Brilliant BIM Series
Building a Giant with BIM: The Shanghai Tower
Published 9 November 2023
Updated 4 March 2024
Towering over the hustle and bustle of Shanghai’s financial district is a gleaming giant. The Shanghai Tower is an awe-inspiring sight, but what’s even more impressive is the story of how it was designed and built using BIM.
When it comes to cutting-edge architecture, few buildings can rival the Shanghai Tower in China. Standing an impressive 2,073 feet (632 meters) tall, it’s the third tallest building in the world — and it’s all thanks to BIM.
The spiraling Shanghai Tower is a mega-tall skyscraper located in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai, and is China’s tallest building. If you include the five below-ground floors, plus the 128 stories above ground, it is, technically, the tallest building in the world, although the Burj Khalifa officially holds that title. The Shanghai Tower also sports the world’s tallest observation deck, with an indoor height of 1,844 feet (562 meters).
The building was designed by American architectural firm, Gensler, and its construction began in 2008. The tower was completed in 2015 and opened to the public in 2016. The Shanghai Tower’s unique design is composed of nine cylindrical buildings stacked on top of each other. The tower is multifunctional, with nine different functional zones containing 12 to 15 floors in each zone, and features entertainment venues, retail spaces, a luxury hotel, office space, cultural venues, and a conference center.
With the support of BIM, the building’s design makes a 120-degree spiral turn that is optimal for minimizing wind loads, while directing the airflow toward turbines that contribute to a 21% reduction in the building’s energy costs.
The use of BIM enabled the construction of the Shanghai Tower to be completed faster and with fewer problems than traditional methods, such as relying on 2D
drawings only.
The Shanghai Tower is a shining example of sustainable design and is the world’s most energy-efficient supertall building. The outermost layer of the building features 270 of the above-mentioned wind turbines that generate electricity for the building. The tower features a double-skin facade which helps to regulate the interior temperature, and it also collects rainwater which is used to flush toilets and water indoor plants. The building has been awarded LEED Gold certification.
The Difference BIM Made
Projects that require a greater degree of coordination and collaboration between the architects and engineers and all the different disciplines involved in a construction project can definitely benefit from 3D modeling in BIM. The use of BIM enabled the construction of the Shanghai Tower to be completed faster and with fewer problems than traditional methods — such as relying primarily on 2D drawings — as 3D models can typically contain more information than their 2D counterparts. In fact, it’s estimated that using BIM 3D models saved around 32% on construction costs over traditional 2D projects.
In the case of the Shanghai Tower, both Revit and AutoCAD were used to create a highly detailed BIM model that contained all the information necessary to build the tower, including its structural, mechanical and electrical systems. The result is a masterpiece of engineering and a testament to the power of BIM.
2024 Update: Architecture vs Economics
In the design industry, “form over function” indicates a design that potentially prioritizes appearance over usability, often the death knell for a building whose primary financial goal is to secure a decent ROI as a result of that usability.
Since its 2016 opening, the Shanghai Tower has taken more than five years to overcome major occupancy issues, with losses reportedly amounting to more than USD$1.5 billion. Yes, that’s billion, with a B.
These tools can reduce or eliminate the time spent on repetitive tasks, increase productivity and reduce frustration.
Although this landmark building is visually unique, multifunctional, sustainable and energy-efficient with LEED Gold certification, a lack of occupancy would reduce it to nothing more than a beautiful — and expensive — ball and chain.
Upon its opening in 2016, several concerns deterred anticipated occupancy rates. One of them was getting adequate fire safety certification, which may have had more to do with local politics and less with the building’s actual design. However, once this issue was finally resolved, occupancy still didn’t skyrocket as hoped. The second primary concern, you see, had everything to do with the design.
Looking at the floorplan — triangular due to the building’s design — one sees the double-walled glass exterior, the round interior floorplate, and the central utilities core (which houses elevators, stairwells, bathrooms, electrical and so forth). When all was said and done, prospective tenants felt they were being vastly overcharged for the usable square footage.
For several years, the upper portion of the building, designated for hotel and boutique office space, languished — expensively empty — month after month, year after year. As financial losses mounted, rumors circulated that the Shanghai Tower was a failure.
At Gensler, Marshall Strabala, Chief Architect of the Shanghai Tower, categorically stated, “I would say that the person who said that doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”
With the support of BIM, the building’s design makes a 120-degree spiral turn that is optimal for minimizing wind loads, while directing the airflow toward turbines that contribute to a 21% reduction in the building’s energy costs.
While the triangular exterior and the round footplate do sacrifice a degree of office space, it’s a design that is also necessary for some of the building’s unique innovations — which benefit the occupants.
Take the thermodynamics, for example. That layer of air trapped between the outer façade and the internal glass walls literally wraps the building in a thermal blanket. In the winter, when outdoor temperatures hover around 7ºC (44.6ºF), the internal temperature can be as warm as 14ºC (57.2ºF) without turning the heat on. The twisting shape of the building also reduces the wind load by 24%, which is kind of important in a typhoon-prone area.
Finally, by mid-2021, the J Hotel and the boutique office spaces opened on the upper floors and, over the next three years, occupancy gradually increased — although we can find no reports confirming the occupancy rate as of 2024.
Sometimes, looking back provides lessons for the future. Our final takeaway from this is that while form is desirable and speaks to the soul in terms of aesthetics such as light, grace, beauty and sustainability, it is ultimately the functionality of the space, its practicality, that will determine how enthusiastic humans will be to use it. And why else would we build buildings if not to use them?
Saving Time With Revit or AutoCAD
The Shanghai Tower is an undoubtedly excellent example of how BIM is revolutionizing the construction industry thanks to its ability to streamline the design and construction process.
In keeping with our company philosophy that architects, engineers and designers are the driving force behind the creation of a better future on Earth, Axiom develops tools for Revit and AutoCAD that can help streamline your workflows. Used by top architects and engineers around the world to achieve significant time savings, these tools can reduce or eliminate the time spent on repetitive tasks, increase productivity and reduce frustration.
Using BIM 3D models saved around 32% on construction costs over traditional
2D projects.
Axiom offers a range of Revit and AutoCAD plugins that can help to improve production times and accuracy, making them a key part of your design process. For more information or to discuss your particular situation with a knowledgeable Service Consultant, call 727-442-7774.
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