3. Features of the structure:
Vital Statistics:
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Completion Date: 1998
Height: 1,483 feet
Stories: 88
Materials: Concrete, Steel
Facing Materials: Aluminum, Stainless Steel
Architect: César Pelli
Developer: KLCC Holdings Sdn Bhd
Structural engineer Thornton Tomasetti
Main contractor:
Tower 1: Hazama Corporation
Tower 2: Samsung Engineering & Construction and Kukdong Engineering & Construction City Center: B.L. Harbert International.
Fast Facts:
• It took 36,910 tons of steel to build the Petronas Towers. That's heavier than 3,000 elephants!
• It takes 90 seconds to travel from the basement parking lot to the top of each tower.
• Together, the towers have 32,000 windows. It takes window washers an entire month to wash each tower just once!
The floor-plate of the Tower is designed based on geometric patterns common in architecture of Islamic heritage. It is composed of two rotated and superimposed squares with small circular infills.
Like the exterior design, the Towers' entrance design was also inspired by the country's cultural heritage, incorporating contemporary Malaysian motifs adapted from traditional handicrafts such as songket and timber carvings. The overall character of the building is high-tech and international but distinctively Malaysian.
Skybridge The skybridge is an essential functional component linking the Twin Towers to facilitate movement between the two towers.
The 58.4 meters double-decked skybridge is located at levels 41 and 42 joining the sky lobbies situated in both towers.
Engineering Design The structural system selected utilises a 'two-hinge arch' springing from supports at level 29 and rising at 63 degrees to support a pair of parallel two-span continuous bridge girders at Level 41.
The structure of the two-level bridge is conventional framing constructed of structural steel with beams moment-connected to columns which bear on the level 41 continuous girders. The bridge is 58.4 m long and weighs about 750 tonnes. The two-hinge arch supporting the bridge has rotational pins (spherical bearings) at the end of each leg or 'spring point' and at the top or 'crown' of the arch (bearings). The main bridge girders have a rotational (centering) pin directly over the arch crown to permit the crown to rise and fall as the Towers move closer or further apart.
WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS MADE OF?
Petronas towers have 88 floors of reinforced concrete and steel and glass cover.
The external housing is stainless steel. A system of vertical depth, modulates umbrellas forms and produces a three-dimensional facade appropriate for the tropics.
WHAT ARE DIFFERENTS PARTS? Elements of the structure...