Torre de Cristal. Proyecto de un edificio de gran altura

Torre de Cristal. Structural desing for a high rise building

Structural design and site supervision for a 250-m tower are a long distance race, a truly unique project not comparable to other building or civil works endeavours, and one with its own specific conditioning factors. Of particular importance in such a building is the coordination of the various designs involved. Its structure is subject to certain imperatives to which the architecture must adapt ? the central core with its dimensions and thicknesses, for instance. At the same time, the service shafts and openings and vertical mobility cores impose geometric needs that must be perfectly coordinated with the building structure. The structural design calls for an in-depth study of certain issues that are of little or no relevance in normal buildings; hence the wind tunnel tests, dynamic and vibration studies, and the analysis of the absolute and differential shortening of vertical members. In another vein, reducing floor/ceiling slab weight and minimizing, or in this case eliminating, shoring and reusable formwork are important design criteria. Optimal construction procedures are essential for the success of the structural design, which includes the study of slipforms and sequences repeated on every storey in the tower. Finally, some amount of imaginative projection is required to come to grips with the order of magnitude of the structural members, at times very different from the dimensions of other structures, such as the unusual thickness of the core walls, or the ladder- like structures on the west side of the crown that spring from an elevation of 210.70 m above grade and rise to a height of 32.26 m, equivalent to a 12-storey building.