Raffles City Research Articles

Urban Verticality Shaped by a Vertical Terrain: Lessons From Chongqing, China

Urban studies have long been predominantly flat without a vertical dimension. This horizontal hegemony is partly embedded in the fact that many cities throughout the world, especially the centres of knowledge production, are plain cities. This article argues that even narrowing down urban verticality to high-rise buildings is still a product of horizontal hegemony. This article uses the city of Chongqing in China’s mountainous southwest as an example, to extend the understanding of urban verticality beyond high-rise buildings. By investigating three vertical urban projects, namely, the Raffles City, Hongyadong, and the Mountain City Footpath system, the article reveals how vertical terrain, as a vertical element, shapes Chongqing’s urban planning, urban governance strategy, and people’s experience in the city. As a counter experience to horizontal urbanism, verticality both constitutes part of local people’s ordinary living experience and a spectacular experience for outsiders, which has been mobilised by the local government for place-making and city branding.

Overall Lifting Technology of Aluminum Plate Unit in the Air Corridor of Raffles City in Chongqing

In this paper, we explore the installation method and process of large-span air corridor curtain wall of Chongqing Raffles Square Project. The curtain wall is positioned at the lower part of the sightseeing overpass, with the spans of 48.5m, 52.6m and 54.1m respectively, and the lengths of the cantilever sections are 25.1m and 26.8m. At the junction of two rivers in Chongqing, several super high-rise buildings nearby exert strong aerodynamic interference effects. It is difficult to construct this project in a conventional way because intense airflow exists. Through an analysis of two construction options, with consideration to difficulties, quality, safety and economic costs of construction by the two options, the overall lifting of aluminum plate unit is chosen as the final plan. An introduction is made to practical operations of this option, including assembly of aluminum plate unit V-frame, tire frame installation, aluminum plate surface layer assembly, hydraulic synchronous lifting and unit body fixing. The hydraulic synchronous lifting process details the technical key points such as lifting point setting, lifting angle control, lifting and windproof measures, hydraulic lifting force control, hydraulic synchronous lifting control, etc. Finally, by utilizing this option, the quality, construction schedule, safety and cost for the overall lifting of units aloft can be guaranteed and good results are achieved in practice.

Design and construction innovations on a skyscraper cluster in China

Due for completion in 2019, the £2·8 billion Raffles City development in Chongqing, China includes eight high-rise towers up to 348 m tall with a 280 m long sky conservatory spanning four of them. The 1·13 million m2 mega-scale project at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jailing Rivers combines office, retail, hotel, residential and transport spaces within the overall appearance of a ship under sail. This paper outlines some of the design, engineering and construction innovations adopted on the project, including novel approaches to seismic design and extensive use of digital technology.

Welcome the Challenges and Imaging the Sky Town

Safety, livability, and efficiency are the three prominent problems of tall buildings, which are also the severe challenges to designers. We proposed the idea of building the sky town to solve these problems, which can be summarized in two sentences, one is tall building multi-storised, and another one is vertical facilities municipal-infrastructurised. The tall building can be horizontally cut into several multi-storey buildings by some large platforms. The platform extends a certain width to block the fire from spreading. Tall buildings are connected together as a group. One of them is a traffic core, which is used for vertical transportation and MEP. It connects to traffic center such as metro, while most of the other tall buildings' cores can be very much released, so as to achieve maximum efficiency of floor usable area and to give good traffic organization. By combining traffic core, platforms, and multi-storey buildings' inner traffic, a transportation network is formed. Finally, we refer to the design of Raffles City Chongqing to make a sketch of sky town.

