I made this thread to solve the mistery of the construction process of suspended buildings, of which you can find many in Singapore.

From my researches I think the first suspended skyscraper built in the world is Standard Bank Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa, finished in 1970.
http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=103537
http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/664/2395standard_bank_1.jpg

This building has some striking similarities with DBS Bank Building and CPF Tower in Singapore. From the description, they say it was built top to bottom ! Meaning the core was completed first, then the storeys were built starting from the top one down to the street level.
You can notice that Standard Bank Centre central core is somewhat protuding, as is the core of CPF building.

A list of the major suspended buildings of Singapore:
- OCBC Centre (1976)
- DBS Building Tower one (1975)
- CPF Building (1976)
- Shaw Tower (1974).

OCBC Centre is the only one that I know of that is for sure suspended, and uses two separate cores.
It is not impossible that some more modern buildings use a similar technique, such as OUB Centre and Parkview Square. Those also have two cores on the side, but I don't know how the floor plates are related to the sides.
The advantage of building a suspended skyscraper around a single core is not obvious to me. If you use two cores, then you can have a very large floor plate area in between that is free of columns. So you can have a very open space and you can easily change the configuration to suit the tenants.

Here are some pics of the construction of the Singapore suspended towers.

Shaw Tower:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007388-8263-3201-0893/img0022.jpg
(probably taken at the very beginning of the seventies).

DBS and CPF:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007449-8263-3201-0180/img0019.jpg
This pic must have been taken in 1973 or 1974.

CPF, DBS and OCBC:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/2/103shenton70s.jpg

DBS and CPF, probably taken from old UOB.
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007450-8263-3201-0181/img0110.jpg

You can notice that for every construction state in the beginning, the core is very protuding from the floors. I believe this is because they have the structure supporting the groups of floor hanging from a higher point of the core. So before starting to build a new group of floors, the core has to have reeched the maximal height of this group already.

OCBC Centre:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007388-8263-3201-0893/img0023.jpg
Here you can see quite clearly a kind of ladder that is hanging on the internal sides of the cores, and which is used to support the floors.
This being said, it seems that for all those towers in Singapore (including Shaw, the earliest one), the floors have been built from bottom to top, unlike the Standard Bank of Johannesburg.

OCBC Centre, taken from International Plaza, I think:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007450-8263-3201-0181/img0111.jpg
This pic is very interesting ! If you look carefully, you can see that this construction method allows to start building a new group of floors BEFORE the floors just under from the lower group are finished. We can see through the gap of OCBC here :-)

DBS, CPF and OCBC nearly finished:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007451-8263-3201-0182/img0031.jpg
You can see the protuding cores. The one of DBS is partly hidden with some architectural features. The cores of OCBC are integrated into a bridge set above the last group of floors, so you can't really call them protuding. Only CPF's one is much taller than the last floor for some reason. There is still a crane on top of CPF here, but we can't see any special equipment explaining why the core of this tower, as well as the one of Standard Bank Centre is so high.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any pic of the construction of the South African Tower, nor any explanation of the construction process of towers of this kind. They seem to be a rather important part of Singapore's high rise architecture history, so I thought it would be interesting to create a thread about it.
I would be glad to hear from you if you have some comments or can add some explanations (or better, explanatory pics ^^ ) to solve the mistery ;-)

quite true..so many buildings in the 70s had this design

also, the UIC Building

I wonder why they dont build them like that anymore

As for CPF Building, I am guessing that leaving the core sticking out so much gives room for adding a few more floors?^^

It is not impossible that some more modern buildings use a similar technique, such as OUB Centre and Parkview Square. Those also have two cores on the side, but I don't know how the floor plates are related to the sides.
The advantage of building a suspended skyscraper around a single core is not obvious to me. If you use two cores, then you can have a very large floor plate area in between that is free of columns. So you can have a very open space and you can easily change the configuration to suit the tenants.


OUB Centre under construction (1985/6)

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19990001308-8346-3102-2031/img0074.jpg

What does it mean by suspended?
Can someone summarise?

I mean that instead of having a structure where each floor rests on the one below, or where every floor would be attached individually to the core, those buildings have groups of storeys hanging together from a point situated at a upper part of the building.

I think you can get a rather clear idea of this looking at this first building I put a photograph of. You can clearly see the supporting beams at the top, and the kind of ropes going down from the beams, where the floor are attached.

If you look at OCBC you will see the design is similar.

But in OCBC its 2 cores

in the others it is 1 core

I think the loads work differently right?

Yes. Obviously, for OCBC, there has to be some structure to support the weight of the floorplates between the cores... I don't know exactly how this works !

Here is another photo of OCBC showing my point about the groups of floors:
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007450-8263-3201-0181/img0079.jpg

Those two show DBS construction (CPF is the lower one).
http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980002718-8154-3221-0918/img0118.jpg

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980007447-8263-3201-0177/img0103.jpg
From this last one it seems that DBS may not be a suspended building after all. You can see columns rising from the upper floorplates. It seems a bit surprising but maybe it is just mimicking an architectural style ??

FYI, you can achieve large columnless open spaces with a centralised service core as well. Think WTC. Its uses a central core and structural outer skin to achieve large open plans. Ken Yeang does plan his service cores at the sides of his buildings to keep glaring sunlight from penetrating into the interiors. Conceptual models like Japan's 100m x 100m office complex also have services running around the edges of the plan. Its not something new or uncomon.

Is Temasek considered one such building?

No idea, do you have some construction pics ?

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980006079-8154-3221-1933/img0073.jpg
No columns! Only the core supporting the buidling.
At 236m, it is the tallest cylindircal buidling in the world, and the tallest govenment built skyscraper in Singapore! :D

Interesting.
But no, it doesn't belong to the same category with CPF or OCBC :-)
It seems that the core is rather massive. I didn't know it was built by the Singapore government :-)

used to be called the Treasury Building

When was that picture taken?

1985 or 1986 :)

Thanks.

Singapore's coastline looks so different now.....:yes:

Singapore changes a lot

Hmmm...from the looks of it, OUB does not seem to be a suspended skyscraper.

Temasek's engeneering is quite amazing if you ask me.:)

Hmmm...from the looks of it, OUB does not seem to be a suspended skyscraper.

Temasek's engeneering is quite amazing if you ask me.:)

Amazing in what sense?? :?

The cantilevered floor plates, so huge...

I mean, it looks quite impossible, considering the floors are large sheets of steel and concrete, won't they break undert their own weight?