Gran Torre Santiago – Chile
Also known as the Costanera Centre, this skyscraper in Santiago is the tallest in Latin America. Yet it seems dwarfed by the Andes mountains the city is framed by.
Profile
- Height: 300m
- Floors: 60
- Built: 2014
- Use: offices + shopping
- Location: Santiago – capital, population 5.4m
Background
Tallest in Latin America. 3rd tallest building in the southern hemisphere – after two buildings in Australia.
Design
It was essential for this new building to stand out against the backdrop of the Andes mountains behind. Its gently curved top gives the building character, yet does not feel invasive.
An observation deck at the top gives 360˚ views of the city. Sometimes smog can however spoil this view.
The height of Gran Torre means that its shadow can be up to a mile long!
Construction & Engineering
Santiago lies on a fault line, between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. Gran Torre is one of only six large structures in the world built on an area as earthquake prone as this. Clearly, earthquake protection measures are crucial. The building uses a ‘highly advanced outrigger system’ according to engineers. What is that? Here’s what I’ve found out:
An outrigger system is a way of connecting the outer structure of a building with a stiff, central core, which may be made of many or one large column. There will be present at multiple levels in a building like this and are likely to be made of reinforced concrete or steel trusses.
Overall such a system increases the stiffness of such a building, preventing swaying during an earthquake.
Interestingly, even skyscrapers that are not built on fault lines may use some kind of outrigger system to counteract wind forces, although they may not need to be as robust as those used here. Other notable structures using such a system include the world’s three tallest buildings – the Burj Khalifa, Taipei 101 and Shanghai Tower. [See their own studies for more info].
In fact, Gran Torre’s outrigger system is so advanced it suffered no structural damage during an earthquake of magnitude 8.8 in 2010. Impressive!
The cooling system obtains water from the San Carlos canal for temperature regulation.
Image credits for this page:
Images 1, 2 – alluringworld.com