Yas Hotel – Glass Panels For An Elegant Façade

The skyline of Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates is dotted with elegant buildings and super-tall skyscrapers that play the roles of corporate & commercial facilities, business towers, hotels, residences and so on. Yas Hotel recently made it to the list of among the most eye-catching architectural structures in Abu Dhabi by its differentially designed towers with glass on their exteriors.

The Yas Hotel is one of the main features of the ambitious 36-billion-dollar Yas Marina development and accompanying Formula 1 raceway circuit in Abu Dhabi. Yas Hotel is a 85,000-sqm complex of breath-taking structures, underneath the glass-and-steel garment of which, it offers visitors 500 rooms and a five-star array of facilities and amenities – eight restaurants, four bars, lavish recreational facilities including an 18-hole golf course and a 143-berth marina, and access to nearby attractions like the Ferrari World Theme Park.

Glass Panels

Yas Hotel consists of two conjoined 12-storey towers forming a T-intersection. These two towers are linked by a bridge over a racetrack and are covered in glass. A canopy made of a 217-meter expanse of sweeping, curvilinear forms constructed of steel and 5,800 pivoting diamond-shaped glass panels support the towers and bridge.

Grid shell

A ‘Grid-Shell’ visually connects and fuses the entire complex together while producing optical effects and spectral reflections that play against the surrounding sky, sea and desert landscape. The architecture as a whole “performs” as both an environmentally receptive solution as well as a visual spectacle.

During the daytime, the grid shell functions as an adjustable windscreen, assisting in thermal and ventilation control through its controlled reflectivity, along with offering a distinct biomorphic scaly texture. During the night, it converts the hotel into a massive light source and assumes a different kind of biomorphic form, akin to the graceful forms of luminescent jellyfish.

This project can claim global leadership in two respects: It is the first building ever constructed across a Formula 1 racetrack, and is reportedly the world's largest LED project to date. Between these two milestones, the auto races will probably grab more immediate attention, but the exterior is the Yas Hotel's truly revolutionary element.

Source: www.dezeen.com