doi:10.3850/9789628014194_0068

ABSTRACT

Contemporary tall buildings are expensive structures. Not only does a tall building demand greater consumption of construction materials, but it also requires higher operational and maintenance costs over its lifetime. Structural engineers are facing the challenge of making structures more efficient and economical while ensuring improved green values and sustainability. The quest for a way of performing a cost effective and environmentally efficient design in a short period of time has led to the development of advanced numerical optimisation techniques for structural design of tall buildings. This paper presents an innovative computer based technique that minimises the material cost while maximising floor area efficiency with enhanced habitability of tall buildings. Specifically, a formal treatment of the iterative analysis and design procedure is made so that the structural design decision-making process involved in tall building design can be formulated and solved by a numerical optimisation algorithm. An overview of the computer based structural optimisation and its recent advances will be summarised with practical applications to a number of notable tallest building projects in Hong Kong. The value and significance of the computer based structural optimisation will be illustrated through the 118-story International Commerce Center and the 74-story Harbourside Development.

Keywords: Performance-based design, Structural optimisation, Sustainable development, Tall buildings.

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