Sustainable, safe and efficient high-rise construction

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With today’s growing environmental awareness, sustainability is in ever higher demand in the construction industry. Efficiency, top results and maximum worker safety are other requirements that need to be fulfilled as well. The challenges are especially complex for high-rise buildings where working in great heights also requires maximum safety and a perfect interaction of climbing systems with other formwork systems and safety systems or safety measures. Here, perfect planning and choosing adequate high-performance formwork systems are the prerequisites for success. This also means choosing a formwork provider that can supply the required expertise and systems. MEVA formwork was chosen and is being used successfully for two sophisticated high-rise projects which, among others, we present here in order to highlight the challenges of high-rise construction and MEVA’s answers to them.

Ardmore Park in Singapore is a condominium tower being built for developer SC Global by Dragages Singapore, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction. Here, efficient climbing combined with a perfect concrete surface are the key issue. The tower is climbed with MEVA’s automatic hydraulic climbing system MAC. Designed by architect Carlos Zapata and located in Ardmore Park, the 17,400 m² tower will comprise 35 apartments on 36 levels. The architects stipulated an architectural concrete finish for the core walls because they are exposed on some floors. Since the MAC system does not use anchors on the external face of the core walls but pockets on the internal face, the finish is superior to all other external climbing systems. This is why contractor Dragages chose to use the MAC. The project subscribes to the principle of sustainable construction and will be granted Green Mark (1) certification by the Singapore authorities.

Highest safety standards on the new Roche Tower

The tower "Bau 1” ("Building 1”) will be the new main entrance to Roche’s headquarters in Basel. It is being built by Marti, Switzerland’s leading construction company. When completed, the tower will be 178 m high. The tower has already passed the 130 m mark. Every week another level is added until there will be 41 storeys with space for 2,000 employees. Safety is a key issue with Roche. Only trained, qualified staff is permitted to enter the construction site. Safety controllers are present to enforce safety regulations. The tower is being climbed using MEVA‘s automatic hydraulic system MAC. With its completely closed platform MAC provides a safe working environment even at great heights.

MEVA’s Wall Formwork Mammut 350 with 100 kN/m² for efficient and fast pours

When faced with pouring high or large walls fast and efficiently, e.g. for industrial buildings, MEVA’s Mammut 350 wall formwork is the right answer. It boasts the industry’s highest concrete pressure load in panelised wall formwork – 100 kN/m² – and allows pouring up to 4 m as fast as you want. Its largest panel offers a formwork area of 8.75 m² and is ideally suited for buildings with large or high walls.

alkus all-plastic facing for top concrete surface

A top concrete surface is becoming more important as exposed walls are ever more frequently used in all types of buildings. This asks for a facing that delivers a top concrete surface from the first to the last pour – not only a dozen times but hundreds of times. MEVA has committed itself to a unique all-plastic facing technology that makes plywood redundant: the alkus all-plastic facing. It has been employed in all MEVA formwork products around the world for years and is immune to water, sunlight, weather, rotting, discoloration or loss of flexural rigidity. Significantly, it can be nailed like plywood but never swells or shrinks. And it achieves a high-quality concrete finish reliably, time after time. It can be re-used without limitation and handles tough cleaning using a high-pressure washer directly on the construction site.

Heavy duty solutions for single-sided formwork

High-rise buildings often have several basement floors and their walls often need to be poured against earth. This asks for single-sided formwork that is not just 3 or 4 metres high but much higher. MEVA’s single-sided support frame STB 450 has proven its power on innumerable projects and supports single-sided formwork that is more than 12 m high. And it offers a huge time-saving advantage: The support frame STB 450 with its basic height of 4.50 m is -extended by simply mounting and adding 1.50 m extension units on top as the walls and single-sided formwork grow in height. There is no need to disassemble the formwork and support frame construction when increasing heights. In addition, the MEVA support frame STB 450 measures only 2.45 m at the base and thus fits on a normal truck and needs little space for assembly and placing. This provides an essential head start when building high structures in confined spaces.

Worker Safety: No. 1 demand when building high structures

Internationally, calls for improved worker safety are becoming louder. While regulations differ from country to country, fall-down protection is mandatory everywhere. Often, however, makeshift arrangements are pieced together on the site. This proves penny-wise-pound-foolish in contrast to all-in-one, tested safety systems, especially when costs for consumables and tedious assembly are compared. As an answer to the demand for a simple, cost-effective system that offers complete all-around worker safety MEVA developed the SecuritBasic safety system. It conforms to the strictest safety requirements internationally. A good example is the new production facility being built for the international pharmaceutical group Novartis in Switzerland. The site had to prove and certify adherence to safety regulations that are strict and get even stricter, the higher you go. Contractor Erne AG required safety equipment that would obtain SUVA approval without a hitch (SUVA is the Swiss occupational health and safety authority). This was achieved with SecuritBasic, a modular safety system with integrated working platforms, guard-railings on all sides of the platforms side and ladder access with hatch. A non-slip corrugated aluminium sheet and the platform's 75 cm width make for comfortable, safe work at any height and in any weather. When climbing high-rise buildings, MEVA’s automatic climbing system MAC and the MEVA guided screens climbing system MGS, the MEVA guided climbing system MGC and MEVA’s climbing scaffolds KLK 230 combine advanced, easy-to-operate climbing technology with maximum safety.