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Project Name:
Dubai Towers
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Client:
Dubai Municipality,
United Arab Emirates |
Location:
Dubai Creek,
Dubai, United Arab Emirates |
Date Start: Expected 2000
Completion Date: - |
Nos. of Storeys:
Up
to 18 Storeys (over 27 blocks) |
Site Area:
1.34 million
sq.ft.
(30.8 acres or 12.5 hectares) |
Areas:
Total built-up area: 863,550 sq.m. gross |
Plot Ratio: 1 : 4.5 |
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Design Features
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The project is located in a prominent
waterfront site between five famous sectors in central
Dubai; Clock Tower, City-center, Dubai International
Golf Club, Alkhor Park and AlMaktoum Bridge. |
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The site enjoys panoramic views
across the river to Alkhor and Alkhor Park to the
South and Alkhor Park and the Golf Club to the South-East. |
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The site has an area of over
1.3 million sq.ft. with a permissible Floor Area
Ratio (FAR) of 1:5, which gives the development
great flexibility in design and use, and high potential
economic returns. However, there is a building height
restriction of 13 storeys or 55m which places a
constraint on the site's building massing. |
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The site is located in a heavy
traffic zone area at the crossing of AlMaktoum interchange
expansion with Baniyas main road. Due to its proximity
the intersection, the site has limited vehicular
access points off the main road. The road frontage
is also limited as the South-Western boundary is
taken up by the water front. |
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The brief calls for a mixed-use
complex with housing, offices, touristic and commercial
uses, as well as landscape areas. |
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Masterplanning
The project's Masterplan overall objective is to
address the street frontage and the river frontage.
Water is brought into this site to enable access
by boat and to contribute to lowering the ambient
temperature of the development (see below).
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Site Massing
The massing proposal for this scheme addresses
the existing site density and height restriction
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All carparking spaces are
located in the basement in order to free up
the ground level for landscaping and recreational
use. By placing the cars in the basement,
the building height can also be reduced. |
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Water is brought into the
site to create internal views and to increase
the waterfront recreational space (e.g. marina,
waterfront promenade etc.). |
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The buildings fronting
the water is elevated at ground level, freeing
up extra space for recreational use. |
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Increase in building height
to 70m. Informal discussions held with the
Dept. of Civil Aviation suggests that there
may be a relaxation in building height restrictions
from 55m to 70m. |
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Hotel
The Hotel is located at the most visible position
from the main road at the northern corner
on the site. The Hotel is served by a high-class
vehicle drop-off with convenient car parking
located underneath.
The hotel suites has views both to the waterfront
to the West and the city centre to the North.
Its 'horse-shoe' shape frames the swimming
pool deck while directing the views toward
the creek beyond.
The Hotel serves the business demand generated
by the proposed office buildings as well as
tourists to this location. The nearby tourist
attractions such as the City Centre shopping
mall, Dubai Creek Golf Club and Creekside
Park would be further enhanced by the proposed
new waterfront development and shopping mall.
Serviced Apartments
The Serviced Apartments are connected to the
Hotel for central servicing and shared use
of club facilities. The apartments have direct
views towards the waterfront and new marina
bay.
The Hotel and Serviced Apartments are located
on the nothern segment of the site separated
by the new marina bay to differentiate it
from the rest of the development. This allows
for better security of its premises.
Apartments
The Apartments are located at the waterfront
edge and command the best views in the development.
The Apartments benefit from a close relationship
to the office towers and retail shopping mall.
Each apartment block has a separate car drop-off
to the main lobby and are directly accessible
from the basement carparking underneath.
Offices
The Offices are located on the East side of
the development to take advantage of the road
frontage. It is essential that these offices
are very visible from the surrounding streets.
The office blocks sit above the retail podium.
Each office block has a separate car drop-off
on the Lower Ground (promenade) level and
are directly accessible from the basement
carparking underneath.
Retail
The retail shopping centre directly faces
Baniyas Road and has its main entrances off
the street level.
