High rise mixed use building

H E U C

Project idea

Ethiopia has been among the fastest growing countries in Africa. Growth was led by capital accumulation, in particular through public infrastructure investments. This includes more varied building construction throughout the process. As a developing country, the project idea relates to those processes and provides a place that serves as a varied working environment for the community.

The project aims to adapt commercial activities and provide more opportunities to better serve communities. This includes providing active commercial trends.
Concept-Quality of being one

Singleness, uniqueness, sameness, unity of thought, feeling, belief, aim, etc., is a state or fact of being one undivided.
The idea is the state of joining people as one to work together for their own and for the country's economic development.

Project description

The design project is a high-rise mixed-use office located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, around Mexico Square. is the central commercial corridor of the capital, well known for its active commercial street fronts.
The conceptual approach of this project is to design a simple but effective model of a building with the response of the site analysis. It has an envelope encircling the building tower, expressing a quality and giving response to the harsh sun.

The building has 51 stories and is 240 meters long. This includes exciting programs. In the design, there are 3 podiums with different activities, and they are joined together by a bridge. Podium 1 has four floors above ground, as well as an entertainment area with play rooms and some services. Podium 2 has five floors above ground and gives service and commercial programs. The ground and first level have commercial programs, including different types of shops, a bank, a gym, and a supermarket. From level 2–4 there is hotel service that serves people. Podium 3 has 3 floors above ground and an acoustic podium with two multi-purpose auditoriums that serve as meeting rooms and other uses.
The three podiums were connected to each other by a type of program; podium 1 connected to podium 2 on the 2nd and 5th floors; on the second floor, the connection from the shops and waiting area of podium 1 to the hotel grand entrance of podium 2 was made. and on the 5th floor, from the grand restaurant of podium 2 to the terrace cafeteria of podium 1. The other connection is from the 2nd floor hotel waiting area to the multi-purpose auditorium. These can be used as a cinema program that serves a hotel.

The tower programs include different typologies of office programs. There are low-rise office typologies designed from 7-23 levels. This includes 16 offices, 2 meeting rooms, and a break room. Basically, they are designed for a private or persona's use. On the 24th level, there is a break floor, or refuge floor, designed for the safety of the building. It is found on the 6th, 24th, and 35th levels. It has a refuge room, which is a multi-purpose treatment room for refugees and other health issues. It also has a room for security and cleaning service employees, where they rest and store their equipment.

There are typical double-story offices on levels 25-26 and 36-37. They have 2 shared floors with a single office program. The typical floor is designed for the wide organization office type, where they can use the lower floor for employees and supervisors and the upper floor for managers. At levels 27-34, open offices are found. They are typical free floors that only have a room for managers and the rest of it is open, so the office owners can manage it as they please.
38-49 levels There is a high-rise office typology, including eight high-quality offices. The office typology is different from other types. This includes the office with wide space and its own meeting room and reception. The last levels are 50 and 51. They are combined by programs and used as a terrace. It's a place where people can see the whole town in every direction.

Technical information

The building is focused on addressing sustainability and structural safety through adapting the environmental form. The structural system components used on buildings are pile foundations that are designed to support the tower by way of concrete. The structural columns start from the last basement level up to the 50th level, 220 meters long with an 80 cm diameter. After the 6th level, the columns are braced and formed with other column structures to the 50th level, which gives the columns additional support. Long structural columns of support are placed on the podiums with post-tensioned slabs. There are core structures on the towers that support the building and give vertical access. The main core of the building has 6 elevators with 18–20 person standards, which can take 108 people at once. The core includes 2 service elevators, bathrooms, and service rooms for the building system.

The building has 4 entrances, 2 for vehicular access and the rest for pedestrian access. Also contains basement parking. There are 4 basements. They can take a maximum of 447 parking spaces. In the first basement, there are system rooms.

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