Tall & Urban News

Turkey-based RGG Architects has proposed its first mixed-use skyscraper in Dubai, UAE. Located at the center of the Dubai Marina district’s business hub, the ‘Dubai Nhabitat’ tower is conceptualized with an architectural approach that aims to be transparent, perceivable, and pluralistic. The proposal is settled behind other business centers and high-rise office towers, competing with their heights, lined along the shoreline. The mixed-use tower, which reaches 310 meters tall, directs its façade to the Sheikh Ziyad Road on the front side of the project site, while it connects to a metro station at ground level.

Dubai Nhabitat opens up the urban landscape by arranging the rear part of the building to be as walkable as possible, while linking the floor with the intensive transition distribution on the main road. The proposal creates its own micro-climate and vital design inputs through its permeability, different material, and building tectonics. While the tower can be read as a single mass from bottom to top, each module can be enlarged or shrunk according to the needs of the program. This allows for the creation of different vistas with different angles, as well as private gardens within the modules.

The mixed-use tower will be composed of 300 hotel rooms and 450 residential units. On the ground and first floor, the hotel and residence blocks are detached from each other with a cutaway space. The tower continues with different circulation schemes on the upper floors, and the overall density of the mass is diminished by enriching it with social activity spaces and viewing terraces.

RGG Architects’ proposal was designed in an algorithmic software program, and is to be constructed with a composite system, including steel and concrete. The intention is to minimize its carbon footprint as much as possible, as well as consider Dubai’s local ecosystem, reducing the environmental impacts of its construction. All modules utilize daylight as much as possible, and are defined by windows and perforated surfaces throughout.

For more on this story, go to Designboom.