Aldar Headquarters: Abu Dhabi's circular marvel redefines skyline and sustainability

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

The building’s most striking feature is its diagrid, a lattice of crossing steel members that forms the structure itself. The design removes the need for internal columns, which means the views are preserved in both directions. Those outside see an uncluttered form, and those inside look out without obstruction.

It is also a first. The steel diagrid used here is the first of its kind in the United Arab Emirates, which makes Aldar Headquarters a pioneer in the country’s construction history as well as a landmark on its skyline.

Fast and smart

An ambitious form is only worth something if it can be delivered, and the project faced a deadline that demanded careful planning. To meet it, columns, stairs and toilet modules were made off site in advance rather than assembled piece by piece on the spot. Prefabricating these elements sped up construction.

The design team also tackled the facade. By reducing the number of differently sized glass panels by a factor of 1,000, they made the job of building a curved tower far more manageable. The change had a second benefit. With so much less variation in the glazing, the floor edges could be set out using a simple circular shape. Construction became faster, and tenants gained a more flexible space to work with.

It is a good example of how a complex-looking building can be made simpler to build without losing its character. The team achieved the striking circular design within the project’s challenging timescales.

Taken underground

The circular idea extends from the building’s form to its resources. For Aldar Headquarters, Arup introduced an underground waste collection system, the first of its kind in Abu Dhabi. Rather than relying on conventional collection, the design allows waste to be transferred directly to a local waste station, where it can be compacted and recycled.

The system is one of the project’s two headline deliveries, alongside the steel diagrid. Together they show an effort to make a landmark building work harder, so that it adds to a recycling process as well as to a skyline.

Behind the curves

Arup stresses that the building was never meant to be only an object to admire. Functionality was a priority, and the aim was a comfortable workspace for the people who use it every day. Two features support that aim: energy-efficient cooling systems and low-energy lighting controls.

The building’s environmental performance has been formally recognised. It holds a silver rating under the US Green Building Council’s LEED system, one of the best-known benchmarks for sustainable buildings.

The diagrid that frees the interior also gives the tower its distinctive outer pattern. Since its completion, Aldar Headquarters has become a treasured part of Abu Dhabi’s skyline.