Civil Engineering Association

Service Cores: Detail in Building

The Detail in Building series is an essential source of contemporary data covering the key elements of building design that form the vocabulary of current architecture. Previous titles include Staircases, Soft Canopies, Glass Canopies, Columns, Cable Nets and Wind Towers, and a publication on Balconies is currently in preparation. Each is clearly analysed, both historically and in terms of recent examples by key practices around the world. The combination of building context, design aesthetics and technical solution, as revealed in the case studies, is highly informative as well as unique in a field where specific technical quality of design detailing is often insufficiently exposed by the superficial presentation of designs. Service Cores, the seventh title in the series, deals with the internal vertical cores of buildings: the parts that contain the elevators, elevator-shafts, lobbies, staircases, mechanical, electrical and IT riser ducts, toilets and other components necessary both for environmental servicing and to provide access to the building's usable spaces. Initially associated mainly with skyscrapers and science buildings, service cores are becoming equally essential in the design of other highly-serviced building types, from laboratories and high-tech buildings to hotels, shopping malls and stadiums. The author discusses the historical treatment and development of service cores, and provides an outline guide to the considerations required in their design. This is supported by a series of case studies, featuring mainly skyscraper buildings from all over the world by a range of architects of international renown.