In the center of Shanghai, there is a 632-meter-high skyscraper, the Shanghai Tower, which costs 14.8 billion yuan, which is the tallest building in China, weighing 800,000 tons.
As soon as this magnificent building was completed, rumors about the building followed. There is a saying circulating on the Internet that this tallest building in China and the third tallest building in the world has only 50 years of construction life. In other words, the building is at risk of demolition in 2066. Is this really the case? Shanghai officials refuted this rumor overnight.
First of all, according to the building age requirements in the mainland's "Unified Standard for the Design of Building Structural Reliability", this false statement can be directly overturned. It clearly stipulates that monumental buildings and particularly important structures are designed to last for 100 years. It can be seen that the 50-year life span spread on the Internet is complete nonsense!
Throughout the ages, supertall buildings have been a controversial product in their own right, and Shanghai Tower is not the first supertall building in Shanghai. In 1999, the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai was built at a height of 420 meters, and in 2010, the Shanghai World Financial Center was completed with a height of 492 meters. As the third high-rise building in Shanghai, it will surpass the previous two cases and be built upwards again, and this project has been the subject of much attention and skepticism from the start to the implementation.
In fact, there is a strong correlation between the three skyscrapers. The World Financial Center is about 70 meters taller than the Jin Mao Tower, while the Shanghai Tower is 140 meters higher than the World Financial Center. The three buildings show an upward trend in appearance, forming a spectacular city skyline. Therefore, after several discussions and revisions, the designers finally set the building height of Shanghai Tower at 632 meters.
Some viewers once commented that standing on the Shanghai Tower is like being in the clouds, and while being able to overlook the entire city of Shanghai, they also feel shaky, as if the whole building trembles when the wind blows. This statement is echoed by many people. In fact, you can rest assured that this is just a psychological effect, and the foundation of the building is much more solid and stable than we imagined.
The foundation is like the trunk of a tree, the foundation of the entire building. The foundation of the Centre Tower was not easy to construct because it was built on a river delta site with soft soil. To do this, the builders laid 980 piles, each 282 feet deep, and poured them with reinforced concrete. In this way, the foundation forms an extremely stable chassis that supports the entire building.
With an above-ground area of about 410,000 square meters, the central building consumes dozens of times more energy than a building of average height due to its large size. To solve the problem of energy consumption, builders are using green technologies. Improve the interior of the building, and systematically combine a variety of energy-saving measures, according to statistics, there are as many as 19 kinds.
For example, a huge rainwater collection tank was built at the top of the tower to collect rainwater and recycle it effectively, saving about 250 standard swimming pools in a year. In addition, more than 270 wind turbines have been installed at the entrance of the wind tunnel on the top floor of the building, which convert mechanical energy into electricity for the building, providing an average of 1.19 million kWh of green electricity per year.
In 2015, Shanghai Tower was recognized by the U.S. Green Building Certification Council and awarded it LEED-CS Platinum certification. Before the building was officially met with the public, it won the highest honor in the field of green building and became an environmental protection case worthy of in-depth study and reference in various fields.
In fact, the building is not only wonderful, but also includes an innovative technology in the construction process: the double-glazed curtain wall used in the building. There is a gap between the two curtain walls, which acts as a temperature buffer and avoids direct contact between indoor and outdoor air for heat exchange. It is not only convenient to adjust the room temperature, but also has good thermal insulation performance, creating the effect of "warm in winter and cool in summer" of the building.
It's just easier said than done. The fabrication of the double-glazed curtain wall was carried out at the same time as the structural construction of the building, as it was not less difficult than the latter. Double-glazed curtain wall technology has never been used in supertall buildings, with the tallest being only 350 meters. It is undoubtedly a huge challenge for technicians to be bold in improving and innovating.
As we all know, it is difficult to carry out external rescue in the event of a sudden disaster in a super high-rise building, so the protection of glass curtain walls is particularly important. It took the technicians three years to develop the plan alone, during which time thousands of improvements were made. The final glass plate must also go through a series of strict tests such as fire prevention, anti-falling off, and tightness before it can be officially adopted.
Construction problems emerge one after another as the construction process progresses, and the builders investigate and solve them one by one. With the joint cooperation of personnel from various fields, the construction of Shanghai Tower was completed on schedule. Builders include engineers, architects, technicians, and thousands of workers. Together with the concrete, under the building, is the youth and sweat of the builders. Countless days and nights of toil were pieced together to gradually transform a twenty-year-old ideal into reality.
At the end of the day, there may be concerns about the age of the building I mentioned earlier. Although the life span of the building is not more than 50 years, is this 14.8 billion yuan building destined to be only a short 100 years old?
The fact that a building has reached the end of its design life does not mean that it has reached the end of its life. After professional appraisal and regular reinforcement and maintenance, buildings that still meet safety regulations can continue to function and stand. Of course, this is inseparable from scientific means of protection and government funding, and we cannot intervene in it.
The Central Building is not only the most representative architectural work in Shanghai, but also a valuable achievement of the integration and progress of China's architectural field and modern technology. It rises flat on the soft earth, but it is deeply rooted in the eastern world by virtue of its wisdom, towering into the clouds. It will not be easily erased by time, just like the magnificent China that has come all the way from the wind and dust.