New headquarters for VakifBank

Shape of towers varies between rectangles and hexagons

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With the new headquarters of VakifBank, Istanbul is now in the process of becoming a financial capital. Covering a total area of 690,000 m² with 257,464m² of usable area, the office construction will be one of the most spectacular buildings to be located in the Istanbul Finance Centre. Doka offered a suitable formwork solution for the special design of the two towers.

Acknowledged as one of the biggest state-owned banks in Turkey, VakifBank was established in 1954 and has since become an international institution with offices in New York, Bahrain and through participation in Vienna, Cologne and Frankfurt. Back in its home city of Istanbul the bank decided to build a brand new headquarters that drew on “Islamic patterns born out of mathematical wisdom,” according to architects Tabanlıoğlu Mimarlık A.Ş, however, finding a formwork solution for this striking design wouldn’t come without its own set of challenges. This was one of the reasons why the engineering hours on the project exceeded 4500 hours.

Working with main contractor REC Rönesans Uluslararası İnşaat Ticaret A.Ş, both Doka Turkey and Doka’s high-rise engineering department were challenged to find a suitable formwork solution for the two business towers, which resulted in the team having to draw on their extensive experience and resources. Finding a suitable formwork solution for this project was extremely challenging. Firstly, the shape of the towers varied between rectangles and hexagons, which also varied from floor to floor. In addition, the design meant typical slabs were missing which complicated things even further. Furthermore; post- tensioning cables of slab and steel plates of facade application required special solutions for protection screen designs.

Covering a total area of 690,000 m² with 257,464m² of usable area, the towers will reach heights of 221.3 m and 151.6 m respectively upon completion, covering 52 and 36 storeys. Central to the brief was to provide maximum safety, which led to Doka using its Xclimb 60 Protection Screen. Thanks to its slab-to-slab coverage, site teams were not only protected from fall risk, but furthermore from Istanbul’s inclement winter weather.

Speaking on behalf of the contractor Sinan Sungur, site construction chief said, “Working with the Xclimb 60 Protection Screen not only provided the high levels of safety we were looking for, but furthermore allowed us to get on with the job in hand. Site teams work a lot more efficiently when they feel secure.”

With progress moving along, Doka Turkey was able to secure this project thanks to its tailored safety and sophisticated engineering solution, on site instruction and its ability to think on its feet. At the time of writing, the project will be handed over in August 2020.