Shanghai World Financial Center

ALBIS | BAUTISTA | LEYNO | VIRATA

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SWFC is often called as The Bottle Opener

3rd Worlds tallest observation deck;
6th Worlds tallest building

Problems and Issues

Geographical Location
SWFC was built near a river that causes the soil to absorb the water resulting to an unstable
foundation.
SOLUTION: Using Friction tiles as a foundation which consist of 2200, 2 meters thick
steel pipe, support piles injected 78 meters below the ground
Financial
On year 1997, Asia faced a huge financial crisis that resulted into 6 year shutdown of the whole
construction
Wind Pressure
SOLUTION: Mass Dampers and Wind Holes
Disasters
SOLUTION: Mass Dampers and Exterior fire proof lifts
Description
MAN BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF
TECHNICAL DETAILS
OTHER DETAILS
SWFC

Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox

Developer: Mori Building Co.
Structural engineer: Leslie E.
Robertson Associates RLLP
Main contractor: China State
Construction Engineering Corp
and Shanghai Construction
(Group) General Co

Architectural

Height: 492.0 m
Floor count: 101
Floor area: 381,600 m2
Lifts/elevators: 91

Type: Office, hotel, museum,

observation, parking garage, retail
Location:100 Century Avenue,
Pudong, Shanghai, China
Construction: 1997- 2008
Cost: USD $ 1.20 billion
Owner: Shanghai World Financial
Center Co., Ltd.

The original design of the SWFC was based on a Chinese mythology which states that the Square figure
of the building represents the earth and the circle wind hole represents the sky. This design leads to a
protest from the Chinese residents and as well as the government due to its architectural finish that looks
like a Japanese flags rising sun. Later on they come up with a new design that instead of using circle as
a wind hole, why not use a trapezoidal wind hole that will also serve as a observation deck.
The tower features three separate observation decks which constitute the floors above and below the
aperture opening
Refugee floor at every 25th floor - enclosed by normal windows wrapped by specially thickened fireproof
steel

Structural
Materials: Reinforced concrete, steel structure and laminated glass, using intermediate layers of DuPont.
The tower's trapezoid aperture is made up of structural steel and reinforced concrete.
The projects structural engineer developed a new system, employing composite mega-columns, diagonal
mega-braces, steel out-riggers, belt trusses, and core wall trusses. the pile loads were redistributed to
accept increased lateral loads from wind and earthquake.
- The compressive and bending forces are carried down to the ground by the diagonalbraced frame with added outrigger trusses.
- The column must be of a size capable of fully transferring the vertical component of the
load in the diagonals to the composite columns
- In order to carry the weight of the whole structure, Modular design and outtriggered
truss attached to diagonal steel board frame and belt-truss every 12th floors
Loads:
Steel: (360tons/floor)(101 floor) = 36360 tons
Standard Loading capacity: 800kg/sq.m)(381,600sq.m) = 350,280,000kg

Parking Lot: (1100 cars)(1670kg/car) = 1837000kg