A key innovation in building the ultimate skyscraper is making the buildings progressively more and more intelligent…

The building on the video is the 70-storey Trump Tower which according to its structural engineer, Ahmad Rahimian is currently the world’s tallest residential tower. It’s 862 feet high or about 263 meters. In order to build a building of that height, there were a lot of new technologies introduced into the building. A key innovation is how it deals with wind, it does more than just resist it. It actually cancels it out. How does it cancel it out? By using an ingenious device called Tuned Mass Damper. A tuned mass damper is in effect a huge counterweight, a massive 600 tonne block of solid steel surrounded by shock absorbers. The device cancel the wind pressures that apply to the building and suppress the building’s motion.

In 100 years, skyscrapers like the Trump Tower have expanded to 1o-storey bricks to 100+storey steel. All of the skyscraper’s weight is eventually transferred down to the ground, this ultimately takes the strain. The buildings of the modern skyscraper begins out of sight, deep below the earth. Today’s skyscrapers can have foundations more than 100-feet deep but the nature of the ground they rest upon is a crucial factor.

But the big change is still to come. We are going to see buildings in the future  progressively become more and more intelligent. The next level of technology is going to be 100+ storeys using active control systems. This technology is already well and truly integrated into our cars, anti-lock brake system, traction control etc. It’s just a matter of time before it becomes standard features to our buildings.

Work has begun on the project located at 278 Bunnerong Road Hillsdale. Meso Solutions are currently inserting sheet piles and bulk excavation works are set to take place shortly. Great design by Nick Krikis and the architects at KTA. Bradley and the team at Jebeko have got things well and truly under control.

ACSES Engineers are proud to be involved in this terrific development and honoured to be the Project Structural Engineer.

Project Specifications:

*   Three below ground basements
*   Two buildings on a common transfer slab
*   84 Residential Units in total

Our Scope of Works

*   Design and Detail the following:
*   Shoring & bulk excavation solution
*   Foundations solution
*   All concrete slabs
*   All concrete columns & walls
*   Specialist Engineering Assessment Report including full calculations package for Sydney Water
*   Shoring Report including full calculations package for Roads and Maritime Services
*   Dilapidation reports covering public assets and neighbouring properties

 

Most of these buildings are still standing today. A true testament to brilliant engineering. Check them out!

Colosseum

Located just east of the Roman Forum, the massive stone amphitheatre known as the Colosseum was commissioned around A.D. 70-72 by Emperor Vespasian of the Flavian dynasty as a gift to the Roman people. In A.D. 80, Vespasian’s son Titus opened the Colosseum–officially known as the Flavian Amphitheater–with 100 days of games, including gladiatorial combats and wild animal fights. After four centuries of active use, the magnificent arena fell into neglect, and up until the 18th century, it was used as a source of building materials. Though two-thirds of the original Colosseum has been destroyed over time, the amphitheatre remains a popular tourist destination, as well as an iconic symbol of Rome and its long, tumultuous history.

 

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is perhaps the world’s most famous prehistoric monument. It was built in several stages: the first monument was an early henge monument, built about 5,000 years ago, and the unique stone circle was erected in the late Neolithic period about 2500 BC. In the early Bronze Age, many burial mounds were built nearby. Today, along with Avebury, it forms the heart of a World Heritage Site, with a unique concentration of prehistoric monuments.

 

Tower of Hercules

The Tower of Hercules has served as a lighthouse and landmark at the entrance of La Coruña harbour in north-western Spain since the late 1st century A.D. when the Romans built the Farum Brigantium. The Tower, built on a 57-metre high rock, rises a further 55 metres, of which 34 metres correspond to the Roman masonry and 21 meters to the restoration directed by architect Eustaquio Giannini in the 18th century, who augmented the Roman core with two octagonal forms. Immediately adjacent to the base of the Tower is a small rectangular Roman building. The site also features a sculpture park, the Monte dos Bicos rock carvings from the Iron Age and a Muslim cemetery. The Roman foundations of the building were revealed in excavations conducted in the 1990s. Many legends from the Middle Ages to the 19th century surround the Tower of Hercules, which is unique as it is the only lighthouse of Greco-Roman antiquity to have retained a measure of structural integrity and functional continuity.

