Designing a Tall Building in Cape Town
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• • opportlinlty o rlse designing a tall buHding in Cape Town Design Research Project APG5058S University of Cape Town Design report submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree Master of Architecture (Professional) by Temba Jauch October 2011 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town University of Cape Town Contents 11.. Intoduction ........................ .............. .. ... ...................... .......... ... ... ........... ............................................ ............................... .. ........... .. .. ........ ..................... ....... ........ ................... ........ ... 2 Defining a Tall Building .............................................................. .......................................... .. ................ ............................. .. 2 2.T.Thehe Tall Building Typology ..................................... ... ........................................................................................................... ........................................ 3 2.1 A Brief History of Tall Building Typologies ........... ......................................................... ................................................ .. ....... ... 3 2.2 Tall Buildings in South Africa ................................. .. ....................................................................................... ..... .. .......... ............... .. .................. 5 2.3 Tall Buildings & their Built Form ................................................... .............................. ............................. ................................ ........... ...... 8 2.32.3 Structural Types .......... .................... .................... .................... ........................................................................................ ................... 10 3. Site Analysis ............. .............. ............................................... ..................... ........... .. ...... ............................................................................................ ............ ......... .. ................. .. .. ............... 16 Econolnics ............. ....... ..... ............................................... .. ............................................................................. ............................. 17 Surrounding buildings ...... .......................................................... ............ .. .................................. ........................ ........... 17 Urban annatures ............... ........................................................................ .............................................................. ......................... 18 Vie\vsVievvs ............... .... ................ .. ... ... ......... .. ... ........................ ............................ ... .................................................. ........... ......................................... 18 Climate and environment ................ .. .. ................................................. ..................... ............................................................. 1188 Analysis Mappings ....... .............. ....... ...................................... .... ....................... .... ....... .... ..................... .......... .......................... 19 Geology ................................... ..................... ... .......... .... ....................... .. .. ........ .. ............... .... ...... ..................................................... ... .... .... ................. 21 Physical Attributes ... ..................................................................................... ............................... ... ..... ..................................... 2211 4.Design Developlnent. ......................................................................... .................................................................................................................. ... .......................... 22 4.1 Study to determine maximum size of the building, March 2011 .................................. 22 4.2 Exploration of Massing and Form,F om1, March 2011 ........................................ ........................................................................ 23 4.3 Massing Study, April 2011 .................. ........................................................................... ........................................................... .... ... ... 24 4.4 Further Development of the Massing and Form, May 2011 .......................................................................... ...... 26 4.5 Core and Floor Plan Layout, April- June 2011 ........ ....................... ................................... ...... ...... ................................ .. .... 28 4.6 Structure & Skin; ConceptConcept,, Form & Materiality, June-August 2011 ...................................................... 32 4.7 Revisiting the Floor Plans and Core Layout, September 2011 .............................................................................. 37 Typical Layouts ............................................................................................. .. ................ .......................................................................... ....... 38 Ground Floor ............... ..... ........ .... .. ............. ............ ... .......... .. ................................................ ...... ..... ... .. ............................. 39 Underground Concourse Level ......... ...................................................................................... ....................................... 40 Basenlent Parking ................................................ .................................................... ..................................................................................... 41 Observatory and Damper Structure ........... ........................... ......... ............................................................ .......... 42 4.8 EnvironmentalEnvironmental and Services strategy & Fa9adeFayade Details ................................................... .. ................. .. ........ .. .. .............. 48 Solar Studies ..................................... ..... ... ....... ........ ..... ................................................... ............................................. ................. .. ..... 49 Environmental Strategy ................. ... .......... ............................ .. .......... .............................................. .. ............................... 50 Ceilings, Services and Partitions .......................................................................... .................. ....... ............... .. .................. ...... 52 Construction Sequence & Techniques ....................... ................................................................................ .. ...... 60 5. Bibliography ... ............ ................................ ... ........................ ........... ............. ............... ........ .......... ... .................. ....................... ... ...... .......................................... .. 67~ University of Cape Town 6. Image Credits ..... ...................... .... ................................. .......... ................ ..... .................................................... .. ................ ............... .............. ...... 68 1. Intoduction The issue taken on in this project is the design of a tall building in Cape Town. The Cape Town CBO is locked geographically between the mountain and sea, limiting its expansion. This has resulted in an increased land value there and a motivation to build tall. Since 1994 a height limit of 60m has been imposed in the city, which has now been challenged. The first post-Apartheid tall building is currently under - SH.;:~~ construction in Cape Town. reaching a height of ] 50m. It shows that c:: tall buildings are an issue wIDch architects in Cape Town win have to FIGURE 1: Cape Town CSO (google images, engage with once again. edited) The CBD contains a number of relatively tall buildings, constructed between 1960 and Lesley Beedle, founder of the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban 1993. It shows that the land value of plots Habitat (CTBUH) wrote that a tall building "is a building whose heighl and economic booms at certain time periods creates d(fl erent condilions in the design. construction, and operation had motivated developers to build tall. F om those Iha! exist in "common" buildings (~l{[ cerlain region and period" (CTBUH, 2011). The style, height and visibility promote tall buildings as cultural icons (Jencks, 2002). It is for these reasons that the design of a tall building is an interesting topic for an architectural thesis. The project aims to present a holistic scope of engagement when it comes to the design of a tall building, engaging with the issue at an ur ban scale as well as in detail. A part of the focus is to show a technical understanding oftall buildings, to show that they are not low buildings extruded vertically but are technically distinct. With the re-emergence of tall buildings,