challenge for Building Services designers

At 638m high, the Signature Tower in Jakarta is providing the design challenge of a lifetime for the team working on it.

Technical director of buildings for Beca Simon Longuet-Higgins says that for the Auckland-based team of buildings services engineers working on this project, major challenges include the high pressure required to pump water to the top of the 111-storey building, and working around what is known as the stack effect. This is created when volumes of air move between the different pressures and temperatures at the top and bottom of a building, especially very tall ones.

"The tower will effectively be five buildings constructed on top of each other, and the services are designed almost separately for each building. The complicated bit is joining them together."

Beca, which has won Property Council awards for Government House and Auckland Airport's international departures building, has worked on a number of towers around the world including the Sky Tower in Auckland and China's Macau Tower.

Longuet-Higgins and his team are designing the services for 22 high-rise towers in Indonesia, and recently achieved the first major green building certification in Indonesia, gaining a Green Mark award for Jakarta's 650,000m² Gandaria City complex.

For more information, contact Beca Buildings, phone (09) 473 7551. Website: www.beca.com.

Story by: Trendsideas