Location: Puebla, Mexico.

Architect: Bulnes Arquitectos.

The Helea Tower is a 33-story residential building located in the City of Puebla, Mexico. It has 93 luxurious residences and a total construction area of over 41,000 square meters. The tower has a unique geometry, with each floor having three rectangular apartments set radially as a helix, turning 15° counter-clockwise each level while rising up to 142.50 meters high. This design provides 360° panoramic views of the city from the residences and enables each flat to be partially suspended in the air. The tower’s structure is made of high resistance concrete core, which supports the flats’ steel structure and transfers the loads to the deep foundation. The deep foundation is made of a series of 54 structural piles with different diameters, strategically located regarding the magnitude of the core structural discharges. The building’s core is a concrete cylinder of structural resistances ranging from 500 to 600 kg/cm2, with 155 m high from its displacement, 12.50 m deep, and 12.77 meters in outer diameter with 80 cm thick walls. The apartments’ structure, made of steel, is supported at the inner end, and the rafter rests on the outer end. The curved stringer structurally works by picking up a quarter of the load and transmitting it to the foundation. The tower has state-of-the-art amenities such as a Fitness Center, a “Sky pool,” and a “Sports & Fun Bar.” The tower also addresses sustainability issues, with solutions to address water efficiency, energy savings, and material recycling during the construction process. The Helea Tower seeks to put the City of Puebla on the map through architecture and become a new way of doing things in Latin America.

Photo credit: Bulnes Architects.