Institution news
Adjacent to Hong Kong where Hong Kong Branch is based, Guangdong Province of China is a vibrant and thriving economy which contributes the largest share of gross domestic product of the People’s Republic.
Its sheer economic development has compelled its provincial capital, Guangzhou, to pursue even greater building heights for satisfying the ever growing appetite for commercial spaces. Standing by the stream of the central Guangzhou Pearl River, and opposite the famous Canton Tower, the Guangzhou Chow Tai Fook Finance Centre (CTF Finance Centre) offers Guangzhou the much needed floors for premium offices, shopping arcade and hotel with its 530 m of height from the ground level, linked by the world’s fastest lift supplied by Hitachi of Japan.
The impressive CTF Centre not only is the fifth tallest building in the world, but also well-known of the marvellous engineering design for minimising stack effect and operating the bullet-speed Hitachi lift at 20 m/s.
View across Guangzhou and the canton Tower from the CTF Finance Centre
Stack effect, which exists in all buildings, impedes elevator door operability and causes whistling. CTF Centre has optimised door arrangements and heating, ventilating and air-conditioning operating regime to alleviate the frequency and severity of the undesirable stack effect impacts. The Hitachi lift, endowed with state-of-the-art safety, energy and space efficient and passenger comfort features, enables high-speed traveling in skyscrapers, setting a new standard of lift travel.
Exploring the engineering
Mr. Aaron Wong, China Sub-Committee Chairman of Hong Kong Branch who championed the eye-opening cross-boundary visit, remarked,
“Our visit to CTF Centre is the fruit of the kindness and convenience rendered by the host, who is our fellow IMechE member. He once joined one of our technical visits and was impressed by the inspirations of such activities brought to the participants. Leveraging his position in the CTF Centre project, he proactively offered a technical visit to us. We are grateful to him for his hospitality, and this is how all fellow IMechE members can help each other even with small help of ‘open house’. A tip of favour could benefit many.”
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to New World China for inviting RWDI and Hitachi to conduct the inspiring seminars and arranging the memorable site visit and tour.