Can It Be Built - Capital Gate Tower

Leaning Sky Scrapper - (Capital Gate-Abu Dhabi)

CAPITAL GATE, owned and developed in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, by ADNEC (Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company), has been certified as the “World’s Furthest Leaning Manmade Tower” by Guinness World Records.

The 160-meter high tower leans at an angle of 18 degrees, more than 4 times the angle of the Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa. Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company is the owner and developer of the tower. The tower is designed by international architectural firm RMJM. The tower is being built using many innovative techniques that contribute to its unique shape and strength.

The Capital Gate floor plates are stacked vertically up to the 12^th storey after which, they are staggered over each other by between 300mm to 1400mm giving rise to the tower’s dramatic lean.

The Capital Gate tower features other innovative construction techniques including the world’s first known use of a ‘pre-cambered’ core, which contains more than 15,000 cubic metres of concrete reinforced with 10,000 tons of steel. The core, deliberately built slightly off centre, has straightened as the building has risen, compressing the concrete and giving it strength, and moving into (vertical) position as the weight of the floors has been added.

Some Salient Features

Besides CAPITAL GATE’S gravity-defying lean and its pre-cambered core, the tower has several other elements that enhance its reputation as one of the world’s most distinctive projects:

• Each room is different as is each pane of façade glass and every interior angle.
• CAPITAL GATE’s shell comprises a super-strong exo-skeleton called the diagrid that carries all the weight of the floors while also providing an unobstructed floor plate precluding the need for pillars or internal beams. Other high-profile buildings that use diagrid technology include New York’s Hearst Tower, the Swiss Re building (‘The Gherkin’) in London and Beijing’s CCTV tower.
• CAPITAL GATE’s double-glazed façade achieves greater energy efficiency with waste air being pre-cooled between the inner and outer façades, before being expelled.
• The Capital Gate tower’s façade glass is of low emissivity and is the first time it has been used in the UAE. It keeps the building’s interior cool and eliminates glare, while maintaining transparency.
• The distinctive stainless steel ‘splash’ that descends from the 19^th floor, is a design element and a shading device that eliminates over 30 percent of the sun’s heat before it reaches the Capital Gate building. The splash also twists around the building towards the south to shield the tower as much as possible from direct sunlight.
• CAPITAL GATE’s 19^th storey outdoor swimming pool has an unrivalled panoramic view.
• A cantilevered tea lounge overhangs the tower’s exterior, 80m above the ground.
• CAPITAL GATE also has an internal diagrid that has been used to create a tapered, 60m high atrium.
• The tower’s foundation is a dense mesh of reinforced steel above 490 piles, drilled 20 - 30 meters underground.

National Geographic Documentary

You can download the documentary by National Geographic on Capital Gate from the following links.

Download-Part 1
Download-Part 2

Note: If you like this movie, I strongly suggest you to buy it on DVD or some other media! Support the authors!