 

Mosque of Uqba

The Mosque of Uqba also known as the Great Mosque of Kairouan is located in the historic walled district of the Medina, between the Rue de la Kasbah and the Rue el Farabi in Tunisia. The mosque, as it stands today, was built by the Aghlabid governor of Kairouan, Ziyadat Allah, between 817 and 838. He erected the building on the site of an older mosque, originally constructed by Uqba ibn Nafi at the time of the 670 AD Arab conquest of Byzantine North Africa. Although the current mosque retains virtually no trace of the original seventh-century building, it is still often referred to as “Mosque of Sidi Uqba,” or,”Mosque of Uqba Ibn Nafi.” Historically, it has been accorded great significance as the first mosque in the first town of Islam in the West.

 

Acoma Pueblo

Acoma Pueblo is built atop a sheer-walled, 367-foot sandstone bluff in a valley studded with sacred, towering monoliths. Since 1150 A.D., Acoma Pueblo has earned the reputation as the oldest continuously inhabited community in North America. The mesa-top settlement is known worldwide for its unique art and rich culture.

 

Nanchan Temple

The Nanchan Temple is a Buddhist temple near the town of Doucun on Wutaishan, in Shanxi Province, China. It was built in 782 AD, and its Great Buddha Hall is currently China’s oldest preserved timber building in existence

 

Proserpina Dam

The Proserpina Dam, located approximately ten kilometres north of Merida in Spain, is the world’s second oldest dam currently in use. The earthen dam was constructed by the Romans between the late 1st century AD and early 2nd century AD. It is covered with concrete and measures 427m long and 22m high. It is located on the course of the brook of Las Pardillas, a sub-tributary of the Guadiana on its right bank. It has two bends in the crest and nine buttresses on the inner side. The Confederación Hidrográfica del Guadiana (Water Management Administration) refurbished the dam in 1991.

 

Caravan Bridge

Built in 850 B.C., the Caravan Bridge is 2,861 years old and has reportedly been crossed by the likes of Homer and Saint Paul. The arched stone slab straddling the River Meles, in Izmir, Turkey, extends only 42 and a half feet and is about as simple as they come.

 

Ponte Fabricio

Ponte Fabricio was built in 62 b.C. by L.Fabricius curator viarum (as it is inscribed on both sides of the bridge). This is the oldest Roman bridge to have survived in the city, and still in use for pedestrians.

 

Hagia Sophia

The Santa Sophia (also known as Hagia Sophia) in Istanbul, Turkey has been a church, mosque and museum since it was completed in 537 AD. It is a great architectural beauty and an important monument both for Byzantine and for Ottoman Empires.

The structural frame at 1 Bede Street Strathfield has been completed, and the builder has done an amazing job in an incredibly short time.

General site specs:

• Five Storey Building
• Two below ground basements
• 12 Residential Units

ACSES Engineers designed both the shoring and bulk excavation solutions, as well as the building superstructure.

Given the relative small size of the development, cost was a major driving factor for the client who gave us a very specific project brief – “fast, cheap and safe – make it happen”…

Utilising our finite element modelling capabilities, we were able to minimise the shoring works required to support the two level excavation face. Our modelling took advantage of the geotechnical parameters present at the site and ACSES Engineers were able to design a cantilevered pile wall solution with shotcrete infills.

Again using our FEM expertise, ACSES Engineers designed the superstructures as a concrete framed solutions made up of columns and walls using the Rediwall product wherever possible. This eliminated the need for traditional vertical formwork and resulted in further savings in time and cost. The slabs were all designed as conventionally reinforced slab solutions and the individual units were partitioned using lightweight non-load bearing walls made from fibre cement (Hebel) and framed Gyproc.

