Famous Concrete Building Exemplars

The Petronas Twin Towers

Location: Kuala lumpur, Malaysia
Architect: César Pelli.
Engineer: Deejay Cerico

The Petronas Twin Towers are two 88-story high commercial office towers. It was built not only to act as the headquarters of  our national oil and gas company, PETRONAS, but also as an iconic landmark that represents Kuala Lumpur as well as Malaysia herself.  The skyscrapers were completed in year 1998 and once claimed world tallest building for 6 years surpassing the World Trade Center, USA.

The towers are often assumed to be a steel structure, but in actually fact, they are constructed largely of reinforced concrete. In order to support the mega structure, engineers came out with a special concrete mix which is stronger than other typical concrete mixes and a vast amount of rebars are also used. Then, glass and steel are used for the façade as it reflects the Malaysian Muslim religion.

Ingalls Building

Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

Architect: Alfred Oscar Elzner

This is the world's first reinforce concrete skyscraper. It was built in year 1903 with  height of 15 stories. Concrete at that period of time has a very low tensile, and engineers believed that building a skyscraper that tall would eventually result in collapse under its own weight or wind loads. It was a major engineering challenge of the time. Engineer and architect, Ernest L. Ransome used twisted steel bars cast into concrete slabs as reinforcement and casting slab, beams and joists as a unit would allow them to create a rigid structure. It was a tremendous success and since then, the United States begun to use reinforced concrete widely in construction. High rise building is also made possible while Ernest L. Ransome became pioneer in reinforced concrete. 

Burj Khalifa

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Architect: Adrian Smith

Engineer: Bill Baker

The 829.84 m high skyscraper is current the tallest manmade structure and also the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world. The tower was completed in year 2010 and was renamed from Burj Dubai to Burj Khalifa.It was built with a intention of diversifying the nation's economy from oil-based to service and tourism based.

The inspiration of building design was obtain from the flower Hymenocallis by Architect Adrian Smith and the patterning system found in Islamic Architecture.
Huge amount of reinforced concrete were used in the construction of the towers(45,000 m³ for the foundation while 330,000 m³ for the structure). 
Special mixes of concrete are also used to withstand the extreme pressures of the massive building weight .

A must-watch-video on the construction of the Burj Khalifa!!

Centre Point 

Location: London, England
Engineer: Pell Frischmann
Architect: Richard SifartIt is a substantial concrete and glass office building. It is also one of the first concrete skyscrapers in London.

311 South Wacker Drive  

Location: Chicago, USA
Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox
This 65-story high skyscraper was once second tallest reinforce concrete building in the world.

There are also much more famous concrete buildings all around the world, spanning from residential houses to offices buildings, educational institutions, hospitals and even commercial buildings. Reinforce concrete is widely used in construction nowadays as it can withstand extreme climates and weathers, support heavy loads of buildings without collapsing easily and does not rust or decompose under acid rain or humid environment.

This is the end of today's post. Hope you guys enjoy reading. =)


P/s: WATCH THE VIDEO !!!