Shanghai Tower Rising to new heights with BIM. Construction & Development Co., Ltd. Shanghai Tower owner champions BIM Customer Success Story for design and construction of one of the Project Team world’s tallest (and greenest) buildings. Gensler Thornton Tomasetti Cosentini Associates Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tongji University Shanghai Xiandai Engineering Consultants Co., Ltd. Shanghai Construction Group Shanghai Installation Engineering Engineering Co., Ltd. Autodesk Consulting Autodesk® Revit® Autodesk® Navisworks® Manage Autodesk® Ecotect® Analysis AutoCAD® Autodesk BIM solutions enable the different design disciplines to work together in a Image courtesy of Shanghai Tower Construction and Development Co., Ltd. Rendering by Gensler. seamless fashion on a Project Summary gain, and the spiraling nature of the outer facade A striking new addition to the Shanghai skyline is maximizes daylighting and views while reducing single information currently rising in the heart of the city’s financial wind loads and conserving construction materials. platform—improving district. The super high-rise Shanghai Tower will To save energy, the facility includes its own wind soon stand as the world’s second tallest building, farm and geothermal system. In addition, rainwater efficiency, reducing and adjacent to two other iconic structures, the recovery and gray water recycling systems reduce errors, and improving Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial water usage. The owner and design team are Center. The 121-story transparent glass tower will targeting a LEED® Gold rating and a China 3 Star both project and twist and taper as it rises, conveying a unique rating, ambitious goals for a project the size of building performance. feeling of movement and growth, while reflecting the Shanghai Tower. the reemergence of Shanghai’s economic and — Jianping Gu cultural influences amid the rise of an increasingly The Challenge Director and General Manager modern China. The massive mixed-use facility will The sheer size of the Shanghai Tower presents Shanghai Tower Construction include commercial and retail space; entertainment complex design and construction management & Development Co., Ltd. and cultural venues; a conference center; a luxury challenges. “The Shanghai Tower is a massive hotel; and public gardens, all evoking the sense of project with over 575,000 square meters of a self-contained city within Shanghai. building space,” says Jianping Gu, director and general manager for Shanghai Tower Construction Once complete, the 632-meter Shanghai Tower & Development Co., Ltd., the tower’s owner/ will be the largest skyscraper in China as well developer. “We knew that if we tried to work in a as one of the most sustainable. The towering traditional way, using traditional tools and delivery skyscraper comprises nine cylindrical buildings systems, it would be extremely difficult to carry stacked on top of one another, all enclosed by a out this project successfully.” circular inner curtain wall and a triangular facade enveloping the entire structure. Each vertical neighborhood has its own atrium, featuring a public sky garden, together with cafes, restaurants, and retail space. The double-skinned facade creates a thermal buffer zone to minimize heat Reducing Building Materials by 32 Percent. The project involves the collaboration of a global Transforming Work Processes team, including: Early on, the owner engaged Autodesk Consulting • Shanghai Tower Construction & Development— to provide BIM strategy and implementation Autodesk Revit provided owner/developer consulting services, as well as application training. a common platform for • Gensler—design architect Autodesk Consulting began its effort by helping • Architectural Design and Research Institute of the owner develop a BIM strategy and deployment our design partners, Tongji University—local design institute plan for the project, and retooling design and giving the team a more • Thornton Tomasetti—structural engineer construction workflows to support BIM-based • Cosentini Associates—MEP engineer processes. The team created detailed plans for accurate representation • Shanghai Construction Group—general contractor project collaboration and document management, and deeper understanding • Shanghai Installation Engineering—mechanical as well as defining the BIM deliverables for the and electrical general contractor entire project lifecycle. of the project. • Shanghai Xiandai Engineering Consultants— design management consultant Autodesk Consulting also helped the owner — Jun Xia • Autodesk Consulting—BIM strategy, training, and implement an on-site BIM application Principal and implementation consultant environment for a local project team of over Regional Design Director 50 members, including owner personnel and Gensler “Because Shanghai Tower is such a complex key project participants from the extended building, it could not be represented accurately global project team. In addition, Autodesk with typical software or design methods,” says Consulting provided software training and Jiliang Chen, deputy chief architect and deputy ongoing technical and BIM coaching support. “We used Revit Architecture software to design director of the project operations department at “By combining Autodesk’s BIM technology and model the tower and then shared those the Architectural Design and Research Institute and the deep expertise of Autodesk Consulting, models with our mechanical, electrical, and of Tongji University. “One of the most challenging we have been able to successfully transition structural consultants,” explains Michael Peng, issues is the coordination of the extended design to BIM much faster. As a result, this project associate senior designer at Gensler. “Autodesk team,” adds Yi Zhu, senior principal and general has set new standards for the information Revit provided a common platform for our manager at Thornton Tomasetti. management of construction projects in design partners, giving the team a more accurate China,” says Gu. representation and deeper understanding of the The Solution project,” adds Jun Xia, principal and regional design To help meet the ambitious goals set for the Integrating the Design director at Gensler. “BIM accelerated our whole building, the Shanghai Tower owner required the The extended architectural and structural teams— design process, enabling our engineers to access implementation of a Building Information Modeling with designers in offices around the world—shared design data and geometric sizes directly from the (BIM) process using Autodesk BIM solutions for the their design models, enabling them to collaborate building models, and to use that information for design and construction of the Shanghai Tower. The and contribute insights about the design in the calculation and analysis,” says Zhu. project team relies on a combination of Autodesk® context of the project. In the construction phase, Revit® Architecture, Autodesk® Revit® Structure, the local project team, working from temporary and Autodesk® Revit® MEP software for the tower’s offices near the construction site, routinely design and documentation. The team is also using shared its models for project coordination and Autodesk® Navisworks® Manage software for collaboration. This communication of design data coordination and collaboration, Autodesk® Ecotect® resulted in a natural coordination of the project Analysis software for sustainable design analysis, as it unfolded. In addition, the team used both and traditional AutoCAD® software for drawing Revit and Navisworks Manage software for formal production. “From a property owner’s perspective, clash detection. BIM provides an excellent tool for the design, construction, management, and investment control of the entire project,” says Gu. Image courtesy of Shanghai Tower Construction and Development Co., Ltd. Rendering by Gensler. Improving Design Communication Enhancing Coordination for whole-building energy analysis, giving the The tower’s iconic twisting shape and dual-skinned The project team used the Revit platform for early designers quantitative feedback on building energy facade were extremely difficult to convey using coordination of the major design disciplines. In performance. “We shared this information with our traditional 2D approaches, making model-based the construction phase, the team is combining the owners and consultants to better inform our design design vital for the project’s success. “BIM helped us Revit design models and the fabrication models decisions and trade-offs,” says Peng. visualize the tower in 3D and analyze the design for in Navisworks for whole project coordination. “As improved decision making,” says Xia. “For example, construction proceeds, BIM is helping us coordinate Saving Building Materials we used the Revit design model with the reflection the subcontractors’ fabrication models, leading to The building shape itself will produce the largest analysis features of Ecotect software to analyze a better quality design and the avoidance of rework energy savings in the form of an efficient, cost- the glare from the tower throughout the city. This costs,” says Chen. effective structural frame. “Using Revit Structure, helped the design team optimize the outer curtain we produced more than 20 design options before wall—even down to the position and angle of “For example, the tower’s basement has already settling on a structural system of super-columns, individual pieces of glass—to minimize been built,