Gondola Mounted on Sky Suites, One of the Tallest Residential Buildings in Singapore

MHE Singapore was appointed by Who Hup (Pte) Ltd, the building contractor for Sky Suites, to supply a gondola system for the building. Standing at 71 stories high and complete with 360 apartments, Sky Suites is one of the tallest residential buildings in Singapore, located in the heart of the Central Business District. For its height of approximately 246m, a custom-made and reliable gondola system was required for the maintenance and upkeep of its building façade.

Following evaluation, a choice was made on the MHE-Manntech Type 4.1/ 1500 crane-type gondola machine, for its ability to cover every corner of the building façade.

The gondola machine was equipped with a roof-powered hoisting mechanism housed inside the motorised roof car, as well as a unique motorised slewing jib arm with counterbalance weight, mounted on the roof car to suspend a fully cladded aluminium cradle built with electrical control panels. As a special feature of the gondola, the slewing jib arm was incorporated to manoeuvre the cradle in various positions to reach building façades that were challenging to access and designed to travel on twin I-beam tracks laid on roof level.

The gondola solution also required an additional satellite platform to reach the recessed façade and a glass replacement hoisting unit to perform the specific task of replacing damaged windows.

The most challenging task for the project was the installation of the twin I-beam tracks, roof car and jib arm on the roof level, as the roof was packed with M & E systems. Extra care and precise coordination were needed to complete the installation work without any setbacks.