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The SMC is honored to have its HQ in Shanghai – one of China’s most vibrant and beautiful cities.
Take a look at some of the stunning architecture near our offices, showcasing the epitome of metallic architecture:
The Oriental Pearl Tower
The Shanghai World Financial Center
Jin Mao Tower
Shanghai Tower
Tomorrow Square Building
Bund Center Shanghai
The term skyscraper was originally used to describe buildings of 10 to 20 stories,
The increase in urban commerce in the United States in the second half of the 19th century augmented the need for city business. So the story of skyscrapers began in second part of the 19th century when steel became one of the cornerstones of the world’s industrial economy. Steel became available in large quantities and at low price and was quickly the material of choice for building construction. but by the late 20th century the word skycraper was used to describe high-rise buildings of unusual height, generally greater than 40 or 50 stories.
Thanks to Steel framing and steel reinforced concrete made curtain-wall architecture possible and the use of the material made the evolution of skyscrapers possible by allowing them to reach new heights.
in 1895 The 10-storey (42 m high)Home Insurance Building was built in Chicago and was considered the first tall building to be supported by a steel skeleton of vertical columns and horizontal beams.
As skyscrapers grew taller, architects and engineers were faced with a new enemy: wind. They had to experiment with new styles and building methods in order to build taller and more innovative structures.
The following buildings are today’s 3 tallest buildings in the world and have all been possible thanks to the amazing properties of steel and the hard work of engineers and architects that brought many innovations in the metal field.
Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE (829.8 m – 163 foors)
Burj Khalifa is the tallest man-made structure in the world it uses a bundled tube design (which is a system that uses a number of interconnected tube frames) and a composite of steel and concrete to hit its record height. Approximately 39,000 tonnes of steel bar were needed for the construction and 15.500 m2 of embossed stainless steel for cladding. Proportionally, the design uses half the amount of steel used in the construction of the Empire State Building thanks to the tubular system.
Tokyo Skytree (634m – 29 floors)
The tower is the primary television and radio broadcast site for the Kantō region.
The structural steel columns of the tower are diagonally jointed at different angles, and their shapes differ from one another. Under these stringent conditions, engineers were required to solve the kind of problems that they have never experienced in past projects
Shanghai Tower, Shanghai (632m – 128 floors)
The Shanghai Tower is the tallest building in China and the second-tallest in the world, surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. high strength steel, ultra-thick plates of over 100mm in thickness and other high-end construction steels have been used for the construction of the tower. In addition to that The design of the tower’s glass facade, which completes a 120° twist as it rises, is intended to reduce wind loads on the building by 24%. This reduced the amount of construction materials needed; the Shanghai Tower used 25% less structural steel than a conventional design of a similar height saving approximately US$58 million in material costs.
source : http://www.worldsteel.org, wikipedia.org
Steel is an amazing material that is both economic and sustainable. That’s why Shanghai Metal Corporation manufactures and distributes a large range of Steel products of high quality all over the world.
For more information, you can visit the company’s website or contact us for any inquiry.
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Houria // SMC Editor
The owner of a luxury car Jaguar XJ parked his sweetheart across the street from the curvy 37 story glass-and-steel skyscraper designed by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly in London before an afternoon business meeting. Only two hours later, this car was giving off smells of melting and displaying clear signs of damage. The developers of the building who nicknamed it as “Walkie Talkie” for its distinctive shape, agreed to pay for the damages.
So how could skyscraper melt the car?
“Fundamentally it’s reflection,” Chris Shepherd of the Institute of Physics told the BBC “If a building creates enough of a curve with a series of flat windows, which act like mirrors, the reflections all converge at one point, focusing and concentrating the light.” The curves of “Walkie Talkie” skyscraper acted like a magnifying glass to concentrate the light on only one spot, the exact spot where Jaguar XJ was parked.
According to Kheir Al-Kodmany, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Walkie Talkie’s designers forgot about the fact that southern-facing building would generate a lot of heat. If it had been a northern-facing building, it would have been an issues. Luckily London isn’t a very sunny city.
“As we get more shiny, glassy metal buildings, reflected light will become a bigger deal,” John Frederick, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Chicago says. “The high reflection is good if you’re inside trying to keep intense sunlight out, but if you’re outside, you’ll be the recipient of that reflected light.” Well, sometimes it is just better to walk, leave your car safely parked at home and protect the environment.
Shanghai Metal Corporation offers high-quality steel products, stainless steel, galvanized steel, steel and other metal products widely used in architecture, automotive industry etc. For more information don’t hesitate to visit our website or send us inquiry. English speaking staff will guide you further. Download a new application by scanning QR code below or follow us on Social Media.
Silvia M.//SMC Editor
Read more articles written by this author here.
Sources : theverge.com, popsci.com, nydailynews.com, googleimages
It seems unimaginable, but this is the typical day in the life of this team of experts hired to maintain the iconic Elizabeth Tower, better known as the Big Ben.
A team of experts has begun a job that requires a head for heights and the ability to keep a close eye on the clock at one of Britain’s most famous landmarks. The specialists abseiled by rope to clean and inspect the faces of the Great Clock at the Palace of Westminster, and they wear ear defenders to protect their hearing from the chimes of Big Ben. A working week has been set aside for the job, one day for each of the four clock faces, with a contingency day in case the weather makes it too risky to work on the 95.7 metre high Elizabeth Tower. There are steel girders and lintels to support the tower, with copper clock hand that have been frozen in place to avoid injuring the cleaners.
This prompts memories of the photograph of eleven men eating lunch, seated on a steel girder with their feet dangling 256 meters (840 feet) above the New York City streets without harnesses. The Daily Mail recently reported that, although the models were real workers, the moment was staged by the Rockefeller Center to promote their new skyscraper 80 years ago. Nonetheless it was no mean feat.
Another daring act that I am sure required the same bravery would be the two Russian men Vadim Makhorov and Vitaly Raskalov who scaled Shanghai Tower. The building is set to be completed in 2014 to be China’s tallest building at 632 metres (2073 feet), and the second tallest in the world. Shanghai tower used 25% less structural steel than a conventional design of a similar height. As a result, the building’s constructors are expected to save an estimated US $58 million in material costs. In an interview, Vadim claims the ascent was ‘to see the city from an unusual angle’, as part of his photography, and not a feat to be proud of or to have repeated by others.
If you’re interested in these buildings or how they are made, why not check out our website, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code. Shanghai Metal manufactures value added steel products used when building skyscrapers. As Stainless Steel Industry Professionals, we take pride in the manufacturing of those products which are held to such esteem in the architecture industry .
You can also read more articles by our team at SMC:
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Sources: Daily Mail , Huffington Post , Gensler
Siobhan R.// SMC Editor
#BuildingValueAcrossTheGlobe
Shanghai Metal Corporation 