amazing building

TENERIFE CONCERT HALL

This concert hall is designed by Santiago Calatrava, which is known for such landmarks as the City of Arts (Valencia), the Montjuic Communications Tower (Barcelona) and BCE Place (Toronto). The auditorium is located on the waterfront in the port area of Santa Cruz, tenerife and connects the city to the ocean, creates a significant urban landmark. The concert hall features the architect’s signature wing effect – a single wing that seems to enfold the building without covering it entirely.The all-concrete building is characterized by the dramatic sweep of its roof. Rising off the base like a crashing wave, the roof soars to a height of 58 meters over the main auditorium before curving downward and narrowing to a point. The building's plinth forms a public plaza covering the site and allows for changes in grade between the different levels of the adjacent roads.

The complex contains of 6,741 m² auditorium and administrative building with a public plaza and parking below. The auditorium includes two concert venues. The main hall seats 1,800 with features a stage area 14 m deep and a proscenium 15 m high. There is also a chamber music hall with seating for 400 . Wide arches, spanning 50 meters on each side, serve as the artists' entrance. The main public access to the auditorium is placed on the raised plaza to the northeast, beneath the curved and sculpted concrete shell of the roof. Although administrative and service areas and the central auditorium are air-conditioned, public foyers and circulation areas profit from the island's pleasant climate; as it is naturally ventilated airflow through the glazed areas beneath and between the building's concrete shells.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION:

Wing Construction

The overhanging wing was prefabricated in Seville and shipped to the island in 17 pieces, the largest weighing 60 tons (54,000 kilograms). They were similar to components more commonly used in bridges. The wing was lifted into place by a specially made crane from Valencia, which has a capacity of 2,400 tons (two million kilograms).

The wing was designed to be supported on only five points. Once in place, it was filled with white concrete made locally from a combination of river sand brought from the Spanish peninsula and the coarser Tenerife sand. In all, 2000 tons (1.8 million kilograms) of concrete went into the building.

During construction, temporary ramparts supported the workers as they fastened triangular sheets of glass onto a hall ceiling. At the height of construction, there were four 150-foot- (45-meter-) high cranes and four 33-foot- (10-meter-) high cranes in operation.

Hall Interiors

The smaller hall, ideal for chamber music, has seating for an audience of 410; the larger symphonic hall seats 1668. The original design for the symphonic stage was expanded to include 22-square-foot (2-square-meter) modules that are individually movable by a hydraulic system.

The symphony hall has a "variable" acoustic system. Surface materials are solid pressed wood covered with fiberglass. This assembly has "windows" that open and close, exposing either the fiberglass material or the wood, depending on the acoustical requirements of the event. The back walls of the chamber music hall are covered with horizontal wood slats, with fiberglass behind them.

The two performance halls are equipped with air-conditioning outlets below the seats. Cool air comes up from spaces below, eliminating the need for HVAC installations that would disturb the clean lines of the halls. The two halls are separated by a shared, open lobby that creates an acoustical separation so events can be held simultaneously in both.

After the building's official opening in September, 2003, events already scheduled are as diverse as Handel's opera Julius Caesar and the International Water Association Conference. In time, the building itself may become an event, bringing architectural sightseers to Tenerife.

A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothetical bridge or tunnel spanning the relatively narrow and shallow Bering Strait between the Chukotka Peninsula in Russia and the Seward Peninsula in Alaska. In principle, the bridge or tunnel would provide an overland connection linking Asia with North America, although there is little infrastructure in the nearby parts of ASince the two Diomede Islands are between the peninsulas, the Bering Strait could be spanned by three bridges. Two long bridges, each almost 40-km long, would connect the mainland on each side to one island, and a third much shorter one between the two islands, giving a total distance of about 80 km (50 miles). The two long bridges would each be longer than the 35-km Hangzhou Ba Bridge, currently the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world. The construction of such a bridge or tunnel would face unprecedented engineering, political, and financial challengelaska and Russia.It proposes a series of artificial islands that form two archipelagos extending the two continents, and three tunnels connecting the two Diomede islands and the archipelagos.The depth of the waters themselves offer little challenge, as the strait runs no deeper than 180 ft (55 m). The tides and currents in the area are not severe.However, the route would lie just south of the Arctic Circle, subject to long, dark winters and extreme weather (average winter lows −20 °C (−4 °F) with possible lows approaching −50 °C (−58 °F)), and so building activity is restricted to five months out of the year.The weather also poses challenges to exposed steel. In Lin's design, concrete covers all structures, both to simplify maintenance and to offer additional stiffening.

