Brazil is Taking America’s Skyscraper Crown

Video narrated and hosted by Fred Mills. This video contains paid promotion for Egnyte.

MOVE ASIDE Central Park Tower. As Geoffrey Chaucer once said, 'all good things must come to an end'. And no, don’t worry, New York isn’t taking the world’s tallest residential skyscraper off its skyline.

But it is saying goodbye to the title.

Nearly 5,000 miles south, Brazil’s building a 550 metre tall behemoth that’ll come with its very own crown. It’s not in São Paolo, Rio de Janeiro or Brasília but in Balneário Camboriú, Brazil’s skyscraper capital and the new billionaires row.

With some ground breaking engineering and truly mind blowing innovation, Senna Tower, inspired by the legendary racing driver, Ayrton Senna, is going do a whole lot more than just stand out. It’ll put the nation on the skyscraper map.

Above: Designs for Senna Tower, the tallest skyscraper in South America. Courtesy of FG Empreendimentos.

This is Senna Tower

Ayrton Senna might just be the most famous racing driver of all time. The Brazilian was renowned for his exciting style and bravery, famously putting his own life in danger to save fellow driver, Erik Comas. The three time world champion died following a high speed crash, aged just 34. Senna was recognised with a state funeral and he’s remembered as a legend in his native Brazil. 

Now, 31 years later, a grand tower is due to be constructed, celebrating the short life of one of racing’s lost icons and what’s interesting is its location.

It’ll stand in Balneário Camboriú, a small coastal city that’s just a third the size of Denver International Airport and home to a mere 145,000 people. From humble origins, this once small fishing village is going to be the home of the world’s tallest residential skyscraper.

What used to be a pretty and unassuming section of Brazilian coastline has become the nation’s skyscraper capital and the new billionaires row. It’s home to four of the top five tallest skyscrapers in South America, including the Yachthouse Residence Club, One Tower, Infinity Coast and Boreal Tower and that’s all before Senna Tower has been added into the mix.

It's a bit like Santa Barbara becoming the home of skyscrapers in the US - it feels a bit counter-intuitive but this has been coming and it goes back to changes made in the late 1980s.

Back then, Brazil’s military dictatorship had just come to an end and the nation was in the midst of great change. Previously, strict, centralised zoning laws limited the climb towards the skies but no more.

The federal government has pushed through laws to encourage urban development and handed more power to the municipalities. It gives areas like Balneário Camboriú almost free reign to design its own landscape.

Now, this city is far from huge and space along the pretty sought-after waterfront is limited. That means the value of land has sky-rocketed - per square metre you’ll pay around $2,500, making it some of the most expensive land to buy in all of South America.

To make sure they still make a tidy profit, the developers need to maximise space by building upwards and charging big prices for luxury homes and the potential is massive. The local government controls the air rights and sells them to developers, a bit like in New York. In theory, that generates more money for the city to invest into local infrastructure.

But here’s the kicker - once those air rights have been bought, there are no restrictions, like you’d find in other cities.

That means developers can do what they like with the height of their buildings and they’re choosing to aim high - with land on the ground proving expensive, value here is found in building tall.

The Dubai of Brazil

The city is home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country. It’s thought penthouses in Senna Tower could go for more than $50 million each but that’s just the start for the nation’s billionaires row.

It’s already experienced a crazy transformation and with freedom from tight restrictions, who knows how this city could look in another 40 years' time.

Above: Balneário Camboriú in 1970.

Above: Modern day Balneário Camboriú.

The next chapter is Senna Tower, developed by Talls Solutions, the arm of FG Empreendimentos that builds skyscrapers - they’re working in partnership with the Senna family.

Take a look across this city and you’ll see FG’s mark on the landscape pretty much everywhere you turn. The company's already developed a number of skyscrapers here, its latest being the innovative Boreal Tower which will top out in 2025.

But while FG and Talls clearly like building in the city, what’s to come will be their juiciest project yet. With financial backing already in place, they’ve called on some of the biggest names in the industry to make this tower a reality.

The tall, slim glass skyscraper is designed to replicate a hero's journey, giving off a celestial feel with its sky-turned lights. It’ll feature 204 apartments, six penthouses, eighteen elevated mansions and an observation deck spread over six private and two public floors.

At the base, you can see how the facade protrudes to create these beautiful terraces, surrounded by a race track design to celebrate Ayrton Senna.

Above: A race track design is featured at the base of the tower to celebrate Ayrton Senna. Courtesy of FG Empreendimentos.

But what’s really interesting is the innovative solution to the skyscrapers' foundations. The team behind Senna Tower say this has never been done for a structure over 300 metres.

First off, 700 auger cast piles will be drilled into the ground, piercing through each layer of earth until they hit solid bedrock. These piles are going to be at least 40 metres long but what sets them apart is how they’re structured.

You’ll often see the piles of tall buildings are only reinforced with steel at the top end but here, the concrete is going to be fully reinforced from top to bottom to give this enormous tower an incredibly strong footing. Multiple piles have already been tested successfully on the site as the foundations are being prepared for building work to begin.

Above: The foundations of Senna Tower will feature 700 auger cast piles and testing has already taken place on site. Courtesy of FG Empreendimentos.

The structure of the tower will rise from those foundations, built entirely from reinforced concrete. It’ll be centred around a large core and that’ll be constructed first, with concrete slab contours and reinforced concrete columns.

It’s a similar structural method to the ones used for 111 West 57th Street and Central Park Tower in New York. As this skyscraper heads higher than any building has before in this city, it will run into the extremes of the elements.

Now, if you’re wondering what impact a 550 metre tall tower is going to have on wind flow in the area, then you might be surprised. Stringent model testing by RWDI shows that the city shouldn’t really notice a difference.

"We don’t have neighbours in front of us or behind us, just to the sides of the building. What we saw (from the testing) is that we have a positive impact on the other buildings and the sidewalk level", said Stéphane Domeneghini, Executive Director of Talls Solutions.

But what about the tower’s sway? At these heights, a building needs to be flexible enough to move with the wind but not too much that its residents get a nasty fright and this is where Senna Tower is going to break yet another record.

The tower will feature two tuned mass dampers, weighing 1,000 tonnes each. They'll sit next to each other at the top of the structure, acting as a counterweight to the building’s natural sway.

A Skyscraper Revolution

The development of Balneário Camboriú is just the beginning for Latin America. Demand for skyscrapers has been historically low and that’s due to a number of reasons including strict zoning laws, financial factors and the protection of historical low-level buildings.

But it’s fair to say the Latin American skyscraper revolution has now begun. Towers are climbing higher and higher and it’s not just limited to Brazil. Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Argentina have all been relaxing their rules and their attitudes and there are lots more projects on the horizon.

This Brazilian fenómeno will send ripples around the world. Of course, until it’s finished in seven years time, lots of pitfalls can befall the construction of any great tower. But FG has set a precedent of successfully building in this city. The financial backing is there and the piles are already being tested in the site foundations.

Senna Tower won’t just be massive to look at, it’ll be huge for Brazil - the nation is announcing itself as a creator of world famous skyscrapers.


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Additional footage and images courtesy of FG Empreendimentos, PLJ DRONES, the Dronalist, Instituto Ayrton Senna / CC BY 2.0, Universal Pictures, Erik COMAS / CC BY-SA 4.0, Paul Lannuier, SBT, Running Matze / CC BY-SA 3.0, Mateus Ferreira, FRANCE 24, Gabriel Beland, Juan Pablo Donoso / CC BY-SA 2.0.

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