6
NEWS
Images © David Valinksky RENEWABLE POWER Arup’s ‘Tower of Light’
After winning the project in Autumn 2017 alongside architects Tonkin Liu, Arup unveiled Manchester city centre’s new combined heat and power plant, built within a ‘Tower of Light’ structure. Inspired by the natural world and geometric shapes, the 40 metre high structure “prioritises design and architecture excellence while integrating energy effi cient engineering,” said the multi- disciplinary design fi rm. The “striking and iconic” tower supports and encloses chimneys for the city’s low carbon energy centre, serving heating to a district spanning two kilometres. Core to the building is its structural
design, clearly visible from the facade, which is the result of the “latest digital modelling, analysis and fabrication techniques,” and known as a Shell Lace Structure. This method has been pioneered by Arup and Tonkin Liu for over a decade. According to Arup, the ‘Tower of Light’ is
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
the largest built structure using this method to date.
The light and thin single surface structure aims to use as little material as possible without compromising on design, while at the same time improving the building’s sustainability credentials. The fl at steel sheets at the bottom of the tower are between six and eight millimetres thick, and at the top of the tower slim down to just four millimetres. The strength is provided by cut plates which are bent and welded together at the seams, meaning no additional structural support is required. A 63 metre long and four-to six-metre- high street facade structure named the ‘Wall of Energy’ also stands alongside the tower, enclosing the new energy centre. It is made of a tessellated interlocking lozenge tile pattern, which is composed of 1,373 tiles using 31 different tile types “which refl ect and mirror both the busy city centre streets, and the sky,” continued Arup.
It was essential that the building be energy effi cient and provide low-carbon energy to the busy Manchester city centre 2 km radius which it covers, thereby contributing to the city’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2038.
Heat from the engine in the tower is used to create hot water and is distributed through insulated district pipework across the city network, improving the building’s effi ciency by as much as 45%, saving 1,600 tonnes of carbon per year.
And while the building must be lit at all times, due to its dual function as a source of entertainment for passers-by, providing a backdrop of light sequences and animations, this will not impact energy effi ciency, said Arup. The lights are powered by the wind, which causes refl ectors in the tower to move and refl ect sunlight into the tower’s chambers during the day, and by night lights are directed at the refl ectors to have the same effect.
ADF SEPTEMBER 2022
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