The roof of the shopping centre is landscaped
with shopping pavillions. They command panoramic
views over the marina and creek.
The carparking is located underneath the mall
and are directly accessible via escalators
and lifts.
Mosque
The Mosque is located on an 'island' site
directly at the waterfront. The mosque faces
west towards Mecca.
Carparking
The carparking for this development is located
on the lower ground and basement levels due
to space limitations and height restrictions.
Very little ground level parking is provided
and where this is provided it is with dropping
VIP's, women and families in mind.
The top level of the carparking (lower ground
floor) is the drop off level for the offices.
This level is semi submerged and receives
natural light and ventilatation. It is served
by a wide and spacious 'boulevard' road which
has views of the water.
Section Concept
Pedestrian and vehicular traffic are separated
through a device of vertical segregation of
people above and vehicles below. In this way,
the linkage between building elements is optimised
and conflicts with external traffic conditions
and circulation are avoided. |
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Bioclimatic Aspects
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Landscaping
Landscaping and planting to lower ambient
micro-climate temperatures as well as to re-introduce
organic mass back into the essentially urban
and mostly inorganic location.
Ground and vertical landscaping is used extensively
around the development. This is achieved by
extending the landscaping from the waterfront
promenade level up to the retail podium roof
in one continuous plane, below the elevated
the building blocks. Landscaped skycourts
are introduced in the upper floors of the
buildings.
Earth excavated from the new marinas are used
to create landscaped mounds between the elevated
buildings and the basement carparking roof,
reducing costly export of earth from the site.
The earth acts as thermal insulation for rooftops.
Wind and Natural
Ventilation
The orientation of the building blocks at
right angles to the water front encourage
free movement of air between the building
blocks assisting the natural cooling of the
buildings. The porosity of the building facades
assists in channelling air through the site
while vertical gaps act as thermal flues moving
air vertically and in doing so cools the building
fabric.
In traditional buildings this movement of
air has been utilised in the use of "Towers
of Wind" to ventilate occupied accomodation.
This principle is used in the development
to ventilate the carpark floors. Large light
and ventilation wells from the podium roof
into the basements function as wind towers,
drawing fresh air into the basement and extracting
used air out.
Shading
Shading of both primary and external spaces
is an essential and important part of the
design. The need is there to protect the treated
internal environment from direct solar radiation
and in doing so reduce the energy demand of
the building's environmental systems and at
the same time improve the overall comfort
of the spaces.
Sunshade structures emanate as external
louvered screen attachments to the facade
of the buildings. The space between the
external screen and the windows are cooled
by wind movement (see external wall section).
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Building Concepts
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Hotel Concept
The Hotel is a in the 5-star luxury category
with 400 large bedrooms and suites. It is
layed out in a 'horse shoe' configuration
with its center courtyard housing the swimming
pool and outdoor cafes. Each wing has a centre
corridor dividing rooms with views to the
courtyard and the city centre/ creek. The
corridors are punctuated by common lounge
areas and skycourts which provide natural
light and relieves monotony. The tips of each
wing is reserved for suites with direct views
across the creek.
The hotel is connected to the retail mall
on levels 2 & 3. On level 4, the the hotel
has direct access to the podium roof garden
which terraces down to the marina and waterfront
promenade. The rooftop garden terraces offers
spectacular views over waterfront and the
creekside park beyond.
Central services such as the main kitchen,
laundary, and service access are located at
the center of the 'horse-shoe' configuration
on the lower floors of the Hotel. The Hotel
is served by a high-class vehicle drop-off
facing Baniyas Road. Underground parking is
provided in the basement floors directly below.
Apartments Concept
There are 10 Apartment blocks and 1 serviced
apartment block in this development. These
are located on the side of the development
facing the creek. Nearly all apartments in
this development overlook of the waterfront.
This is achieved by bringing water into the
site for the new marina bays, which increases
the waterfront considerably.
The apartments blocks are linear in nature.
