060 DOHA REPORT / BURJ DOHA
FULL SCREEN VIEW
For his contribution to the Doha skyline, architect Jean Nouvel created a tower whose layers of latticework screens provided protection from the sun... and a canvas for a a full height ‘gold and silver’ façade scheme.
Nowhere is Doha’s relentless march of structural investment more apparent than along the Corniche Road, the central edge of the Qatari capital. Over the last decade the city’s skyline, in particular towards the corniche’s northern tip, has been trans- formed by a series of new towers whose varying shapes – the legacy of computer-cal- culated modeling - jostle for attention. The Burj Doha (Doha Tower) is among the newest of these. Designed by Atelier Jean Nouvel, its architecture employs a series of innovative construction techniques to create a building both subtly traditional and strikingly modern in style. Constructed without the central support column com- mon to most skyscrapers, the Burj is instead formed from a circumference wall of reinforced concrete dia-grid columns. Giant X-shaped pieces are linked to create the
building’s tubular skeleton from which its 44 floors are suspended.
Beyond a glass wall a continuous steel latticework covers the exterior. Like the reactive metallic irises famously used on Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the tower’s facade mimics a traditional moucharabieh screen, using it to mitigate the effects of the region’s intense sunshine. Unlike the Institut, here the latticework is static, but layered to create a visual tex- ture and complexity. In areas most exposed to direct rays, extra, denser layers are used to cope with summer temperatures that often rise above 50ºC.
It was clear in the early planning stages that this layered façade would give the Burj a graceful dignity, but a question remained about its nighttime character. To this end, Nouvel called upon his old friend and long-
time collaborator Yann Kersale to develop an appropriate lighting scheme. Kersale conceptualised a dynamic design that would ripple between ‘gold’ and ‘silver’. His vision was to light behind the lattice cladding of the tower to give a jewel-like quality that would be highly visible to the surrounding area, those flying into the airport and those on ships in the bay. The team began investigating ways of realising Kersale’s vision.
The solution, it transpired, was to be found within the pages of mondo*arc. After spot- ting their advert in the magazine, a call was placed to Insta UK and a meeting arranged. Insta UK’s Jon Estell met the client’s Lon- don-based representative to discuss options. “He explained that it was an exterior lighting project for a new tower that required a luminaire capable of
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204