IGS Magazine interviews Hugh Brennand

Intelligent Glass Solutions magazine has featured the Hong Kong Ocean Terminal project in their Autumn 2020 issue with an interview with Hugh Brennand, Executive Director and Founding Partner.

The article discusses how the Inhabit team responded to the challenge of engineering a façade on a floating slab that caters both for tidal movements and wind loads simultaneously.

Designed by Foster + Partners, the Ocean Terminal building is a gateway to Hong Kong for many hundreds of international cruise liner passengers as well as a hospitality destination with restaurants, outdoor terraces and retail outlets.

Inhabit’s Hong Kong team was commissioned to provide façade, building physics and access and maintenance consultancy on the project as well as RSE Endorsement and BD Liaison Service. The four-storey building, which has a 9,000sq m gross floor area, is built on an elevated steel structure directly above the sea level.

One of the major challenges facing the design team was the differential movement between the new structure and the existing marine deck which was subject to varying movements due to tidal changes and the large cruise ships berthing alongside it.

Hugh Brennand comments:

“Inhabit worked collectively with the design team to conceive a floating steel slab which sat on bearings on the marine deck and fixed to the new steel columns. The huge curved glass panels at the corners of the lower deck, and the automated sliding doors are both fixed between the floating slab and the new cantilevered steel decks.”

Read the full article here: Glass and Steel Gateway Gets its Sea Legs