Tornado Tower: The 'Best Tall Building' in the Middle East

Eat your heart out Burj Dubai, for Qatar's Tornado Tower has been awarded the accolade for Best Tall Building in the Middle East and Africa by the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

Standing 656ft (200m), the Tornado Tower houses 52 floors of office space in Doha. The building was designed to minimize effects on the natural environment through proper site utilization, innovative uses of materials, energy reduction, reduced emissions, and water consumption.

'Bringing fresh ideas'

The Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is the world's leading authority on the design, construction and development of tall buildings and, in its own words, recognises projects that "contribute to the advancement of tall buildings, bringing fresh ideas and innovative processes".

In the Tornado Tower's case, the building was credited for demonstrating relevance to the contemporary and future needs of the community in which it is located, by adding economic vitality to its occupants, owner, and community.

The Tornado Tower won acclaim, when it was constructed last year, due to its innovative unitised facade solution which allows the curvature of this iconic building to be expressed without the need for curved glass.

Trapezoidal panels and their collection of angles give the building its signature curve and hyperboloid shape that is meant to depict "a whirlwind in a desert storm".

Innovative design

The design of the Tornado Tower features more than 30,000m2 of Wicona unitised curtain walling, installed as 6,000 glazed panels in 50 size variations. The Wicona unitised facade were assembled and glazed off site, holding 34mm reflective glass for the vision areas and opaque glazing to conceal the building structure between floors.

The panels also support an external steel ‘lattice'. This outer structure is a key architectural feature and the lighting system installed at the junction points of the steelwork accentuates the form of the building at night to spectacular effect, using 35,000 different light combinations.

The tower previously came seventh place in last year's Skyscraper of the Year award.

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