Architects are always creating new and interesting building designs. One way to add interest to a structure’s façade is to create elaborate and sometimes irregularly shaped cut-outs to help a design stand out against a backdrop of ordinary office buildings. The cut-outs themselves can function as non-traditional windows, purely decorative embellishments or as something altogether more high-tech. The 0-14 Tower is the high-tech sort, bringing a dash of innovation to an area of 200 repli-buildings including many abandoned projects.
From a distance, the 0-14 Tower looks like a giant chunk of Swiss cheese – except that this particular slice of cheese has been sculpted with rounded corners and sides that are pinched in towards the core. Its curtain-wall, which comprises of 1,326 randomly sized holes, is more than just a façade - it’s an external structural lattice allowing the building to be column-free.
What’s more, the exoskeleton acts as a giant solar shade. The large holes aren’t glazed; rather there is secondary glazing that spans between the floors, one metre behind the main façade. This creates a stack effect due to the air being pulled up the full height of the building. Accordingly the office block should require about 30 per cent less energy to cool.
Slated to be completed in August this year, we’re guessing that the designers of the district’s other towers have just gone back to the drawing board.
Contact:
Dubai Contracting Company
P.O.Box 232, Dubai, UAE
971 4 333 7100
www.dcc-group.com
