flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

An elevator that moves sideways? Germany is about to take that ride

Building Technology

An elevator that moves sideways? Germany is about to take that ride

Thyssenkrupp’s cable-less MULTI system promises higher transport capacity and lower peak power demand.


By John Caulfield | July 7, 2017

Thyssenkrupp's MULTI vertical-horizontal system uses magnetic-levitation technology that allows cars to make 90-degree turns. Image: thyssenkrupp

Later this year, the new 459-ft-tall East Side Tower in Berlin, Germany, will be the first building in the world to install an elevator system that travels both vertically and horizontally.

OVG Real Estate and FREO Group, the building’s developers, are working in partnership with thyssenkrupp, one of the world’s largest industrial groups, whose thyssenkrupp Elevator division has devised MULTI, the first cable-free elevator that moves sideways as well as up and down.

Thyssenkrupp unveiled this concept in 2014, and after two-and-a-half years of construction demonstrated MULTI last month at its 807-ft-tall, 12-shaft innovation test tower in Rottweil, Germany. This tower can test elevator speeds up to 22.45 miles per hour. Three of its shafts were designed specifically for certifying the new cable-free elevator system.

 

MULTI operates along the same principals as a metro system. Image: Thyssenkrupp

 

Instead of one cabin per shaft moving up and down, MULTI offers multiple cabins operating in loops, similar to a metro system but inside a building. Its exchange system allows the linear drive and guiding equipment to make 90-degree turns by leveraging the linear motor technology developed for the magnetic levitation Transrapid train. MULTI runs on a multi-level brake system and redundant wireless data and energy management system on the cars.

A short animated video of how this system works can be seen here.

Nearly 200 building industry representatives attended the demonstration, including Antony Wood, Executive Director of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Wood calls MULTI “perhaps the biggest development in the elevator industry since the invention of the safety elevator some 165 years ago.” 

 

At a time when developers are challenging AEC firms to come up with new and faster ways to transport people in taller buildings. MULTI is promising 50% higher transport capacities. Image: thyssenkrupp

 

As cities expand and buildings get larger and taller to accommodate more people, planners and architects face significant challenges around moving people comfortably and quickly to their destinations. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that cities will need to construct floor space equivalent to 85 percent of all of today’s residential and commercial building stock by 2025.

To that end, thyssenkrupp claims that MULTI can achieve up to 50% higher transport capacity and reduce peak power demand by as much as 60% when compared to conventional elevator systems.

MULTI requires fewer and smaller shafts than conventional elevators and can increase the building’s usable area by up to 25%. (Thyssenkrupp notes that current elevator-escalator footprints can occupy up to 40% of a high rise building’s floor space, depending on the building height.) The system will also reduce the wait time for a ride to between 15 and 30 seconds.

In April, MULTI took top honors at the 2017 Edison Awards in New York, an annual competition honoring new product and service excellence. The first MULTI system will be installed in the East Side Tower, which is scheduled for completion by 2019. In an interview with Wired magazine, thyssenkrupp's CEO Andreas Schierenbeck said that while MULTI could cost between three and five times more than a standard lift system, the space savings in a large building are “definitely overcompensating the price of the product.”

 

Related Stories

| Aug 11, 2010

8 Things You Should Know About Designing a Roof

Roofing industry expert Joseph Schwetz maintains that there is an important difference between what building codes require and what the construction insurance industry—notably mutual insurance firm Factory Mutual—demands—and that this difference can lead to problems in designing a roof.

| Aug 11, 2010

America's Greenest Hospital

Hospitals are energy gluttons. With 24/7/365 operating schedules and stringent requirements for air quality in ORs and other clinical areas, an acute-care hospital will gobble up about twice the energy per square foot of, say, a commercial office building. It is an achievement worth noting, therefore, when a major hospital achieves LEED Platinum status, especially when that hospital attains 14 ...

| Aug 11, 2010

Concrete Solutions

About five or six years ago, officials at the University of California at Berkeley came to the conclusion that they needed to build a proper home for the university's collection of 900,000 rare Chinese, Japanese, and Korean books and materials. East Asian studies is an important curriculum at Berkeley, with more than 70 scholars teaching some 200 courses devoted to the topic, and Berkeley's pro...

| Aug 11, 2010

Piano's 'Flying Carpet'

Italian architect Renzo Piano refers to his $294 million, 264,000-sf Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago as a “temple of light.” That's all well and good, but how did Piano and the engineers from London-based Arup create an almost entirely naturally lit interior while still protecting the priceless works of art in the Institute's third-floor galleries from dangerous ultravio...

| Aug 11, 2010

Bronze Award: John G. Shedd Aquarium, Chicago, Ill.

To complete the $55 million renovation of the historic John G. Shedd Aquarium in the allotted 17-month schedule, the Building Team had to move fast to renovate and update exhibit and back-of-house maintenance spaces, expand the visitor group holding area, upgrade the mechanical systems, and construct a single-story steel structure on top of the existing oceanarium to accommodate staff office sp...

| Aug 11, 2010

AIA Course: Building with concrete – Design and construction techniques

Concrete maintains a special reputation for strength, durability, flexibility, and sustainability. These associations and a host of other factors have made it one of the most widely used building materials globally in just one century. Take this free AIA/CES course from Building Design+Construction and earn 1.0 AIA learning unit.

| Aug 11, 2010

Great Solutions: Green Building

27. Next-Generation Green Roofs Sprout up in New York New York is not particularly known for its green roofs, but two recent projects may put the Big Apple on the map. In spring 2010, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will debut one of the nation's first fully walkable green roofs. Located across from the Juilliard School in Lincoln Center's North Plaza, Illumination Lawn will consist ...

| Aug 11, 2010

Pioneer Courthouse: Shaking up the court

In the days when three-quarters of America was a wild, lawless no-man's land, Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Ore., stood out as a symbol of justice and national unity. The oldest surviving federal structure in the Pacific Northwest and the second-oldest courthouse west of the Mississippi, Pioneer Courthouse was designed in 1875 by Alfred Mullett, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury.

| Aug 11, 2010

Gold Award: Eisenhower Theater, Washington, D.C.

The Eisenhower Theater in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., opened in 1971. By the turn of the century, after three-plus decades of heavy use, the 1,142-seat box-within-a-box playhouse on the Potomac was starting to show its age. Poor lighting and tired, worn finishes created a gloomy atmosphere.

| Aug 11, 2010

Great Solutions: Business Management

22. Commercial Properties Repositioned for University USE Tocci Building Companies is finding success in repositioning commercial properties for university use, and it expects the trend to continue. The firm's Capital Cove project in Providence, R.I., for instance, was originally designed by Elkus Manfredi (with design continued by HDS Architects) to be a mixed-use complex with private, market-...

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category



Engineers

Navigating battery energy storage augmentation

By implementing an augmentation plan upfront, owners can minimize potential delays and unforeseen costs when augmentation needs to occur, according to Burns & McDonnell energy storage technology manager Joshua Crawford.


3D Printing

3D-printed construction milestones take shape in Tennessee and Texas

Two notable 3D-printed projects mark milestones in the new construction technique of “printing” structures with specialized concrete. In Athens, Tennessee, Walmart hired Alquist 3D to build a 20-foot-high store expansion, one of the largest freestanding 3D-printed commercial concrete structures in the U.S. In Marfa, Texas, the world’s first 3D-printed hotel is under construction at an existing hotel and campground site.

halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021