The Skyscraper Built on The World’s Most Expensive Site

This is the Henderson, a new

skyscraper

in Hong Kong

built

on the

most

expensive

site

s in the

world

, but there is much more to this building than just its incredible price. It was

built

during a typhoon. ​​Its complicated façade could only be produced in Germany. Designed to fend off the bad fangue of its neighbors It is a structure that fuses the old and the new while being at the forefront of construction technology It is an epic

skyscraper

like no other This is how it was built Well, let's make one thing clear This building designed by Zahard Architects would not be possible without modern technology, specifically the software that architects now use to design buildings, or rather, perhaps it could have been possible, but it would have been much more

expensive

and would take decades to complete.

The reason for this is that due to the incredibly complex glass work seen here, not only does each panel have a unique curve, but some of the panels curve in multiple directions, combine this with the fact that the panels themselves They consist of four glass panels. within them, this means that they had to be made perfectly and exactly the same four times. This project is not only an incredible feat of design but also an incredible feat of construction. The Henderson Tower is an incredible building that really pushes the boundaries of what it is capable of. If we are able to build with modern materials, everything is very expensive too, and this building wasn't exactly cheap to begin with.

The land for the skyscraper was purchased in 2017 and made headlines around the

world

for being the

most

expensive

site

in history. The price came to about $965,000 per square meter or about 3 billion in total, all for what at the time was a parking lot only because Hong Kong is already densely built up, so there aren't many spots left in the heart of Hong Kong. Kong and the site itself was not even that big it is quite a small size it is a very small size it is approximately 50 by 60 M here in Hong Kong every millimeter counts due to the comparatively small plot sizes, the land that Le came with the condition that three-foot bridges would have to be built across the site.

If preserved, they would connect the building to the City's Central Skywalk, an extensive network of pedestrian bridges that runs through Hong Kong. It is elevated off the ground because there is a network of elevated pedestrian bridges that run through this part of Central, so it is directly connected to the access to it. It is also adjacent to a garden in a larger park in the heart of Hong Kong, although it is now quite a prominent location, while the organic, curved shape of the skyscraper is inspired by the Hong Kong orchid found in these gardens and There is actually another reason for the region's flag.

Because of that voluptuous shape, Henderson Land wanted to offset the negative fun of the controversial Bank of China building next door now that the Tower was heavily criticized for its sharp edges and use of crosses, which are B Funway, in fact, the building of the Bank of China is one of the only major skyscrapers in Hong Kong that completely ignores the Funway principles, apart from that it was also a good design to balance the rigidity of the building's neighbors, we have this kind of heavy neighbors​ ​which are very famous and also like the Bank of China, the Lipo Center, which although they are a little harder and stiffer, they look good, so our response to this was that we tried to make this smooth monolithic object balance and adapt to the presence of prominent neighbors around the results, it is a building.

With a façade that is 20% curved glass, the tower is clad with more than 4,000 double laminated glass panels that between them have a thousand different curvatures, that's a lot of curves. You may also have noticed that curves don't appear as often in skyscrapers. They tend to be made of flat walls with rectangular rooms showing, that's because curves are very expensive and that's because it's very difficult to produce the real look. CH changed a lot of course, we started a little curvier. Correct scheme, a little more unrestricted, things only became more complicated as the design evolved, every time they changed the curvature of the facade, they also changed the floor plate due to the shape of the building and the small size, which means changing, say, the width of the panels. or radio, this immediately changes the floor area and the entire process was incredibly complex and would not have been possible without state-of-the-art CAD software, so they brought in the big guns.

This is the Guggenheim in Bilbow, Spain. It was designed by Frank Gary and when it opened in 1997 it was hailed as a masterpiece, one of the greatest works of contemporary architecture. It quickly became a touchstone for the deconstructivist movement and helped lead the charge for much of what we see in architecture today. joy with extravagant physical designs and lots of curves ktia was the software used at the Guggenheim and for many of Frank Garry's works, so it made sense to use it here as well. We made the decision at a very early stage to move to ktia.

The advantages are. It is a software that we have very precise control, which allows us to model everything with very high precision. We try to predict as much as possible. Basically, that's why everything was 3D verified before being delivered. The software also had another surprising advantage. originally used to design ples Kaa was originally developed to model and design airplanes and automobiles, those surfaces require really precise control, so the Henderson project, considering the geometry of the surfaces, the geometry of the facade, requires the same control, the same capability within the software so they can now be manufactured in many ways.

This skyscraper was designed like an airplane from a distance. It may seem like a complicated model with a lot of aerodynamic curves and don't get us wrong, it is, but it can also be easily broken down into individual components. It can be made piece by piece like an airplane. Within Katia, you have the ability to have extreme surface control to ensure that the surfaces you are modeling in three dimensions can be manufactured, which made it possible to design the curved glass that was just needed. Two companies in the world were able to produce this incredibly complex facade and a supplier was chosen in Germany, which meant that the architects had to send these 3D models to the other side of nature, the glass was carefully manufactured to exact specifications and then Shipped back to Hong Kong, each panel had to be completely prefabricated in the factory and then perfectly matched when assembled on site.

Due to the huge demand for these intricately curved glass panels, the glass company built digitally controlled ovens that would allow them produce with very high precision almost any curved shape the glass in Henderson also had to be strong very strong during construction work a typhoon hit the city Hong Kong is preparing for the arrival of a super typhoon sa flash floods break records of a century I have never seen a scene like this before, even during previous typhoons, it was never this severe because it was the early stages of the construction process, so the glass was not there yet, but it was a big scare, right, the rules of Construction are quite strict due to particularly high wind loads.

In Hong Kong, that's partly why they chose heat-treated glass. It had to withstand higher than typical wind loads. The skyscraper also has some other peculiarities. The building has a displaced core, meaning the part that contains all its services, including elevators and stairs. In a corner rather than in the center of the tower, as would be found in a more traditional high-rise to support the building, there are six mega columns which allowed for a huge open floor plan inside offering panoramic views of Hong Kong. . Skyline, this video was sponsored by ktia from theault Systems on the 3D experience platform.

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