Is it just me or does this seem like a weird choice?
I'm sure they provide stability & rigidity but...... I thought the whole point of the steel bracing was so the floors could be hung without the corners being obstructed?
The choice isn't whether or not to place a column in the corner -
It would have originated much farther back in the design process.
Once they chose the angle of the hangers and placement of the supercolumns, then physics took over.
The top slab of the "block" being hung is cantilevered out really far and needs support from below.
Compare to the North Tower at Bay Adelaide where the corner is column-free.
It's steel consutruction and a diagonal steel beam supports the corner from columns,
one of which is quite close to the corner
Maybe The One could have framed out each hanger corner with steel girders for support, but maybe that was too expensive?
PS - that column-free renderng really is misleading, because the column-free corner floor wouldn't have a hanger in the middle of the view, it would be next to the supercolumn.