Page 65 - Glass-Technology International no. 2/2018

Photo credit: © Zaha Hadid Architects P tower “the building plete, it will accommodate a climates in particular, a

roject developer Om-
five-star hotel, restaurants,
warm edge must achieve
niyat calls ‘The Opus’
office space and luxury
outstanding levels of per-
that never sleeps”. The
in order to hermetically
magnificent
arrangement
‘THE VOID’:
seal the space between the
of the vibrant building en- apartments. formance over decades
AN ENGINEERING
velope pushes the limits MASTERPIECE panes. Due to the ther-
of what is technologically mal interaction between
feasible with advanced en- After Zaha Hadid unveiled hot sunlight and shadows,
gineering evident in the the spectacular design in strong mechanical forces
end result. Edgetech Super 2007, the ‘Dream Tower’ permanently act on the
®
™
Spacer TriSeal are also immediately landed on the edge compound due to the
installed in the massive 3D top ten wish list of lead- movement of the glass.
puzzle in downtown Dubai. ing industrial companies. By day, the facade reflects
Daniel Zhang, Edgetech/ the sky, sun, water and the
ZAHA HADID’S Quanex Sales Manager for futuristic architecture. At
VISION: A FLOATING China, explains the fasci- night, on the other hand,
CUBE THAT HAS BEEN nation it held for architects ‘The Void’ that is illumi-
HOLLOWED OUT and facade builders: ‘The nated with spectacular
FROM THE INSIDE
Opus’ was a Black-Box LED installations to con-
“We do not build nice, small project. At the start no-one nect the building with the
buildings,” Hadid told the was able to say how the or- pulsating metropolis. To
British Guardian in 2013, ganic glass facade, based this end, LEDs that can
referring to mundane, rec- on Hadid’s ideas, cover- be individually controlled
tangular buildings. For ‘The ing an area of some 6,000 were installed in each glass
Opus’ at the world’s most square meters, could be panel. The transparent fa-
popular architectural play- made to completely appear cades of the two rectan-
ground in the Burj district of as a flowing surface. The gular reinforced concrete
Dubai, Zaha Hadid had the building as it now stands is towers are made of double-
vision of a cube hollowed an all-encompassing, engi- glazed insulating glass with
out from the inside for the neering masterpiece. Each a UV coating and printed
21-storey building that of the 4,544 glass units for coloured layers of differ-
seems to be floating above the dark blue glazed void ent sized dots. On the one
the ground floor. And in- is a custom-made individ- hand, they imbue the facade
deed, like an ice cube that is ual item, and what’s more with a unique vitality, on
melting away under the hot the vast majority of them the other hand, they reflect
desert sun, ‘The Opus’ also consist of curved double- the light and thus reduce
leaves people in the build- glazed insulating glass the levels of solar input and
ing’s interior with a free units with irregular shapes. glare. Teams from different
view of the breath-taking ar- This meant automated ap- specialist disciplines such
chitecture of the surround- plication was out of the as facade builder Alu Nasa,
ing area: of the Dubai Water question. Nor could a rigid consultants from Koltay Fa-
Canal, the new opera house spacer be used, which does cades in Dubai, Pilkington
or the Burj Khalifa and the not bend without kinks Glass, the insulating glass
Dubai Mall. The construc- and which certainly cannot manufacturer Shennanyi
tion work commenced in be freely moulded. Only and also the spacer supplier
2012 and the final work on a flexible spacer was able Edgetech have contributed
the building envelope was to meet the requirements their collective expertise to
completed in October 2017. in terms of impermeabil- the realisation of the ‘The
When the interiors com- ity and appearance. In hot Void’. The lower end of the

Glass-Technology International 2/2018 63