Lakhta Centre – Russia
The tallest building in Europe forms the headquarters of Russian energy company Gazprom. The building of these new offices represents a move to boost the city’s economy by attracting large businesses, who require office space infrastructure to be hosted, and, as a goal, to make St Petersburg as attractive a business hub as London.
Profile:
- Height: 462m
- Floors: 87
- Built: 2018
- Use: offices
- Capacity: 5,000 employees and visitors
- Location: St Petersburg, population 5.6 million
Background
Part of a multi functional building (MFZ) including a planetarium making a picture of the starry sky, a concert hall and galleries – many public functions.
The building sits over 9km from the city centre – therefore its modern, tall design is allowed under law as it does not disturb St Petersburg’s historic skyline. (Height restrictions exists closer to the city centre.) This does require good transport connections to be viable; these exist in the form of nearby motorways and a rail station. Transport is being upgraded to meet the demands of the complex, including widening the motorways and redesigning intersection to minimise traffic congestion. A new light railway line, new tram line and new metro station are also planned.
Includes 34 high speed lifts, some of which are double decker. Modelling software was used to calculate the number of lifts needed to limit waiting times to a maximum value.
The centre was lit at Christmas to look like a Christmas tree.
Design
The tower’s wavelike shape reflects its proximity to the sea – an ‘organic spire’ is fitting with the spires of historical cathedrals nearby.
Composed of five ‘towers’ which twist around a circular core.
Accessibility: Designed with the elderly, disabled and those with children in mind. Measures include steps no higher than 15cm, corridors no narrower than 1.2m, wide lifts and door handles that can easily be operated with one hand. Even the heights and sizes of toilets and sinks have been designed to make them as accessible as possible.
Structure of entrance: an arch of 24m height and 98m length. Reinforced concrete ‘cave’ and steel beam structure.
The area’s climate means a suction ventilation system is useful because the tower can be heated in the winter and air conditioned in the summer. ‘Cooling beams’ are placed near the ceiling and cool the air there. Natural circulation means this cooled air sinks and hot air rises, ready to be cooled by the beams. Then the cycles repeats.
Construction
Demolition was not required as the district of Lakhta contained few cultural monuments or residential buildings pre-construction of the centre.
Local soil is Vendian clay – this very solid geology means foundations only have to go 30m into the ground
Double façade skin reduces energy consumption from heating and air conditioning by 50%.
Contains a unique façade cleaning system: carriages carrying two workers run along the rails of the building via rubber rollers. The very top of the building will be cleaned by industrial climbers and cranes. The whole glass cleaning process takes 94 days with 20 workers.
Fire safety: use of water mist in extinguishers – substance can be distributed by the small droplets. The fine particles (<150 microns) are less likely to damage the building after a fire. This is an expensive yet efficient system for fire extinguishing.
The surface resists icing + is safe for birds via illumination.
Noise is suppressed by ‘floating floors’, which reduce vibrations by a sound suppressing layer and not being connected to major columns or beams (which would carry vibrations to other areas of the building).
The Consumer Energy report named the Centre as one of the 10 most eco-friendly skyscrapers in the world.
[Image credits for this page: skyscrapercenter.com, lakhta.center/en]