The project was architecturally designed by Ghazi Al Ali Architects and ACSES Engineers are proud to be part of the Design Team and honoured to be the Project Structural Engineer for this development.

Work has well and truly started and ACSES Engineers are proud to be part of the design team.

Here are some of its 3D Perspectives:

First, the exploding population, largely urban, creates an increasing demand for tall buildings. The ever increasing population and growing economies in major cities of the world mean increasing urbanization globally and the continuing rise in population density in urban areas. Arable land areas are constantly being eaten away by urban spreading through suburban developments. The tall building can accommodate many more people on a smaller land than would be the case with low-rise building on the same land. A tall building is in effect a vertical transformation of horizontal expansion.

Second, it is generally [acknowledged] that there has been evident neglect of the human factors in urban design at the expense of livability and quality of life. The outward expansion of cities into the suburbs has resulted in increased travel time and traffic gridlock. The prospect of traveling for a long time, to and from work, is detrimental to social well-being of the commuter and results in losses of fuel and productivity. Clustering of buildings in the form of tall buildings in densely built-up areas is the opportunity for creating open spaces like playgrounds, plazas, parks, and other community spaces by freeing up space at the ground level. Besides the impact on the city skyline, tall buildings thus influence the city fabric at the level where they meet the ground. The improvement of the “ public realm ”has become a necessity exerted by planning authorities in major cities.

Source: booksite.elsevier.com

There are many fields of engineering but today we’re focusing on our specialty here at ACSES Engineers, civil and structural engineering.

Firstly let’s look at the term Engineering. It is derived from the Latin ingenium, meaning “cleverness” and ingeniare, meaning “to contrive, devise”. Engineering has been around since the ancient times. From the aqueducts built by the Ancient Romans to the Great Pyramids to the Great Wall of China fast forward to Burj Khalifa, currently the world’s tallest building.

Engineering makes our world infinitely better.

But what exactly is civil engineering? Simply put, civil engineering deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environments. Every structure that is on or in the ground is the work of civil engineers. They build dams, bridges, pipelines, roads, towers and buildings. They are responsible for the design and construction of all our transport systems, the design and management of our gas and water supply, sewerage systems, harbours, airports and railways. Pretty awesome, right?

What about structural engineering? Structural engineering involves the analysis and design of structures such as buildings, bridges, towers, marine structures, dams, tunnels, retaining walls and other infrastructure. Structural engineering underpins and sustains the built environment, where structures must be safe, serviceable, durable, aesthetically pleasing and economical. In other words, structural engineers are the guardians of public safety. Pretty big task.

Although our core business here at ACES Engineers is consulting structural and civil engineering design, we have an extensive range of design skills and construction site experience, with particular expertise in residential/commercial developments. We are proud experts at coordinating with other design disciplines in order to provide critical design input that will minimize costly design changes during the construction phase of the project.

But enough of us talking about ourselves, we’ll let some of our clients tell you how we do things here at ACSES Engineers.

ACSES Engineers core business is consulting structural, civil and geotechnical engineering design. The engineers at ACSES have an extensive range of design skills and construction site experience, with particular expertise in residential/commercial developments. ACSES Engineers are experts at coordinating with other design disciplines in order to provide critical design input that will minimize costly design changes during the construction phase of the project.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING SERVICES:

• Concrete framed structure
• Steel framed structures
• Timber framed structures
• Shoring design solutions
• Bulk excavation design solutions
• Retaining wall solutions
• Foundation solutions including raft foundations & pile design
• Post-tension concrete design solutions
• Load bearing wall structures
• Tilt-up & precast design solutions

CIVIL & GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING SERVICES:

• Site inspection
• Provision of technical design reports
• Earth dam design
• Tunnel design & underground excavation
• Railway design
• Retention systems design
• Foundation design
• Crane & rig working platforms design
• Ground improvement
• Slope stabilization
• Reinforced soil structure design
• Seepage analysis
• Pavement design