Multi-Dimensional Hybrid Design and Construction of Skyscraper Cluster -Innovative Engineering of Raffles City Chongqing-

Designed by star architect of Moshes Safdie, Raffles City Chongqing includes a total of 6 mega high-rise towers 250 to 380 m tall, a sky conservatory, a 5-storey high shopping mall and a 3-storey basement car parking. Located at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jailing Rivers, the site for the project is imbued with a significance that is immediately symbolic, both as a sign of Chongqing's important past and as a vivid indicator of the city's thriving present and future. The design for the project to be situated at this gateway takes as its governing idea the image of powerful sails upon the water. The outer facades of the project's eight towers - the transparent surfaces that will face the water to the north - are meant to recall a fleet of ancient Chinese ships, with their huge rectangles of white canvas filled by the wind. This is a <TEX>$1.13million\;m^2$</TEX> mega scale integrated project of office, retail, hotel, service residence and high-end residence with the transportation hub and traffic circulation at various levels of the project. This paper presents the multi-dimensional hybrid design, engineering and construction of this mega scale project. The innovations and the cutting-edge technology used in this project are introduced and discussed benchmarking the design and construction of the skyscraper cluster in a major city like Chongqing of China.

Raffles City in Hangzhou China -The Engineering of a 'Vertical City' of Vibrant Waves-

Raffles City in Hangzhou China -The Engineering of a 'Vertical City' of Vibrant Waves-

Studies into a high performance composite connection for high-rise buildings

This paper presents experimental and numerical studies into the structural behavior of a high performance corbel type composite connection adopted in Raffles City of Hangzhou, China. Physical tests under both monotonic and quasi-static cyclic loads were conducted to investigate the load carrying capacities and deformation characteristics of this new type of composite connection. A variety of structural responses are examined in detail, including load-deformation characteristics, the development of sectional direct and shear strains, and the history of cumulative plastic deformation and energy. A three-dimensional finite element model built up with solid elements was also proposed for the verification against test results. The studies demonstrate the high rigidity, strength and rotation capacities of the corbel type composite connections, and give detailed structural understanding for engineering design and practice. Structural engineers are encouraged to adopt the proposed corbel type composite connections in mega high-rise buildings to achieve an economical and buildable and architectural friendly engineering solution.

Raffles City Chengdu, China: achieving a sunlight-influenced design

Raffles City Chengdu is a large, new, mixed-used development in Chengdu, China's fourth biggest city. Known locally as ‘The Sliced Porosity Block', its complex, fragmented design was driven by a planning requirement for maximum penetration by sunlight. This paper describes the unique structural engineering challenges and solutions adopted for the 300 000 m2 development's five, irregularly shaped, 110 m tall towers, which feature a variety of cantilevered and sloping sections, large openings and link bridges. Extensive computer and physical modelling was done to evaluate seismic and wind resistance of the towers both during and after construction. The high-quality white concrete finish specified for the composite steel−concrete exoskeleton also required substantial care in designing and constructing the complex composite nodes, for which several mock-ups were built.

Report on 2nd ECTA congress

ECTA scored another big event in its young history. This time Asia was the host and the marvelous environment of Singapore did its best to encourage the discussions and the presentation of up-to-date information at the congress venue. Raffles City with its modern and wide spaces including more than one hundred shops and restaurants gave hospitality to more than 700 delegates from all over the world. Professor SeowChoen made sure the congress was outstandingly organized and included many social events in order to foster friendship and collaboration among speakers, chairmen, delegates, and trainees. Chicken rice, chili crab dishes, sticky weather and Singapore kindness will become unforgettable memories for many coloproctologists. The congress started with an interesting course dedicated to all the modern techniques involving ultrasound imaging and the clinical results in patients with benign and malignant disease. During the congress, many topics were covered by brilliant speakers from many countries. The surgical treatment for diverticulitis is still a matter of debate, even if less invasive modalities such as laparoscopic lavage and postponed resection instead of immediate resection with ostomy are gaining much more consensus among the experts. Professor Tsarkov gave a brilliant lecture on this topic that addressed all the aspects of the clinical problem. Colorectal cancer still represents the main topic for coloproctologists, and the excellent results of treatment for early stage disease were stressed by surgeons from the Far East particularly from the Japanese school represented by Professor Fujishiro, University of Tokyo. Japanese are considered worldwide to be pioneers in the early detection and treatment for colorectal cancer. The video session symposium gave the opportunity to show the latest developments. The transanal minimally invasive surgery (TAMIS) technique has been proposed for the treatment for T2 rectal lesions with no evidence of lymph node metastasis and negative preoperative staging, even if the limits of the technique seem relevant when dealing with more extensive lesions. The topic of hemorrhoids which always captures the attention of the audience and predictably led to open debate. Professor Reboa from Italy presented the results of a clinical trial on the treatment for hemorrhoids comparing many techniques. The last day of the congress was dedicated to an interesting symposium in colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) which may become the treatment of choice for the early colorectal cancer. Impressive speakers, mainly from the Far East, provided new highlights on this topic showing us as the latest advances in endoscopic treatment. The opportunity to suture the endoscopic defect seems to open up the possibility of a transmural endoscopic resection of the intestinal wall. The session was held in Northern General Hospital in Singapore and was held by the local committee which kindly introduced the well organized and high technological hospital. They organized a hands-on session on ESD, with the collaboration of the Olympus and Erbe companies, which was attended by many congress participants. In 2015, Moscow will host the third ECTA congress that will cover many other interesting topics and we really suggest you attend, just to breath once again the wonderful atmosphere of a global congress with many enthusiastic colleagues from all over the world. A. Trecca (&) L. C. Pescatori Digestive Endoscopy, Uego fdg Usi Group Rome, Via Virginio Orsini, 18, 00185 Rome, Italy e-mail: treccanto@gmail.com

