Elegant Glazing of Capital Gate Tower

Abu Dhabi will be home to one of the world's great buildings - Capital Gate, an iconic and avant-garde building that blends the beauty of the wave with the power of technical advancement.

Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC) has revealed that glazing work on the iconic Capital Gate Tower, currently under construction next to Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, is almost complete. This “Capital Gate” has been designed by the New York firm RMJM architects.

Capital Gate forms the focal point of Capital Centre, the business and residential micro city being developed by ADNEC around the thriving Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. When fully complete, Capital Gate will feature the 5-star hotel - 'Hyatt at Capital Centre' besides playing host to some of the most exclusive office space in the UAE capital. The Capital Gate is a 160m-tall leaning tower in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The architecture of the Capital Gate tower is dotted with monster glass panels. Monster glass panels for Abu Dhabi’s 'leaning tower' development have arrived on what the project team claims is the world’s biggest flat bed truck. The panels are for the Capital Gate building, which architect RMJM recently submitted for the Guinness Book of Records as the ‘world’s most inclined building’. It has a tilt of 18 degrees – over four times more than the Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa.

More than 12,500 individually shaped glass panels have been installed on Capital Gate's façade in a complex engineering feat which has taken ADNEC and its construction partners ten months to complete. In an intricate operation, 728custom-made glass panels have been used. Each pane of glass had to be a slightly different shape and fitted at a different angle due to the building's unique lean and its curved profile. The first two glazing panels are weighing approximately 5 tonnes each.

The tower's unique shape and character made the installation of the glazing particularly challenging for our engineers. It is a compliment to all involved that the installation took place during ADNEC's busiest year ever for exhibitions and events; yet, there was no disruption to the visitors or exhibitors.

The glass panes on Capital Gate make up more than 700 larger glass "diamonds," and were manufactured in the United Sates with the steel frames holding the glass precision-cut in Austria before being shipped to the UAE. ADNEC stored the glass panels away from the construction site and delivered them as needed, on enormous flatbed trucks. Once they reached the Capital Gate construction site they were meticulously placed into the correct position by on-site engineers.

The RMJM project team is using the glass to create a new kind of glazing system called ‘Cardinal C240’, which is anti-glare but also highly transparency. The glass used is a highly energy-efficient and low 'e' category glass. This glass has two silver coatings which minimise glare and maximise light transmission. The double glazed façade will allow natural daylight into the building while boosting energy efficiency and shielding users from harmful glare.The use of this advanced variety of glass is a 'first' for the UAE. The 'pressure-plate' system that has been developed for the steel frame which holds each pane in place guarantees the water tightness of the façade and allows thinner panes of glass to be used, thereby reducing the weight of the glazing system.

The lean and curve of the building added considerable complexity to the glazing process. A few glass panes have deliberately been left out to ensure that adequate ventilation exists prior to the installation of the air conditioning.

Due to its unique shape, Capital Gate is being constructed on top of a concrete raft with a dense mesh of reinforced steel. The steel Diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 30m underground to accommodate the gravitational and wind loads. The angles and dimensions of the building facade have been meticulously designed to ensure that each individually shaped panel accurately defines the shape of this magnificent structure.