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Located at the city centre of Changsha, the capital of central China’s Hunan province, Changsha International Finance Square (IFS) comprises two super high-rise towers housing offices and hotels. The 95-storey Tower 1 (T1) and the 64-storey Tower 2 (T2) along with a 7-storey retail podium and 6-level basement, yielding a total building GFA of 1,040,000m². The mega shopping mall and the 452m high-rise tower are marked as the largest mall and the highest tower respectively in Central China.
Arup worked closely with Wharf China to provide full MEP consultancy, from concept through to project completion, and implemented a wide range of green and sustainable features in this mega development. In particular, our MEP services broke many records because of the project’s sheer scale and complexity.
Project Summary
1,040,000m² GFA for this mega development
452mtall tower – the highest in Central China
33,000tof total chiller plant cooling capacity
South side of Changsha International Finance Square © Arup
Serving the vertical community
Housing offices and hotels, the two towers require well-designed building services for a comfortable indoor environment. Arup designed separate chiller plants for the high and low zones of the towers. This arrangement not only reduces the pumping distance and the power required, but also ensures the hydraulic pressure at the end side AC equipment within 16bars. For the plumbing system, intermediate pressure break/transfer tanks are provided to prevent over-pressure.
To ensure that the vertical transportation system provides a comfortable passenger experience, we performed real time simulation to optimise the lift provision and verify that the lift sizes and speeds would be adequate for the maximum number of people travelling up the building in the morning. A total of 315 lifts and escalators are provided for this project.
The 110kV substation partly hidden by landscaping © Arup
Powering up the entire development
Arup designed a reliable high capacity electrical supply system to support the entire development. Two 110 kV lead-in supplies are provided and connected to the 110kV substation inside the development. Within the substation, three sets of independent 10kV distribution panels are powered by three independent 110/10kV transformers, with five groups of total 17 10kV outgoing cables connected radially to all the transformer rooms and independent switchgear panels backing each other up. A total of 93 transformers with a total capacity 120 MVA are provided for this project.
This is the first underground civilian use substation solely serving single development in Hunan province, which overcame a number of technical challenges in its realisation. Moreover, we had partly hidden the substation in the development’s landscaping to reduce its visual impact.
Tailored strategy for the mega mall
The shopping mall is the centrepiece of the IFS development. We closely coordinated with the owner Wharf to provide a tailored MEP strategy to suit its operations. All the major plant rooms for the shopping mall are located at Level 3 and the boiler plant room at Level 1 of the basement, designed with sufficiently high headroom to accommodate the chillers and other large equipment. The cooling tower plant for the AC systems is located at Level 6 at the podium roof for easy access and operation.
Ensuring safety and comfort
Fire engineering approach is adopted in this mega development. Our MEP engineers applied the enhancement measures to ensure the fire safety of the shopping mall, including mechanical pressurisation systems for the safety evacuation corridors and cooling sprinklers for the glazed shop front facing the sub-safety zone. And the mechanical smoke extraction rate for the ice rink has been raised by 20%. The capacity of the pressure stabilising fire services water tanks at T1 and T2 roof was increased to 100m3 and the water transfer tanks capacity for the two towers increased to 80m3.
