Date17.11.22
CompanyDar
Conferences
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) – the world’s leading non-profit organisation dedicated to researching sustainable vertical urbanism and the future of cities – hosted its annual conference this year in Chicago (9th – 12th November), under the theme “Tall Excellence: Seeking the Ideal in Vertical Urbanism.”
The conference sought to reimagine the traditional understanding of tall buildings in the face of new challenges such as climate change, associated carbon emissions, and ever-increasing demands for better social, economic, and environmental outcomes.
Building on its long partnership with CTBUH, Dar was honoured to join this year’s event as a silver sponsor.
Researching a global accreditation program
Bringing over 1,000 experts together, the conference aimed to raise the bar for tall buildings and choose new pathways for far more sustainable, liveable, and equitable urban spaces. On the sidelines of the conference, CTBUH held a series of workshops dedicated to an important new CTBUH initiative: the establishment of a global accreditation and certification program for both buildings and professionals.
The program is envisioned to assess excellence in multiple areas of tall building performance, including carbon, safety, structural design, quality of occupation, urban integration, and other key performance indicators. The program will also potentially inform a new joined-up code for tall buildings internationally.
Towards an intelligent design of tall buildings: digital strategies for structural workflows, automation, and more
Dar’s delegate Dr. Tarek Hassan – the head of Dar’s structural engineering design unit – joined the conference’s Structure workshop, which focused on the latest innovations, efficiency, and safety in tall building structural design and set the tone for a curated conversation in which specialists discussed the metrics that could be used to measure excellence.
Tarek’s industry talk – titled “Towards an Intelligent Design of Tall Buildings” – presented insights and lessons learned from Dar’s experience designing over 70 concrete towers over the past thirty years and especially over the last decade. Tarek presented research on the structural behaviour of these towers and shared updated formulae that Dar had developed to estimate the total concrete cost of the tower, from as early as the concept stage and with a sufficient degree of accuracy.
During his talk, Tarek also shed light on the ongoing digital strategy for structural workflows and highlighted an automation process for beam and column design integrated with BIM technology. In a case study, Tarek also discussed the different challenges associated with the design of the Iconic Tower, the 385-m-high flagship of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, which will become Africa’s tallest building upon completion.
CTBUH 2022 Awards and the World’s 118 Tallest Buildings
During the course of the conference, Tarek also served as one of the jurors for the CTBUH 2022 Awards Program, which recognises extraordinary contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment in more than 20 categories (best tall building, urban habitat, innovation, renovation, interior design, and more).
Alongside the conference, CTBUH announced the publication of its seminal publication – the World’s 118 Tallest Buildings – showcasing the next generation of skyscrapers taking shape across the globe. CTBUH notes that almost half of the world’s 100 tallest buildings have changed since 2015, the last time the book was published.
The World’s 118 Tallest Buildings features three projects that Dar was proud to have contributed to, namely the 1,000-m Jeddah Tower, the 601-m Makkah Royal Clock Tower, and the New Administrative Capital’s 394-m Iconic Tower.
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