Overlooking a beach in southern Brazil, there’s a new paradise high in the sky. The tallest twin towers in Brazil, serviced by Schindler 7000 elevators, deliver stunning views, and a new level of luxury.
Standing on the beach in Brazil’s coastal city of Balneário Camboriú, it’s hard to miss the YACHTHOUSE by Pininfarina. Tall buildings are nothing new here – there are so many along the beachfront that the city has earnt the nickname "the Brazilian Dubai." But the YACHTHOUSE by Pininfarina towers head and shoulders above its neighbors. At 281 meters tall, the twin skyscrapers, with 81 floors each and 264 apartments in total, are the tallest twin towers in Brazil.
Building a pair of skyscrapers this tall was a first for both our local team in Brazil and the project’s developer, Pasqualotto. Not only were we breaking new ground together, but we were also breaking records together.
This is where our global expertise came into play. To help guide the project, we used Schindler Top Range Excellence (TREX), our large project management system. Schindler TREX is specifically designed to guide large projects through their entire life cycle from tender to handover. It provides a systematic approach to navigate the various stages of a large project and support its final delivery, ensuring the project is completed on time and to the highest quality – exceeding customer expectations by doing things right the first time.
TREX was essential for YACHTHOUSE by Pininfarina, because it is a first for us in Brazil, and a first for our client," says Marcello de Christan, our General Manager for Southern Brazil.
YACHTHOUSE by Pininfarina features our top-of-the-line Schindler 7000 elevators – perfect to meet our customer’s needs for the best in vertical transportation. The result is the fastest residential elevators in Brazil, traveling at up to six meters per second, whisking residents from the ground level up to the 81st floor in just 45 seconds.
All the elevators at the YACHTHOUSE by Pininfarina are equipped with Schindler PORT Technology, our destination control system, which enables early calling and access control within the building. The outcome: waiting times reduced to a minimum, combined with maximum efficiency and security.
The elevator system is not only fast – it also runs with minimal downtime. This is thanks to Schindler Lobby Vision, our supervisory monitoring system that provides real-time updates on operating performance, meaning small issues don’t become big problems.
Sustainability is a key part of all our projects. By utilising both Schindler PORT technology and Schindler Lobby Vision, we can ensure that the elevators at the YACHTHOUSE by Pininfarina run as efficiently as possible. This helps us to keep energy consumption and maintenance costs down, while helping the environment.
Of the 22 Schindler elevators that serve the luxury residences, four of them are devoted to the ultra-luxury “quadriplex” penthouses. With only four penthouses, two in each building, that means each one has its own dedicated elevator.
But the idea to provide the penthouses with their own elevator systems was not part of the original plan. In fact, it was proposed relatively late in the project. Such a challenge might sound daunting, but our team took it in their stride. The key task was how to fit the elevator pit into a building that was already nearly complete. We managed it by economizing the pit size and using a steel plate for its base instead of the usual, much-thicker concrete.
Flexibility is a key part to any project. Over the course of construction, all projects get tweaked, and challenges arise, but being willing to adapt to new circumstances and being able to adapt to them are two different things.
"We were able to absorb these changes through phased construction and teamwork," says Anderson Rugero, our Project Manager for YACHTHOUSE by Pininfarina.
Phased construction meant we had four teams working simultaneously on-site. Two teams on each building – one starting from the ground level, and another starting at the 30th floor. To ensure optimal safety for everyone on-site, crash decks were installed between the teams.
Our phased approach allowed other teams to start working on their parts of the building earlier and to continue working around our installations. This helped to keep the project ticking over. But with so many teams working in unison, we needed a large storage area on-site for all the materials.
Pasqualotto, the project’s developer, not only provided a large enough storage area, complete with special loading doors and security cameras, but also helped us design a system to organize delivered materials so that they could be easily identified and delivered to the correct floor.
"You have to put yourself in the other person’s shoes, to understand and anticipate their needs, with your common goal in mind – project completion," says Anderson.
It was this understanding and the commitment to cross collaborations on-site that allowed us to keep the project on schedule and complete it on time.
As the Brazilian great Pele once said: "Success depends on your whole team working as a single unit."