Bishop Rock Lighthouse stands on a rock ledge 46m long by 16m wide, 4 miles west of the Scilly Isles. The rocks rise sheer from a depth of 45m and are exposed to the full force of the Atlantic Ocean making this one of the most hazardous and difficult sites for the building of a lighthouse.The rocks around the Scilly Isles caused the wreck of many ships over the years including the loss of Sir Cloudesley Shovel's squadron of the British Fleet in 1707 in which 2,000 men died. The Elder Brethren of Trinity House decided that the lighting of the Scilly Isles, which at that time consisted of only the old lighthouse at St. Agnes, was inadequate, and resolved to build a lighthouse on the most westerly danger, the Bishop Rock.James Walker, Engineer in Chief to Trinity House, was against building a solid granite tower arguing that the rock ledge was too small and the elements too powerful, being exposed as it was to the full force of the Atlantic ocean. Walker demonstrated that the wind pressures at times exceeded 7,000 lb per sq.ft, and as many as 30 gales a year were not unusual in the area.Thus in 1847, it was decided to erect a screw-pile lighthouse at a cost of £12,000. The first task was to sink cast iron legs into the solid granite, braced and stayed with wrought iron rods. The designer maintained that the waves would be able to roll freely among the piles instead of being obstructed by the solid mass of masonry tower. When work was suspended at the end of 1849 the building was complete all but the installation of the lighting apparatus. Before it could be completed the following season, a heavy gale swept away the whole structure on the evening of 5th February 1850.Undismayed by the failure of the first lighthouse, James Walker once again turned to the idea of a granite tower based upon Smeaton's Eddystone. After surveying the site, he finally chose a small but solid mass giving room for a base 10m in diameter. The surface waves constantly swept over the site, and indeed the lowest blocks had to be laid a third of a metre beneath low water mark. A heavy coffer dam was erected around the site and the water within pumped out, so that the masons might be able to work on a dry rock face. Each granite block, weighing from one to two tons, was set into its preselected position, and each course dovetailed and keyed into position at the sides, top and the bottom thus forming an immovable mass. The workmen were housed on a small nearby uninhabited islet, where living quarters and workshops were erected. The men were carried to and from the site as the weather permitted. Working spells were brief, as well as being few and far between, and after seven years labour the tower was finally completed. All the granite was despatched from the mainland to the island depot where it was shaped and numbered before being sent to the rock. In all the 35 m tower contained 2,500 tons of dressed granite and cost £34,560. The light was first exhibited on 1st September 1858. During one particularly powerful storm, waves rolled up on the side of the lighthouse and tore away the 550lb fog bell from its fastenings on the gallery.

worlds longest bridge

Tallest in the world and taller than the Eiffel Tower, slung across the valley of the river Tarn, the Viaduct de Millau (Viaduc de Millau) is the chosen solution for taking the A75 motorway from Clermont-Ferraud south to Beziers. This is cheaper than the alternative of tunnelling through the hills flanking the river, and will shorten the journey by 100 km and by up to 4 hours in the holiday season, as well as removing much traffic pollution caused by continual traffic jams for local inhabitants in Millau. The Millau Viaduct is currently the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

It has a steel deck, rather than the more usual concrete roadbed.The bridge is now sometimes being used for extreme sports such as base jumping or rapelling..The Millau viaduct consists of an eight-span steel roadway supported by seven concrete pylons. The roadway weighs 36,000 tonnes (40,000 short tons) and is 2,460 m (8,070 ft) long, measuring 32 m (105 ft) wide by 4.2 m (14 ft) deep, making it the world's longest cable-stayed deck. The six central spans each measure 342 m (1,122 ft) with the two outer spans measuring 204 m (669 ft). The roadway has a slope of 3% descending from south to north and curves in a plane section with a 20 km (12 mi) radius to give drivers better visibility. The pylons range in height from 77 m (253 ft) to 246 m (807 ft), and taper in their longitudinal section from 24.5 m (80 ft) at the base to 11 m (36 ft) at the deck. Each pylon is composed of 16 framework sections, each weighing

2,230 tonnes (2,460 short tons).

Burj, Dubai Skyscraper

The Burj Dubai Skyscraper, also called the Dubai Tower, is currently the tallest building in

the world, located in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The building’s construction started in September 2004, and the exterior finishes were in place by October 2009. The building was officially opened for public use on the 4th of January 2010.

Burj Dubai stands at a staggering 825 meters (2705 feet), making it the tallest man-made building ever to be constructed. The tower holds spaces for residential, commercial, and office usage, divided into zones spread out over 160 floors (the largest number of floors in any building of the world, another record for the Burj Dubai). The building also holds the record for the longest running elevator shafts, the world’s highest installation of elevators, and the fastest elevators in the world, at a speed of 18 meters per second (59 feet per second), or 64 km per hour (40 miles per hour).Burj Dubai was designed by the renowned architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), the designers of some of the world’s finest skyscrapers, like the World Trade Center 1 and the Willis Tower. The design of the tower is derived from the generative and repetitive patterns found within Islamic architecture. Adrian Smith, the primary design consultant, also commented that the cross section at the base of the tower is inspired by the tri-lobed Hymenocallis flower.

The Burj Dubai Skyscraper is no doubt one of the most expensive buildings ever to be built. It contains the most luxurious furnishings and interior finishes, tile work, and ornamentations. As of now, the prices for purchasing office or residential space in the tower are consistently high – office space at US$ 4000 per square foot.