DUO Tower Residence: HISTAR® steel sections contribute to reduced weight and speedy construction

Detailed information

This high-rise development’s programme includes residences, office space, a hotel, retail space, an observation deck, and a car park, and it connects to the local rapid transit station.

Two sculpted towers, defined by the spaces they create around them

Designed by German-born architect Ole Scheeren, the two sculptural towers with their concave shapes generate large public spaces and create coherence with the surrounding cityscape. Their slenderness is underlined by setbacks and cantilevers and by a hexagonal-shaped sunshade in a honeycomb pattern that envelops the facades like a net and reinforces the concave shape.

The towers open up towards a landscaped public plaza with multiple levels of elevated terraces, lush green spaces, and pedestrian areas that create a connection among them.

The buildings incorporate passive and active energy-efficiency design features, including double glazed low E glass, heat pumps, and rainwater harvesting to mention just a few. Furthermore, their orientation and shape were defined by environmental strategies and optimised in relation to sun and wind. They protect the public plaza from the sun and capture the wind, channelling it to enforce natural ventilation and create cool, shaded outdoor spaces in the tropical climate.

Foundations with HISTAR®: saving weight and time in the construction of the residential tower

Although the main structural material is concrete, steel plays a crucial role in the residential tower’s foundations and was key for speeding up the construction process and optimising the structure’s weight.

The foundations of the 50-storey tower incorporate 2082 tonnes of sections in HISTAR® 460 steel produced by ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products at its Differdange mill in Luxembourg. ArcelorMittal’s high strength steel sections brought numerous advantages for the chosen construction method: The top-down construction method applied in this case consists of inserting the structural steel sections into the ground before starting excavation around them and adding concrete slabs on top. This innovative method for composite construction allows for the building of the foundations and the structure at essentially the same time. Once the foundations were completed, the tower was already half built, resulting in a significant reduction of construction time.

The use of HISTAR® 460 (S460M) sections, in the shape of king post piles, enabled a weight reduction of 20% in comparison to S355M steel. Whereas two sections in S355M grade would have been necessary, thanks to HISTAR® 460 just one was sufficient.

Due to the reduced number and size of the sections, fewer and smaller holes had to be drilled into the ground, less fabrication work was required, no splicing was needed, and the sections could be installed speedily - factors all significantly contributing to reducing the construction works.