Dancing on the rooftops in Abu Dhabi
Steven Velegrinis, Urban Design Practice Leader, Woods Bagot
On 24 October at the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, the Commercial Interior Design awards were held. There were 15 award categories in total, covering the entire spectrum of commercial interiors, from hospitality and retail, to public sector and institutional. Woods Bagot was fortunate enough to receive two of those awards - Outdoor Design of the Year and Office of the Year for the Tawazun Office in Abu Dhabi.
Tawazun, the investment company created by the Offset Program Bureau, was established to support economic diversification in the UAE and manage the country’s defence industry. The new office for Tawazun occupies the top two floors and roof of the Al Mammoura Building in Abu Dhabi as well as the rooftop area.
The roof environment was a most inhospitable one and had not been designed to support a roof garden. In summer roof temperatures in excess of 70 degrees centigrade occurred prior to the development. Accordingly the entire garden needed to minimise weight, structure, water use and mask the unsightly elements of the structure while substantially reducing temperatures.
Overall the tenancy has been treated with a hospitality touch, much like a glamourous boutique hotel. This aesthetic also extends to the rooftop staff recreational area which includes reflection ponds, sunken seating, a library, a dining area and a garden. A new internal staircase between the two floors and the rooftop helps to physically link the spaces and provides direct access for staff.
In order to ensure a reasonable level of thermal comfort a large louvered parasol is constructed over much of the roof garden area, substantially reducing thermal heat gain.
Continuing the linearity of the floor materials for the adjacent interior dining area the roof deck, materials were varied to create a barcode pattern that runs horizontally and continues vertically up the parapet wall. The wall itself includes planters sunken into and projecting from the walls to break down the mass of the parapet structures and make them part of the roof garden experience. The projecting planters provide a dynamic ‘dancing’ quality to the vertical elements, animating an otherwise negative feature.
The barcode strips are expressed in a recycled timber/PET composite and synthetic turf to create vivid contrasting patterns. These materials were chosen both for their sustainability and lifecycle benefits, but also because they manage to substantially reduce heat gain and ambient temperatures without requiring water.
The five large planters built up from the roof slab contain olive and lemon trees and also provide outdoor seating. Aside from being tolerant of the hot windy conditions they have cultural relevance for the region and are productive fruiting plants in the spirit of oases planting. Other planting is dominated by lower water-consuming shrubs and groundcovers purposely combined to add colour and visual interest.
To enable landscape treatments and minimise damage to existing structures and waterproofing the entire system is built upon a suspended steel structure allowing the system to be demountable. This also allows for the pre-existing Building Maintenance Unit to continue operation without restriction.
While Estidama generally discourages Roof Gardens largely because of their water consumption the Tawazun Roof Garden achieves significant thermal insulation without excessive use of water. In doing so it does what roof gardens do best – substantially reduce urban heat island effect without compromising overall water consumption.
A restrained use of water occurs to create the psychological cooling effect and draw the eye from inside to outside.
The project therefore reflects an innovative response to extreme challenges of temperature, lack of load-bearing capacity for extensive landscape treatments, existing BMU infrastructure and limited water to realise a functional garden that is comfortable, cool and beautiful.
