17;d expect from a luxury hotel in Dubai. There’s an observation deck with views over the city and four pools in total, with the highest being a level 76 infinity pool. It may now be the tallest hotel in the world.
But that wasn’t the initial brief. The whole project started with the question of how to build a thousand room hotel on an awkward plot of land sandwiched between the Cayen Tower and the D94 road. property is a triangular shaped piece of land. It’s uh given our aspirations which is a thousand room hotel.
It’s not easy to place a thousand room hotel on this property. But what made the site even more awkward was that the CL Dubai Marina wasn’t the first project to leave its mark here. A previous canceled construction project left the ground studded with piled foundations which would have to be used by anything Yaha and his team designed.
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The starting point for No’s concept was a basic cuboid tower sitting on top of a podium. As the tower grew, the awkward site it sat on began to really influence its shape. Any future guest of the hotel will enjoy sea views of the Persian Gulf and the iconic Palm Jama. But the relationship with the sea is two-way.
With nothing in front of the tower to shield it, CL Dubai Marina faces the full force of the wind rolling in from the coast. Now, down at ground level, that’s nothing to be too concerned about. But once you’re 300 m up in the air, that puts a huge strain on the building structure.
But the reality is that all super tall buildings, buildings over 300 m in height, wind becomes a primary structural consideration. You’ve no doubt seen low-rise buildings thrown up in cube or cuboid form. At this height, it’s a much much cheaper and more efficient way to build than introducing something with dramatic curves. But that same shape extended to the height of a skyscraper acts as a huge sail against the wind.
A taller building needs much more structural support to maintain its stability with such a huge force acting against it. That’s why skyscrapers, especially super tall skyscrapers, tend to embrace a much more playful form. At this height, all those twists and curves become the more efficient option. Yaya and his team spent two years experimenting with different forms to find the perfect shape.
Hundreds of scale models were built and wind tested before this tapered oval shape was settled on. Turned slightly into the wind, this shape allows air to pass around it with the minimal vortex shedding on the other side. But it was the requirement for a viewing platform that created the most stunning feature, the eye of the needle. So we wanted to elevate the tower and we wanted to put a deck um at about 370 m above grade.
And the the most economical and efficient way to do that was to make a cutout so that the wind could go through the top of the building rather than become another lateral force that we need to deal with. In other words, the eye of the needle kind of serves two purposes. It allows the building to have a viewing platform significantly higher than the top of the building while also providing a space that can be used by the hotel to maximize those stunning views.
It all sounds great in theory, but how do you actually build something like this? Well, like everything, it all starts with the foundations. 21 new piles were added to the site before being capped off with a 12,000 m rough foundation. To avoid the high cost of steel, the design team used concrete as the main structural material, developing a single core design reinforced by a series of radial buttresses rising the height of the tower.
Using a jump form system, these structural elements were poured first, followed by post-tensioned concrete floor slabs measuring almost 2 1/2 m at their thickest point. Once again, in an effort to increase the building’s wind resistance, its mechanical flaws were reinforced by a system of outrigger beams. These work by providing extra rigidity against the lateral force of the wind hitting the building.
Without outriggers, buildings are more likely to bend in the wind. Now, these elements consist of a beam or a wall that is more capable of taking this load without deforming. In the case of the CL Dubai Marina, that meant the building’s mechanical floors featured a series of eight beams connecting the building’s radio walls to the core.
The core was then reinforced at the joins in the beams to enable it to take the weight, while a belt wall was created on the building’s perimeter to allow it to do the same thing. Once the structure was complete, the building’s glass curtain wall was installed behind it. Flat glass panels were delivered to site before being transformed using a cold bending technique.
Now, cold bending allows for a shallow degree of bending which was factored in at the design stage. Models were run to find the balance between the need for a more repetitive and therefore efficient production process and a curved design that would effectively deflect the wind. It was just one more detail of this tower that was shaped and dictated by the need to withstand the elements.
Because this structures core and radial wall system was so strong, it allowed Yaya and the team to design what’s possibly the building’s most defining feature. What we found with that concept is that we could carve away some of the slab and that allowed us to insert these atria these 12 atrium gardens which vary from about six floors to eight floors in height.
So, we were able to remove slabs to create these quasi public communal spaces. Louvers on the side of the atrium allow the building to automatically regulate air flow into the space. Once inside, this cooling effect is enhanced by the atrium’s height, which effectively creates a giant chimney, drawing in warmer air to the top of the space.
It also enables this vast area to be cooled with a minimal energy cost from the building. Once again, it’s another feature where the wind was not only a consideration, but actually used to the advantage of the design of the structure. If these extravagant spaces had been air conditioned, the cost in energy would have been so high that it wouldn’t really been possible to build them.
Not that any of the buildings pampered guests would notice that the building was completed in 2024 and is currently being fitted out to open as the latest addition to IHG’s vignette collection of hotels. So rather than thinking of wind dynamics and structural design, if you’re lucky enough to afford one of the 147 luxury suites, you’re more likely to be enjoying the world’s highest infinity pool, the luxury spa, or one of the many fine dining options.
In a city as laden with skyscrapers as this, it’s easy to take for granted how uniquely challenging each of these Goliaths can be. From innovative designs to formidable construction, we’ll just have to wait and see what Dubai has in store for us next. This video was sponsored by Masterworks. You can learn more about that at the link below.
Don’t forget that we’re inspiring the next generation of builders through our investment into Brick Borrow, a fantastic LEGO subscription service. You can learn more and get started today over at brickbarro.com. And as always guys, if you enjoyed this video and you want to get more from the definitive video channel for construction, make sure you’re subscribed to the B1M.