This encourage cross ventilation through the
apartments. The units are accessed from single
loaded corridors overlooking landscaped courtyards
(between 2 blocks of apartments). Duplex unit
layout provides for greater variety of space
and more access to facade with views by requiring
only one access corridor every 2 floors..
The ends of the apartment blocks cantilevers
over the waterfront edge. They house common
facilities such as the gymnasium, coffee house
and function rooms on the lower floors and
special penthouse units on the upper floors.
These spaces are given special elevational
treatment to appear as beacons at night.
To maintain a relatively column-free space
on the waterfront promenade level, the internal
apartment columns are supported by a vierendeel
trusses at the base of the apartment blocks,
on level 5. All plumbing services from the
apartments are diverted to service cores on
this level.
Retail Concept
The Retail Shopping Mall is designed to take
advantage of its waterfront location and to
cater to the development population mix of
residents, tourists, marina users and office
workers.
The Shopping Mall will be anchored by a departmental
store and will contain a supermarket, an international
food court, speciality boating shops by the
marina, outdoor and indoor cafes/restaurants,
souvenier shops, fashion boutiques and other
speciality shops.
The site for the mall was determined to be
the optimum location within the development
because of the opportunity for visual exposure
on three sides and good vehicular access.
The mall is positioned between Baniyas Road
and the waterfront area to act as a visual
and noise buffer.
Retail Strategy
The shopping mall has several porte cochere
off the main access road running parallel
to Baniyas Road, facilitating auto drop-off
for shoppers. The mall has a striking facade
with a porous external skin, revealing in
portions circulation ramps, skycourts and
the interiors of the shopping mall. The facade
suggests a hive of activities within the mall,
and draws visual interest and curiosity into
the mall from the main road.
The mall is linked to the surrounding apartments,
offices and hotel component of the development
via a network of landscaped pedestrian routes.
These circulation networks contribute to excellent
access and exposure for retailers from shoppers
living or working within the complex.
Cars are brought into the shopping mall carpark
on the Lower Ground Floor and Basement 1 via
wide car ramps on each end of the shopping
complex, and one at the center. Once on the
carpark level, shoppers drive along a lush
landscaped 'boulevard' with views to the waterfront
to their designated carparking areas. The
entries to vertical circulation escalators
leading to the shopping level is marked by
large light wells. These light wells also
function as wind towers, drawing fresh air
from the podium roof level and extracting
air from the basement.
The internal circulation within the shopping
mall is organised in a loop confiruration
along the longitudinal axis of the mall. A
three-level departmental store, supermarket
and food court is located at one end of the
loop while speciality shops line the circulation
loop.
The roof of the mall is an open landscaped
plaza with retail pavillions reserved for
restaurant and cafes with outdoor seating
overlooking the marina.
Office Concept
The offices are located above the retail podium.
The offices have their entrance and car drop-off
lobbies on the Lower Ground floor of the podium.
The lift cores are located on either ends
of the office building giving uninterrupted
office space for its tenants. The rectangular
floor plan with minimal columns allows maximum
flexibility for the interior partitioning
of the floors. The elongated plan provides
for maximum natural lighting into the interior
spaces.
High level links between office buildings
enable one to access the next block without
having to return to the ground floor lobby.
This also facilitates amalgamation of office
spaces between blocks for office expansion. |
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| Project Team : |
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Principal-in-charge :
Dr. Ken Yeang
Design Architects :
Ridzwa Fathan
Yvonne Ho
Azman Che Mat
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Project Architect :
Andy Chong
Project Team:
Stephanie Lee
See Ee Ling
Paul Campanelli
Loh Mun Chee
Margaret Ng |
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| International
Consultants: |
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C&S Engineers :
Buro Happold Consulting Engineers
Quantity Surveyor:
Juru Ukur Bahan Malaysia
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M&E Engineers:
Buro Happold Consulting Engineers
Local Architect:
The Abdul Jalil Crocker Partnership
and Holford Associates |
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Basic
Information for Obtaining Estimation of Property Sales
Price |
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