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T Twisted Tower
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Al-Tijaria Tower
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T INTRODUCTION
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U • Located in Kuwait City, Al-Tijaria Tower anchors a commercial complex comprising offices, a health club,
C and a high-end shopping mall with theaters and a food court.
• Reaching 218 meters, the iconic office tower will be the tallest building in Kuwait.
T • An example of architectural expression through structural form on a grand scale,
U • The structural system and exterior form were developed in a symbiotic digital design process.
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The building geometry is generated by a spiraling slice subtracted from a simple prismatic volume.
The spiraling building form results in a dramatic cantilevered office wing that wraps around an exterior
A courtyard.

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T PROJECT FACTS
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•Project Completion Year: 2009
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T •Design Completion Year: 2005
U •Site Area: 10,000 m2
R •Project Area: 195,000 m2
A •Number of Stories: 45
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•Building Height: 218 m
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T CONCEPT
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U •STRIVED TO CREATE A CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
C •USING STATE OF THE ART TECHNOLOGY
T •GLASS VEIL REFLECTING THE SILHOUETTE OF THE CITY
•BASED ON SITE ALLOTMENT AND SUN PATH
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T FOUNDATION
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FOUNDATION
Concrete.
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Raft foundation
U • Supported on cast-in-place bored poles (foundation), reinforced concrete shear core wall (superstructure),
C reinforced concrete cast-in-place slab (floor system).
T • Based on these initial calculations and the local knowledge of the Consultancy Group Company (CGC), it was
U determined that a raft foundation supported on cast-in-place bored piles would be needed. Local construction
techniques dictated the maximum pile diameter (1200mm) and soil conditions dictated the closest allowable
R spacing (3600mm center-to-center), allowing for calculation of the expected pile load demands and for the
commencement of a pile load test program.
A • 289 piles were made on the foundation.
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T FOUNDATION ANALYSIS
R • The design team was concerned that at 218m tall the Al-Tijaria Tower project might result in geotechnical
U demands that exceeded the known range that had been established locally during the construction of
towers up to 200m tall.
C • A full three-dimensional non-linear analysis of the soil strata under and around the foundations of the
T tower. Both analysis approaches were separately used to generate effective soil spring stiffness's,
accounting for the combined effect of mat and pile in each of the zones under the mat.
U • Though requiring a greater engineering design effort, did not greatly increase the use of materials since
between sets of effective stiffness data all values tended to change by a similar ratio.
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S The final design of the raft foundation was for a 4.0m thick raft approximately 70m by 60m in plan
dimension with an additional 1.6m thick triangular section of raft approximately 24m by 12m in a
T region to the north, beyond the footprint of the tower. The tower raft is supported by 289 piles each
E 1200mm in diameter and varying in length from 20.0m to 27.0m measured from the bottom of the
raft. The design concrete compressive strength of the raft was 50MPa (cube compressive strength) and
M varied in the piles from 55MPa to 80MPa (56-day cube compressive strength).

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T RAFT CONSTRUCTION
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U • The raft foundation was poured in 15 separate pours, the size of each limited by municipal traffic
C regulations restricting the delivery of concrete to the weekends and the local production capabilities of
the local concrete batch plants for delivery within each weekend window.
T • As a result, the raft foundation was poured over a period of approximately 4 months.
U • The segmented approach to the raft pour was also beneficial in limiting the peak concrete curing
temperature; although insulated to prevent damaging temperature differentials building up near the
R concrete surface, the increased surface area of the sides in addition to the top of each pour allowed the
controlled release heat at a higher rate, nominally reducing the peak curing temperatures. Concrete curing
A temperatures were further minimized by specifying a high volume fly-ash cement replacement concrete
L mix.

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T Layout
R • CENTER CORE- CIRCULATION, BATHROOMS
U • PERIMETER OFFICE SPACE WITH VIEWS
C • REVELATION OF FLOOR SUBTRACTIONS
T • THE BUILDING IS ROTATED BY 1.918 DEG TO A TOTAL OF 80 DEG
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U •STRIVE FOR EQUILIBRIUM
C •STRATEGICALLY PLACED
T •HIGH OCCUPANCY AREAS
U •AND MECHANICAL ROOMS
R •WATER STORAGE AND
A HEAVY EQUIPMENT PLACED
L •AWAY FROM SOUTHWEST
S FLARED WALL
Y •GROUND CONNECTION TO
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T SOIL CONDITIONS
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T LATERAL LOADS
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T LATERAL RESISTING SYSTEM
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T MULTIFRAME SYSTEM
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T CONSTRUCTION IMAGES
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