ICC

INTERNATIONAL
COMMERCE
CENTRE
TALL BUILDINGS WORKSHOP

VAISHNAVI.K

1701086

SEMESTER 8

SECTION B
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ABOUT
INTERNATIONAL
COMMERCE CENTRE
The International Commerce Centre represents a shift in the tall

building paradigm to include not only achievements in height,

design, and engineering, but also the most forward-thinking

moves towards connectivity for smart growth in a highly dense

region. KPF’s 118-story tower accommodates offices, a 360

degree observation deck, and one of the world’s highest hotels,

The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong. The tower is the centerpiece of the

Union Square reclamation project, establishing a new urban

center with office, retail, hotel and recreation spaces, as well

as a new transportation hub, Kowloon Station, which connects

to Central, Hong Kong, the International Airport and mainland

China via a network of high speed rail, subway, buses, and ferry

terminals.
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DESIGN & CONCEPT

The building has been designed with tapered re-entrant
nooks and slanted arcs at the base, which optimise the
structural performance. These curves are spread outwards
and create canopies on three sides of the structure. An
atrium on the north side provides space for retail and rail
station functions.

LOCATION

Hong Kong, China

CLIENT

Sun Hung Kai Properties

TEAM

Wong & Ouyang (Associate Architect),

LTW Design Works (Interior Designer,

Hotel)

TYPE

Hospitality, Mixed-Use, Office, Retail,

Supertall

SIZE

260,200 m2 / 2,800,000 ft2

HEIGHT

484 m / 1,587 ft

UNITS

300 Rooms
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ROWAN MOORE,
ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW'S

If Miami is a city of
surfaces, of pink
plaster and deco
doodahs, this building
is skeletal, naked
 PAGE 5

STRUCTURAL SYSTEM
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS

Construction was started in 2002 following a number of design

changes to the originally planned ‘world’s tallest’ tower by the

architects Kohn Pederson and Fox of New York, US, in

September 2001. The old design had a 100m pyramidal top that

included a transparent atrium, which would have raised the

structure’s height to 580m. The construction was completed in

2010.

The developer took the decision to re-design the tower mainly

due to new height restrictions imposed by the planning

department in the areas around Victoria Harbour. These

restrictions are in place to keep buildings from rising higher

than nearby mountains.

The new design is a square 484m tower with 118 floors and

270,000m ² of office space, retail areas, serviced apartments,

hotel space and car parking facilities
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iNTERNATIONAL COMMERCE CENTRE

ENGINEERING
The façade for the building comprises triple-glazed, glass

curtain wall panels and lacquered aluminium panels. The

building is of a traditional construction with steel and site cast

reinforced concrete framework / columns, along with a site

cast reinforced concrete core section, housing services and

elevator shafts. The floor sections include a steel deck with

concrete overlay.
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VERTICAL CIRCULATION
With a projected daily occupancy of 30,000 workers and visitors,

ICC is a virtual city within a city. To meet the challenge of moving

this vast population through the tower, the Architects conceived

the tower's internal circulation as a vertical extension of Kowloon

Station. A multi-level lobby connecting the various transportation

modes filters different user types and directs them to a system of

local elevators and high-speed shuttles to sky lobbies for the upper

office floors, observation gallery, and hote Commuters

approaching by metro or Airport Express are led through the

Elements shopping mall to arrive in the tower atrium, where a

three-tier system of cascading escalators divides the office

population evenly between local and shuttle elevators, upper deck

and lower deck. ICC features the latest in elevator technology,

including the world's first application of destination-dispatch,

double deck elevators. An integrated building operating system

linking the turnstile smartcard reader to the dispatch system assigns

commuters to the elevator that will transport them to their assigned

floor in the shortest interval. To address the tower's immense

population and multiple functions, vehicular drop-offs are

organized vertically in multiple layers. Buses and public vehicles

enter at street level, while an elevated station perimeter road

provides accesses to the different transport modes. Private vehicles

ascend to the station roof, where an exclusive drop-off for the

office anchor tenants and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel are sited on the

promontory overlooking Victoria Harbor.

