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a post card pic...

these are the pic my sis had taken a few months back on our trip to the charminar, India. nice, isn't it? like in a post card. :)











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the leaning tower of abu dhabi

The buildings coming up in the recent times all have some unique feature in them that makes them all wonders. one such building with innovation and splender is the Capital Gate of Abu Dhabi. also called the "leaning tower of Abu Dhabi", it has got a place for itself as "the World’s Furthest Leaning Manmade Tower’Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) Wanted a spectacular structure in Abu Dhabi.







The concept called symmetry is totally overruled and here there is no two floors with same plan or no two rooms with same dimensions. even the glass fascade which is made of daimonds( each containing 18 glass panes ) has no same dimensions. Right from the planning stage, the project managers and engineers had displayed passion and together put up this marvel.  

the inspiration for this structure is the waves and the dunes surrounding this desert. 


FACT FILE:-



1. 160 metres above ground
2. westward incline of 18 degrees. 
3. ‘World’s Furthest Leaning Manmade Tower’.
4. 7,000 m3 of concrete used in the foundation, which contains 490 piles drilled up to 30m deep.
5. 8,500 structural steel diagrids/ beams/ columns/ embedment .
6. 12,500 different glass panes form more than 720 distinct diamond-shapes on the tower’s external façade.
7. outdoor swimming pool, restaurant  on the 19th floor with a  panoramic view overlooking the Sheikh Zayed mosque



the picture below would show the section of the building and explain all the parts of the building.










this picture will show the construction of the column, the floors and glazing(glass fascade) all being done at the same time.


One major problem they faced during the construction was the central column. normally skyscrapers are built as a single huge column with the floors surrounding it. here the problem was as they kept building, the felt that the column would also bend westward due to the load of building acting on one side alone. so the solution they came up with was to build the column with a slight bend eastward and the column would come back to a straight position due to the load on the other side.

after a sequence of problems and awesome engineering the building progressed wonderfully. the final obstacle they had to overcome was the construction of a helipad on the terrace. which they did by testing a model to all the wind loads it would need to carry.

... And thus this wonder was born!!!


that's all folks :)












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Is this engineering?

i'm annoyed at the way we are made to study engineering.

there is nothing that i'm learning worthwhile :( it's only in the exam point of view and not in the life point of view. the engineering is something i need to remember for a life time and not forget within just one semester.
but i'm not generalizing each and every college in the country... just some like my college. :( and on statistics, my college has been placed number one among the affiliated colleges in my state for Civil Dept. so i hope you get the scenario.


We are made to learn the problems by writing them some number of times (I hate to call it... “Imposition“) instead of getting the basics right and then proceeding, that too in the structural design paper. This is not the way I want to learn engineering. The trainings we took up at the construction sites, for some two weeks during the summer, proved to be more fruitful than two years of my engineering put together. 

i'm seriously considering quitting my engineering and joining as an apprentice at some construction site, at least that way i'l get the knowledge i want and do some real engineering. ;) *just kidding*



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Highway passing through a building !!!

the last thing i'd want in my building...



... a highway passing through it. ;)


Gate Tower Building is a 16-story office building in Fukushima-ku, Osaka , Japan . And what makes it notable is the highway that passes through the 5th-7th floors of this building. The highway is part of the Hanshin Expressway, a network (239.3 km) of expressways surrounding Osaka , Kobe and Kyoto , Japan . The Gate Tower Building is Japan 's first building to have a highway pass through it. The highway passes through the building as a bridge, held up by supports next to the building making no contact with the building itself. 









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NATURE’S ENVY…

Civil engineering is the mother of all engineering say some. I’d say civil engineering is the other name for innovation. One sees innovations coming up in all new constructions around us. Each and every building rising around us have a unique feature in them and are each a marvel. Nowadays “spectacular” is the bench mark for any new construction. 

If we take the world’s tallest man made wonder every one can immediately name burj kalifa. The unique feature in this is the height and looks. But we all know that engineers don’t stop with one endeavor. He tries to break his own record. Now the plan to construct the building taller than this is underway. Another wonder is the capital gate of Abu Dhabi. Though it is a mind blowing wonder it was not as popularized as the previous one. This capital gate was built as the “world’s farthest leaning man made tower”. Civil engineers have creators of today’s world and taken the nature’s job in their hands. The artificial palm islands of Dubai stand an example for this. The recent Indian wonder is the bandra worli sea link. One can go on listing the recent marvels of civil engineering.  

A big salute to the engineers who have put in a lot of effort to build these wonders and set new bench marks for others to cross in construction field.

Here is one poster that I and my friend designed to explain.









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