Building Innovation

Award-winning Engineering Solutions

The Office Tower, which houses working spaces, is expressed as a thin and elegant slab tower.

To achieve this, innovative engineering solutions were implemented. In 2021, CPG won the Building and Construction Authority (BCA)’s “Design and Engineering Safety Excellence Award” for its original solutions implemented in the State Courts Towers. The slender and challenging Office Tower needed a structural design that could withstand high wind speeds. CPG conducted a wind tunnel study of the building model to capture the forces acting on the towers and the link bridges. The study results were used on the building design to ensure that its sway and human comfort are within acceptable limits.

39 link bridges were planned and span the Office Tower’s circulation space to the stockier Court Tower. These link bridges, in turn, provided lateral stability to the Office Tower. Each link bridge was prefabricated and delivered to the site as one unit before being hoisted and placed on temporary supporting corbels before final connections were made safely. Construction within a constrained space was thus possible and height work was minimised, improving safety for those on-site.

Minimal Disruption to Surroundings

Another challenge was the difficulty of the deep basement construction. The site is close to a conserved building, an underground MRT station, and a gazetted National Monument. It was critical to safely construct three basement levels for the State Courts Towers without adversely affecting the neighbouring buildings. To achieve this, CPG engineers adopted a robust earth-retaining structure comprising diaphragm walls and a semi-top-down construction method for basement construction to minimise wall deflection, ground movement and water drawdown.