A New Zealand-based team of engineers has been commissioned to provide the mechanical and electrical engineering design for the Signature Tower in Jakarta, which on completion will be the tallest building in the southern hemisphere and the fifth tallest building in the world, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat register.

At 638 metres high the structure is nearly double the height of Auckland’s Sky Tower, and will comprise a ten level retail podium from which the tower rises through three office zones and a six star hotel to a viewing observatory at the 111th level.

Challenges include engineering a complex network of over a hundred lifts, two of which shuttle vertically over half a kilometre from the ground floor to the observatory. Auckland engineer Simon Longuet-Higgins is leading the team from Beca and says they are thrilled to win the high profile assignment.

“This is a major project which will have a significant impact on the CBD of one of the world’s fastest-growing and most exciting cities. After nearly 30 years working on buildings projects in Indonesia it is enormously gratifying to have been selected for this commission.”

He said his team has worked with project director Josef Aliwarga from developers PT Grahamas Adisentosa on three previous projects in Indonesia – Pacific Place, the Ritz-Carlton and the Marriott Hotel, all in Jakarta.

Construction of Signature Tower will begin mid-year and is scheduled for completion in 2017. Beca engineers in Auckland and Jakarta are providing fire and life safety design, mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as lifts consultancy.

Beca is currently working on 22 high-rise towers in Indonesia, including Ciputra World, the Wisma Mulia office and the Sequis Centre, all over 40 storeys high, plus the 67-level Thamrin Nine mixed-use complex.

• Project Director – Mr Josef Aliwarga
• Developer - PT Grahamas Adisentosa - Jakarta
• Architect – Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart Associates – Atlanta, US
• Services engineers – Beca - Auckland and Jakarta
• Structural engineers – Thornton Thomasetti - New York

About tall buildings:

Tallest building in the world:

• Burj Khalifa, Dubai - 828m 
• Number of supertall* buildings globally: 60 
• Number of 200m+ buildings: 703 Number of 150m+ buildings: 2614 

 *The US-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat defines “supertall” as a building over 300m in height. A new term will join the lexicon soon – “mega-tall” – over 600m.