 PAGE 8

VERTICAL PHASING
The tower's vertical organization facilitated the construction

of ICC in multiple stages. ICC is the largest project ever to

be vertically phased. An image of the tower under

construction shows the lower zones occupied, the middle

zones enclosed for fit-out, and the upper floors still under

construction. The multiple ground planes-street, podium

roof, sky lobbies - provided the temporary work platforms

that enabled this complex engineering feat to be

undertaken by Sanfield, the construction subsidiary of Sun

Hung Kai Properties. When the first tenants moved in, the

south and west quadrants of the tower base were used as

construction staging areas for the upper tower levels.

Concrete trucks docked at a pumping station in what would

later become the hotel lobby. Cranes lifted steel beams

onto the future tenant drop-off directly from flat bed trucks

idling at street level. Building maintenance units moved on

temporary tracks at the sky lobby, to be lifted up and

installed at the tower crown upon completion. Delivering

the project in phases provided the developer with early

returns on investment. Also, timed release of smaller

quantities of office space minimized the developer's risk of

saturating the market. Critically, the first phase of the tower

provided the initial pool of workers needed to populate and

bring vitality to the KSD's public spaces and large retail

mall.
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FIRE SAFETY
CONCERNS
Fire safety requirements for supertall

buildings in Hong Kong follow either a

prescriptive approach or a

performance-based approach.

Differences between the two

approaches can be illustrated by the

fire detection and alarm systems of

two supertall buildings. In Supertall

Building A (412 meters, completed in

2003), the fire detection system is

divided by four refuge floors to form

EVACUATION
five zones. Fire alarms will sound in the
Different approaches and standards are used in

whole building if any fire detectors in evaluating evacuation systems:Staircase reliability

In high-rise buildings around the world, evacuees

any one zone is actuated On the other
may flee through protected staircases, external
hand,the fire detection system of windows,or via adjacent buildings in some cases.

However, evacuees in supertall buildings in Hong

Supertall BuildingB (484 meters,
Kongcan only rely on staircases, since only staircases
completed in 2010) is divided into four
are accepted by the Hong Kong Authority as a

zones: hotel office, podium, and means of escape.Therefore, the reliability of

staircases is paramount in ensuring the safety of

basement. When a detector is
occupants. Nevertheless, prescriptive staircases do

activated, only alarms on the fire floor, not always guarantee effective evacuation.

one floor below and two floors above

The concept of refuge areas/floors

the fire floor will be actuated. Alert The concept of refuge floors was introduced to

Hong Kong in 1996. According to the Hong Kong Fire

messages will be broadcast on non-
Safety Code, refuge floors are mandatory for non-

affected floors in the same zone and industrial buildings higher than 25 stories, industrial

buildings higher than 20 stories, and residential

other unaffected zones (Whittall 2012).
buildings exceeding 40 stories. By using an

Fire alarms in other zones will not be intermediate refuge floor within a certain numberof

floors, occupants couldreach a temporary place of

actuated unless total evacuation is
safety within10 floors. On the otherhand, many

required (see Figure 3). Despite the international firecodes stipulate the requirement of

an areaof refuge (about 1.5x

differences between alarm zoning and
1.5 meter locatedat the protected staircase) for the

actuation scope, both approaches temporary safety of people with disabilities.

However, cautionhas to be paid if

were accepted by the local authority.

