Abu Dhabi: Some buildings announce themselves with height alone. Aldar Headquarters, on the Al Raha Beach development in Abu Dhabi, makes its case with a shape. Rising 121 metres across 23 storeys, this commercial building is defined by the circle, a form that shapes how it looks, how it was built, how it works and, in a quieter way, how it deals with its waste.
That is what the engineers behind it mean when they call it circular “in more ways than one”. The word describes the floor plan, and it also describes a way of thinking about resources.
Built around ambition
The engineering and consultancy firm Arup served as lead consultant. It worked closely with the developer, Aldar Properties, and with the construction company Laing O’Rourke to turn an ambitious circular design into a working building. MZ Associates also took part as a partner on the project. The building was completed in 2010.
Arup’s contribution went well beyond the headline design. Its services spanned building envelope and facade engineering, ground engineering and hydrogeology, mechanical engineering, and public health engineering. Each of these disciplines had to serve the same goal: a round tower that works as well as it looks.
A skeleton you can see through
