Going up

With the average height of buildings in the region reaching more than 50 storeys, climbing stairs has never been more out of fashion. James Boley looks at designing in vertical transport.

In a region that's become accustomed to a certain level of pampering, it should come as no surprise that lifts or elevators-called ‘vertical transportation' (VT) throughout the industry-have become ubiquitous throughout the Gulf.

They're as essential a component to buildings as the front door, yet getting the design of a VT shaft wrong can have a dramatic effect on the building's functionality.

Whether they're arriving to the office or returning home, people need to be able to move quickly through a tower. If they're unable to do so, continued congestion will warrant them finding another building in which to conduct their business-not exactly the building owner's desired effect.

Adding to this important challenge is the increasing popularity of the supertall tower, which makes VT even more critical. "What if the guy in the penthouse suite at the top of the Burj Dubai wants to have a pizza delivered?" asks Kerry Galbraith, head of the Structural Department for KEO International Consultants.

Though said in jest, Galbraith's concern shows how even the most mundane requirements demand a well-thought out VT system. So how do architects ensure that the penthouse owner gets a steaming hot Margherita or Meat Lovers with minimum fuss?

Start at the bottom

Facetiousness aside, the question of pizza delivery helps illustrate why a building needs to have a well-designed structural framework for a VT system. Getting the basics right needs to be done at the very early stages of design.

"The technical design-which is to do with specs of the elevator, i.e. the shaft dimensions-would happen early on in the design of the building," says Mamdouh Shehata, general manager of ThyssenKrupp.

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