Valeria Zamora Marco

    The project is located in Dubai, one of the World Bank headquarters and an economic hub of the Persian Gulf. The site is near the salty river Creek and surrounded by hotels and residential buildings. It lines up with the 4th street, one of the main shopping streets and a main artery in the city.

 

    The volume, symbolic, reminds a huge chimney, a device used in oriental countries to produce air currents inside buildings. The comfort is the main theme of the project which is based on the temperature and lighting control to ensure the best working conditions.

 

    The program goes along with the air. First while entering the lobby, where the air is cooled down before arriving in the workspace. Afterwards along the tube, where workspaces and lounges alternate on each side. Workspaces, in the south side, are uniform platforms whose size changes with height. The lounges, in double height, are placed on the north wall and include different sizes.

 

    The building works as a machine to capture air and filter light to improve working conditions inside. The design is based on the Bernoulli principle, which gives the relation between the opening of the air access, the height of the building and the speed of the air. It has been also inspired by the traditional houses of Hasan Faty. The air entrance is situated on the ground floor south side. The choice of this side allows benefiting from the breeze that comes from the river Creek. In the lobby the air refreshes thanks to the humidity crated by a water basin buried some meters on earth. Once refreshed, it goes up and replaces the stale air from workspaces. The roof pitched in two directions (prevailing wind from north or south depending on the moment of the year) increases the speed of air and decrease the pressure, producing the suction and evacuation of the inside airs of the building.

The light is filtered through aluminum skin blades. In the working areas blades are allowed to rotate to let the natural light penetrate in the building. 

 

    In case on rain water gets stocked into a tank which communicates with the water basin. When the water falls in the basin it produces a sound effect into the building.