As Hong Kong's gigantic International Commerce Centre (ICC) takes shape, production for some of the tower's 80-plus elevators is underway at Schindler's EBI Works in Switzerland.
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The ICC will boast some of Schindler's most impressive products, including 40 "double deck" elevators, and 18 high-speed ones. These, and more, will be needed to cope with traffic in the tower, which will eventually stretch half a kilometre into the sky.
"For the first stage everything is defined to the day," says Ivo Häfliger, ICC project manager at EBI Works. And so it needs to be because the building's first tenants are due to move into the lower floors by the end of 2007.
They will spend almost two years working in a "growing" building, as floors above are continually added until completion, scheduled for 2009.
Tallest in the world
The ICC is a project of superlatives. One of the four tallest structures in the world; it will eventually contain 83 elevators and 41 escalators. Taken together, its elevator shafts will stretch more than 14 kilometres, and the double-decks speeding up and down the tower will reach velocities of 9 m/s.
Unusually for a skyscraper, the ICC has a flat top, which means elevators will literally reach the roof. The longest run for a double-deck elevator will be an impressive 396m, but one service/fire-fighter elevator will have a staggering 474m run – almost the entire height of the vast tower, which stretches to 490m, with 118 floors.
Logistical challenge
Getting so many elevators – and the machines that will eventually move them - from Switzerland to Hong Kong is an immense logistical challenge in itself. The components for first 20 double-deck elevators are due to arrive by summer 2007, including double-deck cars and immensely powerful elevator machines (see "Monster machine gets light-blue coat" below).
Jump lifts
Elevators are also helping in the construction, with so-called "jump lifts" ferrying material upwards as the tower takes shape. Schindler is providing eight of these.
Keeping people moving in this vast urban space will be the job of Schindler's traffic management system. Using complex algorithms, it calculates which elevator will reach which floor fastest, and directs passengers to the car taking the most direct route to their floor.
Elevators are equipped with "E-vision", which allows entertainment to be projected into the cabin.
More on the ICC:
Monster machine gets light-blue coat
Reference Projects
Heron Tower, London
Begovaya Tower, Moscow
ICC, Hong Kong
Federation Tower, Moscow
CMA-CGM Tower, Marseille
WTC3 Beijing
Begovaya Tower, Moscow
ICC, Hong Kong
Federation Tower, Moscow
CMA-CGM Tower, Marseille
WTC3 Beijing
Additional Topics
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