Navigating the Computational Turn

AbstractUNStudio has developed its own practice model for connecting colleagues and collaborators and sharing accumulated knowledge and techniques: the ‘Knowledge Platform’. Ben van Berkel with members from the UNStudio Smart Parameter Platform describe three projects at very different scales ‐ the Burnham Pavilion in Chicago (2009), Raffles City in Hangzhou, China (2011) and Arnhem Central (2012) ‐ that encapsulate UNStudio's working methods and approach to computational processes.

Typological Instruments: Connecting Architecture and Urbanism

AbstractFor Caroline Bos and Ben van Berkel of UNStudio, type in architecture ‘exists to direct, to connect or to be instrumental’ rather than to prescribe. They describe how in their projects for Arnhem Central in the Netherlands and the Raffles City development in Hangzhou, China, they have deftly developed and applied typologies in order to gain control of the design process in complex urban contexts.

Welcome Address at the Opening Ceremony of the 41st Singapore-Malaysia Congress of Medicine, 19 July 2007, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore

Welcome Address at the Opening Ceremony of the 41st Singapore-Malaysia Congress of Medicine, 19 July 2007, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore

Acceptance Speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for the Conferment of Honorary Fellowship by the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 19 July 2007, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore

Acceptance Speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for the Conferment of Honorary Fellowship by the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 19 July 2007, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore

Managing Change of Hotel Brand Name: Managerial Roles and Employees' Concerns

With the re-branding and renaming, the two hotels at the heart of Raffles City are now known as STS and RTP. The new names are not as recognized as the old Westin name, thus posing a problem for employees, customers, suppliers, travel agents, taxi drivers and the local community. Several studies showed that the change process involved three distinct phases and also emphasized the involvement of employees. The re-branding and re-positioning in the hospitality industry highlighted the importance of the management–employees' involvement in building a positive global brand image of the corporation. This study aims first to examine the roles of management and their approaches undertaken in managing the change of hotel brand; and second, to investigate the employees' concerns and perceptions consequential to the brand changing process.

Speech By Mr Lim Hng Kiang, Minister For Health and Second Minister for Finance, at the Opening Ceremony of the 36th Singapore-Malaysia Congress of Medicine on Thursday, 1 August 2002 at 1810 Hours at Raffles City Convention Centre

It gives me great pleasure to join you this evening at the 36th Singapore Malaysia Congress of Medicine and the 36th Annual Combined Surgical Meeting of the Chapter of Surgeons, Academy of Medicine, Singapore.

First Asia Pacific Conference and Exhibition on Anti-Ageing Medicine 2002: From Molecular Mechanisms to Therapies, June 23-26, 2002, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore

First Asia Pacific Conference and Exhibition on Anti-Ageing Medicine 2002: From Molecular Mechanisms to Therapies, June 23-26, 2002, Raffles City Convention Centre, Singapore