High-rise Mixed-use

H E U C

Project idea

The Site is located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in a district called “Sengatera”. This street is currently a developing downtown with multiple bank headquarters.

This project uses the potential of the site and proposes a bank headquarters for “Bank Of Abyssinia“ in relation to their vision the concept of the building is “Open Interaction”.

The challenge in this project was making the building open considering the challenging factors of high-rise building wind, harsh sun, structure, …

The positive side of the site is that is has two potential roads towards Northwest and Southwest. According to the synthesis there are two commercial buildings on both side and a branch office sector on the corner while the main tower is facing the main road Southwest.

Project description

The concept of open interaction would be wide as an idea, it would go from form down to the system, from working interaction to recreational. Starting from the form was the challenge of how to make it open on all sides while protecting the interior from harsh sunlight and glare?

The tower has overcome the challenge of being a high-rise through maximizing it’s faces. This allows the building to split the wind current, the interior space will face a varying time from the harsh sun so that few faces won’t be affected for a long period of time and finally the good views will be proportionally divided through the faces of the building.

Since it is a bank interaction that should be represented through openness and accountability this intern makes an open interaction with the streets that they sought to serve. Having this in mind the entire building is visually open towards the outside with a mechanism of closing it tracing the heat released from the sun. This was possible due to a facade technology called a temperature adaptive façade which will be better elaborated on the technical information.

The interior of the building is mostly open due to the concept. The offices are partitioned with glass, the working spaces are open plans with cubicles, and the commercial sector has an open market where the space is partitioned with shopping activities, not materials.

The tower has a depressed side which is not covered with the same façade. It is a way for natural ventilation to enter the building and due to the building orientation responding to the wind direction wind pressure is decreased. That side is filled with vegetation to fill the space with fresh air. It is also a gathering place for the workers to get together and blow off some steam with coffee and tea.

The depressed portion of the building is facing towards a good view of Addis Ababa where renovation and development take place as part of the vision of the Bank Of Abyssinia “New Beginning” like something is cracking out of an existing feature.

Technical information

The building is a total of 53 stories (Ground+49 & 3 floors Basement). It covers an area of 8,000 square meters. The basement holds up to 300 cars.

The structures used in this building are 2 types the 1st is a core and outrigger truss for the tower with pile foundation, and the 2nd one is a frame structure for the commercial and branch buildings with isolated foundation.

The interesting system in this building is the façade. Pneumatics is the technology of compressed air, but in some circles, it is more fashionable to refer to it as a type of automation control. It closes when the temperature rises from 34 degree C and opens when the temperature falls to 27 degree C.

The HVAC system has two purposes in the building. One is for ventilation and the second is for fire drill, the exhausting pipe sucks the smoke out because since this is an office building water will damage their files. Considering this there is a fire escape stair in the core along with 6 passenger & 2 service elevators, male and female toilet and duct room.