COMING OUT ON TOP

摘要

How do you add an extra 11 storeys onto a 30-storey tower block without substantially increasing existing structure or adding any additional foundations? This is the question that structural engineers AKTII have ingeniously answered at South Bank Tower in London's Southwark. The South Bank Tower was originally called King's Reach Tower when it was initially completed in 1972. Designed by pre-eminent 1960s and 70s high-rise architect Richard Seifert, who also designed London's Centre Point, it was built by what was then known as John Laing Construction. The 111m-high office block was typical of the podium-and-slab design that characterised much of post-war high-rise building in the UK and elsewhere. The tower itself was a concrete frame with externally expressed precast concrete columns. This arrangement makes it similar to Seifert's other, much more famous work, the former NatWest Tower across the river in the City of London, although with its flabby proportions the South Bank Tower was a much dumpier effort.