and 9,000 tons of steel. Inside the building, the atrium is 180 m
tall.
Dubai has done a nice job and the Burj Al Arab Hotel is proved to
be a unique building.
The Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower (Chinese: 东方明珠塔) is
a TV tower in Shanghai, China. Its location at the tip
of Lujiazui in the Pudong district by the side of Huangpu River,
opposite The Bund, makes it a distinct landmark in the area.
Shanghai is the largest city by population in the People's
Republic of China. It is a global city, with influence in
commerce, culture, finance, media, fashion, technology, and
transport. It is a major financial center and the busiest
container port in the world.
Shanghai ranks fifth in the 2011 edition of the Global Financial
Centres Index published by the City of London. This is exemplified by
the Pudong District, which became a pilot area for integrated economic
reforms. In 2009, the Shanghai Stock Exchange ranked third among
worldwide stock exchanges in terms of trading volume and sixth in terms
of the total capitalization of listed companies. Since 1992 Shanghai has
recorded double-digit growth almost every year except during the global
recession of 2008 and 2009. In 2011, Shanghai's total GDP grew to
1.92 trillion yuan (US$297 billion) with GDP per capita of 82,560 yuan
(US $12,784).
There is no doubt that the economic strength of Shanghai is the
strongest in China. Thus an increasing number of high-rise buildings are
constructed or being constructed, some of which become
symbolic statements for Shanghai.Those landmark buildings
not only enhance the international fame of Shanghai, but also
improve the financial and economic environment by bringing
in talent and funds. Especially Pudong district is renowned for
extensive and growing Lujiazui skyline. It has been described
as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of mainland
China.
The design of the building is said to be based on a verse of the Tang
Dynasty poem Pipa Song by Bai Juyi about the wonderful sprinkling
sound of a pipa instrument, like pearls, big and small falling on
a jade plate (大珠小珠落玉盘). To some degree the design reflects
Chinese symbolism.
The tower features 11 spheres, big and small. The two largest
spheres, along the length of the tower, have diameters of 50 m for the
lower and 45 m for the upper. They are linked by three columns, each 9 m
in diameter. The highest sphere is 14 m in diameter. The entire tower is
supported by three enormous columns that start underground.
As we can see, with solid economic strength, excellent design skill
drived by culture and enough structural engineering technologies, a
landmark building will come into being. If we lack any one factor, it will
turn out to be a failure. Without enough money, we are not able to afford
the cost of constructing a landmark building. If the design do not reflect
the culture of the country or the city, it will not win our admiration. When
the structure of a landmark building is not reasonable and strong enough,
it will not be safe during its lifetime. So the above three key factors is
quite significant in erecting a landmark building. Now let us further
research the probability of creating a landmark building by mathematical
methods.
Let us assume that the probability of creating a landmark building is
P. Similarly, we assume that the economic strength of a city or country is
x, the design skill of high-rise buildings drived by culture is y and the
structural engineering technology is z. Then p is a function of x, y and z.
We write it in the form p=f(x,y,z).Let take some examples to know
further understand the function p=f(x,y,z).
First we assume that the three factors x, y and z affect the P
independently. That is to say, they are uncorrelated variables.
We assume that x is measured by the urbanization ratio of a city,
which reflect the economic strength of a city to a large extent. We use the
number of the existing landmark buildings in a city to indicate the
probability of creating a landmark building. Now we get a chart which
showes the number of existing landmark buildings and the urbanization
ratio of 2011 of different cities in China.
city
the number of existing landmark
the urbanization ratio of
buildings
2011
Shanghai
16
0.893
Beijing
15
0.7936
Guangzhou
12
0.84
Hongkong
20
0.99
Taiwan
13
0.85
Shenzhen
14
0.86
Chongqing
5
0.55
Tianjin
9
0.80
Hangzhou
7
0.72
Xi’an
4
0.50
Xiamen
6
0.60
Urumqi
3
0.30
Lhasa
2
0.20
Now we use the matlab to analyze the chart. First we draw the figure
of the chart and we get a scatter diagram, in which n stands for the
number of existing landmark buildings and u stands for the urbanization
ratio of 2011. First we want to use a quadratic polynomial fitting to get a
function. Then u1 stands for the variable from 0 to 1, and function f
stands for the quadratic polynomial fitting we get before.
clc;clear;
u=[0.893 0.7936 0.84 0.99 0.85 0.86 0.55 0.80 0.72 0.50 0.60 0.30
0.20]; %urbanization ratio of different cities
n=[16 15 12 20 13 14 5 9 7 4 6 3 2]; %number of existing landmark buildings of cities
p=ployfit(x,y,2)
p=
36.2676
-21.4627
5.4767
u1=linspace(0,1,100);
f=36.2676*x.^2-21.4627*x+5.4767;
plot(u,n,'o',u1,f,'b')
However, we find the function curve does not fit very well.
Because when the urbanization ratio is close to zero, the number of
existing landmark buildings should equal to 0. So we replace the
quadratic polynomial by quartic polynomial. There are some dots outside
the curve because of accidental deviation.
clc;clear;
u=[0.893 0.7936 0.84 0.99 0.85 0.86 0.55 0.80 0.72 0.50 0.60 0.30 0.20];
n=[16 15 12 20 13 14 5 9 7 4 6 3 2];
p=ployfit(x,y,4)
p=
-101.0985 276.2216 -226.6017
78.9090
-6.8151
u1=linspace(0,1,100);
g=-101.0985*x.^4+276.2216*x.^3-226.6017*x.^2+78.9090*x-6.8151
plot(u,n,'o',u1,g,'b')
Now we find that the function curve fit well. When the
urbanization ratio is close to zero, the number of existing landmark
buildings is close to zero.