an area of refuge is used in calculating total
evacuation time (TET) or RSET. Evacueesmay be
reluctant to wait for rescue on a refuge floor after
thecollapse of the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001.
However,the shaft configurations of supertall buildings
In the HongKong Fire Safety Codeat least 50% of
the gross floorarea on a refugefloor shall be
designated as a placeof refuge.
However, if the occupancy factorof 4.5 m2/ person
for a typical residential development is adopted,
the occupancy factorof the refuge floors wouldbe
0.22 m2/person. If a greater occupancy factor,
such as 1 m2/person in restaurants and 0.5
m2/person in a banking hall as stated in the code
adopted in some supertall buildings such as theSupertall
is considered, there would be too manyevacuees
on the refuge floor. Therefore, the prescriptive
refuge area calculation in supertall building should
be further studied.
HongKong Fire Services Department (FSD) has issueda
Counter flow problem
Clashing between emergency responders and
evacuees may increase the time for rescue and
evacuation (SFPE 2012). For this reason, a
“hydraulic flow” approach (Chow 2006) may not be
applicable in estimating the evacuation time of
occupants with different physical strengths (Kady
& Davis2009). To ensure safe evacuation, clashing
has to be incorporated in thecalculations. Indeed,
the NFPA 5000 has pointed out this deficiency.
What’s more, the China Fire Code incorporates
clashing in the calculation of evacuation time
consequences unique to supertalls. For
Lift evacuation
Apartfrom traditional means of evacuation via
stairs,lift evacuation couldbe an effective
alternative. There are standards on evacuation
using lifts. However, more research on validating
Also, the use of fixedfire pumps for the fire hydrant/hose
the reliability and effectiveness of lift evacuation
has to be conducted, particularly in supertall
buildings, in order to be accepted by the
HongKong authority.
portable pumps to deliver firefighting water.
Law enforcement in evacuations
Effective evacuation relies on unobstructed means
specificmeasures to maintainthe suppression strength in
of escape (MoE)with adequate width and an
ordered evacuation. Although the width of MoE in
supertall buildings is regulated by the HongKong
Fire Safety Code, the authority, owners, anall MoE
in supertall buildings are free from obstruction
and combustibles. In addition, change in use and
structural alterations of buildings have to be
approved by the building authority in advance
becauseit may lead to increases in occupant
load,travel distance,and fire load.
d/or facility managers of supertall
buildings should ensure
PAGE 10
Fire Detection and Alarm
It is understood that if a fire is detected early, the RSET
would be decreased. The increased margin of safety is
based on the assumption that occupants were safe
whenall of them entered the protected staircase.
pose a challenge. Moreevacuees would be queuing to
enter the escape routes in a supertall than in
conventional buildings. To maintain the same levelof
RSET and the safetymargin, detection time in supertall
buildings has to be shortened withbetter alarm zoning.
In addition, it is suggested that evacuating some floors
above andbelow the firefloor by means of a zoned
detection and alarm system may alleviate congestion in
the MoE (Bukowski 2010). This approach has been
Building B in HongKong (see Figure4).
As the reliability of fire detection and alarm systemsis
crucial to the effectiveness of such an approach, the
circular letter specifying measures to be carriedout in
case of shutdown or repairof detection andalarm
systems, such as the provision of standalone smoke
detectors in buildings adopting performance-based
design. Additional firefighting staff and equipment are
also deployed and more frequent patrolling intervals
areimposed.
Fire Suppression
The provisionof fire suppression systems in supertall
buildings requires additional attention in Hong Kong.
Suppression systems might have unintended
example,sprinkler water might cool down hot smoke
while stack effectmight cause smokelogging.
Therefore, the suppression philosophy in supertall
building has to be revisited.
reel (FH/HR) systemto replace intermediate
boosterpumps may lower the reliability of the
FH/HRsystem in supertall buildings. If both of the
FH/HRpumps fail, firefighters have to manually lift heavy
For this reason, the Hong KongFSD imposed
supertall buildings. First, fast response sprinkler heads
are installed in special hazard areas.Also, owners of fire
service installations (FSIs) are obligedto employ a
registered FSI contractor to inspect the FSIs of their
buildings at least onceevery 12 months. Moreover,
periodicmaintenance and functional tests during
jointexercise/drills are conducted between the building
management and FSD personnel.
Fire Service Intervention
Fire service intervention can be discussedin terms of
means of access (MoA)and active suppression by
firefighters

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Smoke and Fire Spread

Buoyancy, stackeffect, and ambientwind have

determining effectson fire growth, particularly at high

level. In addition, higher fire risk, the acceleration of

fire and smoke spread, and the aggravation of fire

damage due to characteristics of supertall buildings

must be investigated.

