British Designed 365m Tower is Underway

London. 8 August 2017.

Construction of Istanbul’s 356m high Küçük Çamlıca TV Tower (KCTV), with facades devised by UK building engineering designers Newtecnic, has commenced. When the futuristic building is completed the £36m structure will be the city’s tallest replacing several unsightly existing broadcast towers.

As part of its work, Newtecnic developed an innovative facade concept that allows inhabitable spaces to be attached to the whole of the tower’s core. Newtecnic CEO Andrew Watts explained the significance of the design, “Because of the complexity and cost of building, towers of this height normally have accommodation only at the top. Using specially developed algorithms we devised a design that allows lightweight pre-fabricated glass reinforced concrete (GRC) panels to be attached all the way up the central column. These hang like a curtain and are securely clipped to the main central core to create large interior spaces”.

The tower which will host 125 broadcasting transmitters is expected to attract 4.5 million annual visitors and become a new city landmark. The design which incorporates restaurants, exhibition and meeting spaces, two high level observation decks and a panoramic elevator was wind tunnel tested. This allowed Newtecnic to develop accurately sized facade components from the first stage studies. It also provided the data to optimise the envelope build-up and obtain an accurate understanding of the impact of the facade loads on the structural behaviour of the concrete structure. This was crucial to ensure integrity and long term reliability as the tower is sited on a hill and will, when complete, reach 580m above sea level. Newtecnic engineered the facade to more than double its life to 60 years.

Andrew Watts Said, “The envelope system was designed to minimise installation time and uses an innovative method that integrates thin GRC rainscreen panels, stiffened by a steel frame. This is fixed directly to a backing wall that incorporates integrated glazed openings”.

3D printing was used to produce components for structural and assembly testing and Newtecnic’s Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis ensured that numerous design iterations could be quickly assessed and verified.

Newtecnic’s engineering expertise is in high demand around the world and the company is currently working on several era-defining buildings for international clients. Andrew Watts concluded, “We are proud to see our work on dramatic and intriguing structures contributing prestige and value to UK export success.”