Arup Design Yearbook 2006
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02 Building genius 21 Are you listening? 41 The best bet 61 Fire fighters Arup The new national reference Listen to your building as it’s A casino developer takes Arup teams across the world library in Singapore redefines being designed a gamble in Macau, China turn up the heat on fire safety Design Yearbook the concept of intelligent buildings 24 The long and 42 A city without limits 64 Living history 2006 winding road The rise of an entire city built Living in the past: the 04 The birth of a The making of a risky ride to sustainable specifications redevelopment of some boomtown into Britain’s greenest road of London’s most From fishing village to 44 Flash flood precious historic sites commercial hub, Shenzhen’s 26 Brand and deliver prevention transformation has been Setting the standard How plans for flood defences 66 Regenerating further supported by a new in vehicle design in Edinburgh, Scotland, were British Energy approved in record time The turnaround of the underground transport system 28 The world’s largest in 2012 UK’s largest nuclear timepiece 46 Virtual world, real power generator 06 A new retail A new installation is lighting benefits generation up shoppers’ lives in Zurich Arup’s Intelligent Visualisation 68 People power almost entirely removes The people that bring Will Wal-Mart’s new living 30 Ready, jet, go laboratories capture the the margin for error in Arup’s projects to life The latest revolution in airport hearts of US consumers? development projects design takes off in 2009 50 China’s newest super 08 A fast track for 32 Tall orders sports fans structure The fate of tall buildings Take off two thirds: how China’s TV tower in since 9/11 London’s Wembley Park Guangzhou, one of the tallest underground was built in just 36 The legal light house structures in the world, is set to compete on the world a fraction of the original How Singapore’s new broadcasting stage from 2009 timescale and budget Supreme Court lights up naturally at night 10 Working for a greener 52 A mining town government 37 The portable gallery in trouble The rescue of a small mining Wales’ radical windfarm The journey of a community’s economic future development travelling art house 12 Making a stand 38 Natural beauty: LNG 54 Learning on location The unveiling of an iconic made safe and easy Find out how buildings can be used as teaching tools in their stadium for the 2006 Asian How natural gas will own right Games soon be in the pipeline 14 Partnering on public 39 Inside out thinking 56 The making of a microclimate consultation The growth of a sustainable The launch of one of China’s Bridging the gap between research centre in Australia Hong Kong and Shenzhen biggest environmentally 40 Art attack friendly projects 17 Magnum opus Modifying a museum 57 Space invaders One man meets a mountain. for the sake of art Arup helps to realise his vision Creating inside space with no supporting columns 18 Ship to shore The resurrection of one 58 Clever concrete of Isambard Kingdom A new innovation in a staple Brunel’s finest ships building material 19 Six things you should 59 Environmentally know about the friendly engineering Chartist Bridge You wouldn’t know we were there: extracting oil and LNG 20 Patents pending without harming the precious A new shock absorbing surroundings of Australia’s system for tall buildings Barrow Island 60 Appraisal time A new audit process for optimum sustainability 02 Lee Kong Chian Reference Library 03 Singapore © Arup In the library today, which also incorporates a café, an auditorium and exhibition space, multi-use hand-held PDAs allow librarians to stay in contact with colleagues and provide relevant information Building to the public as they move around the facility. The library’s 1.5M books all have radio frequency ID tags to increase operating efficiency and improve security. In the future this may allow staff and visitors genius to track down the exact location of books with a hand-held device, wherever they might have been left. Other applications include online research facilities Libraries have always been places and roadmaps, virtual tours and souvenir kiosks for where people go to learn, but the personalised interaction – all have been designed with the philosophy of engaging its 32M users at National Library Board of Singapore has every step of their library experience. added a completely new dimension to During the 1990s, a downturn in the Asian economy meant the budget did not allow all the intended this traditional function, with a building technologies to be installed in Phase One, but the that rivals its contents in intelligence. infrastructure and space have been built in to allow Words: Will Hersey such additions as large interactive video information screens. The building is also fully equipped to support the installation of additional green technologies in the future. In fact, the technology now available to library visitors is so advanced that this seemingly traditional institution is now one of the most cutting-edge places In brief Above: design of the reference library spaces for anyone to spend their time. When the National Library Board of has focused on imaginative co-ordination © Arup Singapore announced its intention to with technology to provide an exciting redefine the library concept for the learning environment. A good example of Wireless LAN 21st century, the challenge was to this is the triple-height space featuring a Having decided on the projected design an intelligent building that could book wall that provides continuous visual importance of wireless working, Arup be leading-edge in the present, but impact over three floors to engage visitors’ had to be sure wireless devices would could also adapt to future change. attention and encourage use of the library. work in every public space and most back-of-house areas. “Radio propagation is something of a black art,” explains Jim Read, associate director, Arup. Traditionally the intelligent building has remained conducive learning environment possible; but as a “Wireless LAN is very high frequency more associated with sci-fi movies than city building they wanted a structure that would set a and very low power, which means the libraries. But if an intelligent building is one that benchmark for its use of technology and, simply signal can travel a maximum of 50m can respond in various ways to the demands of speaking, make the rest of the world sit up and inside a building. its users and environment, then the technology take note. © Arup It’s also very hard to determine how infrastructure within the new flagship building of For a project several years in development, the far signals will travel round corners and the National Library Board of Singapore is evidence most immediate problem was the absence of a through certain materials and fittings. that such thinking is now firmly rooted in reality. crystal ball to predict the future. Just how do you Predicting coverage was a challenge, To put the scale of the Singapore Government’s decide which technologies will be most relevant as it is impossible to conduct a survey vision for their national reference library into to library users in 2006 and beyond? And for a for a building that doesn’t exist – so perspective, large-scale libraries the world over building with a lifespan of at least 50 years, how some creative thinking was required.” had been analysed and observed – and nothing do you then install these leading-edge technologies A thorough knowledge of how radio could be found to match what they were trying to while also implementing a design that will respond waves react to all types of building achieve. As a business, they wanted a facility that to inevitable technological change – in other words, materials – partitions, blinds, glass would increase visitor numbers, expand the status that won’t need to have its insides ripped out and steel – was essential. Once the of learning, and provide the most effective and because of technical advances it cannot support? system had been installed and the It’s a challenge that fell to the Arup team, whose Above: this PDA is showing building completed, the software from traditional field of deciding how technology fits into an actual NLB information portal the wireless LAN system was used the building design process has now expanded designed to assist and guide the in conjunction with the building plans, to analysing how this can be aligned with library’s users. to optimise the final solution. “From the word ‘go’, Arup showed business objectives. great enthusiasm and commitment to An exhaustive review of how technology could this project. Although the project went integrate with the library’s practical, day-to-day through many challenges, including the functions as well as its wider ambitions led to change of the main contractor’s project several technology ‘wow’ factors being drawn manager, turnover of other specialty up, factors that would provide a strong and consultants and the difficulties faced immediate impact. For the longer term, a more Client in dealing with subcontractors for not holistic view was taken. All parties understood that National Library Board of Singapore Technology systems providers implementing our specifications, they there would be a huge turnover of technology, but © Ken Yeang Hewlett-Packard Singapore Pte Ltd stayed the course throughout.” what would be the backbone to these trends? SCS Networks Pte Ltd Lau Kai Cheong, Director, Infocomm Architect Wireless technology, which is how the intelligent Ken Yeang of Llewelyn Davies Yeang National Library Board environment took shape.