Jerman Cheung
East Asia Press Office,Hong Kong
The GVK Sky Tower has been granted the Outstanding Concrete Structure 2013 Award by the Indian Concrete Institute (ICI).
At 83m, the new air traffic control (ATC) tower at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, is the tallest one in Mumbai.
Collaborating with HOK, Arup provided structural, civil, MEP, geotechnics and acoustic engineering and delivered an iconic design that matched the architectural look and feel of the winning competition entry.
The main challenges were shoehorning the ATC tower with all its associated services onto the same site as a technical block and then marrying the competition winning design concept with the functional demands of air traffic control.
The sloping skirts were present primarily as an architectural feature. However, they also break up the flow of air round the tower and inhibit the formation of vortex shedding that would cause cross-wind oscillations. As a result, the control of vibrations was achieved without the use of dampers.
The project also won an Autodesk Hong Kong BIM Award in 2009.