Sunday, July 8, 2012

Let's talk about videos!!!

My video review & reflection on: National Geographic: Mega Structure, Singapore's Vegas (Marina Bay Sands or known as MBS)


Awesome nightview of MBS

Background information on MBS:

  • Developed by: Las Vegas Sands led by its founder, Sheldon Adelson
  • Location: Singapore, Marina Bay
  • Cost: S$5.5 billion
  • Designed by: Moshe Safdie & his team of architects
  • Structures: Three 57 storey hotel towers with 2,500+ rooms and suites, an ArtScience Museum, a convention centre capable of accommodating up to 45,000 people and a Shoppe which also includes the crystal pavillion build in water.
  • Attractions: The three hotel towers are connected by a 1 hectare sky terrace on the roof, named Sands SkyPark. SkyPark is home to the world's longest elevated swimming pool made up of 422,000 pounds of stainless steel and can hold 376,500 gallons (1424 cubic metres) of water. It has the world's largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines.
  • Opening: The first phase's preview opening was on 27 April 2010, and the official opening was on 23 June 2010. The rest of the complex remained under construction and was opened after a grand opening on 17 February 2011.
  • Aims: To stimulate an addition of $2.7 billion or 0.8% to Singapore's Gross Domestic Product by 2015, employing 10,000 people directly and 20,000 jobs being created in other industries.
  • Some figures: Two months after the initial phased opening, the casino attracts around 25,000 visitors daily, about a third being Singaporeans and permanent residents who pay a $100 daily entry levy or $2,000 for annual unlimited access.Half a million gamblers passed through the casino in June 2010.
(Some information was taken from the video itself and the following website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Bay_Sands#Transportation)
A simple map of MBS
(Picture taken from: http://vincentloy.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/marina-bay-sands-render.jpg)

Now let's watch the trailer... (A very short introduction of the video)


  Basically, the whole original video which last for about 50mins was about the building of one of the world's largest casino also a mega structure build by at least 16,500 workers working simultaneously, The Marina Bay Sands otherwise known as MBS in Singapore.

My Reflection:

The main building, The Three Hotel Towers

  In my own opinion, the video is showcasing not only the mega structure but also raising some important issues and problems of the structure of the MBS building. Some issues which I think is important are:
Diaphram walls built during the construction of MBS

The MBS building sits on reclaimed land of Singapore which has lots of marine clay as base, when digged, walls may break and the building may collapse. Solution that engineers employs are building diaphram walls which are pounded 50m into the ground to act as retention systems and permanent foundation walls to prevent sea water from seeping in also to only help to make the building of the structures easier. But question is, sea water are rising meaning more pressure, then can the diaphram wall last for very long and withstand the strong hydraulic pressure from the water?

File:Marina-Bay-Sands.jpg
Sideview of MBS building

Looking at the building, you can see that it is actually build by having one building lying on the other. Refer to the diagram below:


drawings by lim yong
image courtesy of marina bay sands pte ltd. / moshe safdie and associates
image from: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9485/moshe-safdie-marina-bay-sands.html
Things to ponder on:
Even though in the video, it shows that the engineers have carried out extensive wind speed testing for the construction but it was shown that they have only carried out to the speed of 40km/h. Considering the weather has been changing to not any better, very unpredictable and MBS is located so near to the coast:
  • Will the wind speed change to even stronger?
  • Can the building take the string wind?
  • With the plates shifting of up to 20cm per year and the increasing natural disaster rates, is it a safe building?
  • Yes, the building has the retractable small structures within some parts to reassure that when the building is swaying, the building is still flexible enough to withstand but it was only build to accommodate the swaying front back but how about sideways?

Let's see what's the other issue which I think may be a problem...

Art Piece titled "Drift" created by Briton master sculptor, Anthony Gormley
"Drift"

       "Drift" is suspended cloud-like in the air between levels 5 and 12 of the atrium of Hotel Tower 1. The structure weighs 14.8 tons. So now, let's recap abit, if the part of the building is leaning on the other part of the building, it is already quite a great pressure for the building, now with the art piece which weighs tons needing support from the building, the pressure to the building is definitely increased by alot...

 

Alright, the above are just some of my personal views...

        There are still alot of challenging structures within the whole of the Marina Bay Sands buildings that are worth to explore including the crystal pavilion built 6m deep in the water and the lotus like art museum. 



Signing off,
Evee
My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography 

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