Spatial Frame TV Tower, Nanjing, China

The 310 m high Nanjing Tower is the first spatial frame prestressed concrete TV tower in China to exceed a height of 300 m. The frame structure is supported on a pile foundation and consists of three multi-chambered box sections branched at 120° and connected by six straight coupling beams and an upper annular beam, all distributed unequally along the tower's height. There are two sky cabins, a larger and a smaller, between which rises a cylindrical reinforced concrete mast. A square concrete mast topped by a tapering three-section steel mast rises above the smaller sky cabin. Prestressed steel was used in the concrete bearing table of the piles, the tower shaft and coupling beams, the conical collar beam of the larger sky cabin and the square concrete mast. An unadorned concrete surface was selected for the finished surface of the shaft in order to emphasize the sculptural simplicity of the structure.