The validity of smoke movement andcontrol deduced

by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software is

often subjectto challenge, since they are predicted by

numerical approximation. Even if the softwarecould

be well verified, considering all fire dynamicsin

supertall buildings (e.g., stackeffect, external wind

Supertall buildings have extremely high loading,and fire whirl) in a single fire model to

façades which are out of reach of aerial generate a converged result could be a

ladders. Therefore, additional fire safety greatchallenge.

requirements are imposed by worldwide

building codes. For example, NFPA 5000

He and Beck (1996) interpreted stack effect as “the
and the Hong KongFire Safety Code require
pressure difference that can be experienced between
the distance between an emergency
an enclosure and its surroundings if the air
vehicular access (EVA) andfire service
temperature insidethe building is different from that
accesspoint should not be longer than10
outside.” Scholars assert that stack effect may affect
meters and 18 meters respectively. Apart

fromthe distance, the width of EVA for new smoke movement. For example, pressuriza- tion of

buildings should be no morethan 4 staircases is supertall buildings in Hong Kong and

metersand 7.3 metersas required by the should be pressurized to 50 Pa. However, the pressure

ChinaFire Code and Hong Kong Fire

difference betweenground floor and the roof dueto
SafetyCode, respectively. However, the
the stack effect in supertall buildings may be up to 1
provision of a reliable rescue staircase and
kPa. Therefore, usingCFD modeling to predict
stairway may be evenmore crucial to fire
smokemovement in a vertical shaft shouldbe cautious
service intervention, thoughfirefighters may
(Zhanget al. 2006; Zhao &Chow 2009).
need some time to reach the uppermost

floor of a supertall building by staircase.

The Buildings Department of Hong Konghas issued the

Fireman liftsare required in tall and supertall Code of Practiceon Wind Effects in Hong Kong 2004

buildings for the conveyance of manpower whichaddresses structural stability of a building

and equipment to the firefloor. The Hong façade. Nevertheless, the effect of natural wind to
Kong Fire Safety Code stipulates the
smoke and flame spread is not discussed, not to
dimension, rated load, and speed of a
mention the effect of natural wind on a refuge floor.
fireman’s lift. Nevertheless, there is no
As high windspeed may accelerate fire growth in
additional requirement for fireman’slift in
supertall buildings, empirical study on natural wind
supertall buildings despite more manpower
effect to ventilation-controlled fire growth and smoke
and equipment.

spread is necessary.
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SERVICES-HVAC
 PAGE 13

The Hong Kong International Commerce Centre (ICC) is the tallest building
in Hong Kong and the seventh tallest building in the world, as ranked by
the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Rising 484 meters (1,588
feet) above Kowloon Station, the ICC offers more than 270,000 square
meters (2.9 million square feet) of office, exhibition, conference, and hotel
space.
The highest hotel in the world, the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong, occupies the
top sixteen floors of the ICC. The uppermost story—the 118th—is home
to the world’s highest bar and swimming pool. A critical piece of the
engineering puzzle, therefore, was to ensure that hotel guests remain
comfortable during high wind events.
Hong Kong’s wind climate is one of the world’s most unique. Tall buildings
share space with impressive topography and a wide harbor, and typhoons
occur regularly. The world-renowned engineering consultants at Arup
hired CPP to find out how wind would affect ICC occupants and to answer
key questions about the tower’s response to typhoon-force winds.
To understand the wind climate, CPP’s engineers and atmospheric
scientists first measured wind speeds on a 1:4,000 scale topographical
model of the Hong Kong area. Measuring wind speeds and turbulence
levels right at the ICC construction site gave us the information we needed
to correctly model the approach winds that would influence the building’s
design.
CPP’s structural experts then designed and built a 1:500 scale model of
the ICC and all buildings and structures within a 710 meter (2,300 foot)
radius. We measured wind loads and characterized the ICC’s structural
behavior using our boundary layer wind tunnel in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Our engineers examined data for several candidate building designs,
including the one that the design team ultimately chose to build.
Our engineers demonstrated that the ICC’s occupants would not
experience enough wind-induced building movement to cause
discomfort, and we delivered critical information about the typhoon-
induced wind loads that the ICC’s internal frame would need to withstand.
Construction on the ICC began in 2002 and was completed in 2010. CPP is
proud to have played a critical role in the development of this historic
structure.