Palm Tower, Dubai

The Palm Tower, a new landmark from master developer Nakheel, under construction at the heart of Dubai's iconic Palm Jumeirah, promises that each of its luxury hotel rooms and apartments will feature one of the best views in the city.

To achieve this, the 52-storey, 240-metre-tall hotel and residential building will be clad entirely in glass.

Of course, Dubai’s climate means that preventing excessive heat build-up inside heavily glazed buildings will always be a priority. For this project, the architect chose to install 50,000 square metres of Pilkington Suncool™ One 30/21 solar control glass so that residents and guests enjoy both stunning vistas in cool, comfortable surroundings.

Silver lining

The glass features a state-of-the-art multi-layer coating that incorporates a microscopically thin layer of silver to help reduce heat transmission to just 21 per cent, while maintaining a neutral colour balance in the light passing through, maximising the views.

The building is clad in an area of glass equivalent to 192 tennis courts, but because of the advanced magnetron sputtering technique used to apply the coating, just eight kilogrammes of silver was needed to cover the whole tower. That’s a piece of silver approximately the size of a laptop.

Pilkington Suncool™ One 30/21 was originally developed by Pilkington United Kingdom Limited, part of the NSG Group, for Intraco UAE, which has used the glass on a number of projects in the past.

Leo Pyrah, product manager at Pilkington UK said: “The view you will get from these hotel rooms and apartments is one of the major draws of this building, but clearly a fully glazed skyscraper in such a hot climate creates challenges from an energy management perspective.

“The bespoke coating we have developed alongside Intraco lets the developer and its customers enjoy the best of both worlds – a stunning view with much reduced solar heating.”

Centrepiece

As the centrepiece of the world-famous Palm Jumeirah, The Palm Tower is set to become a new landmark for Dubai. When completed, the mixed-use complex will feature 432 apartments and 290 hotel rooms, as well as a rooftop dining and recreation destination featuring a 360-degree roof top infinity pool, a high-end restaurant and a public viewing deck offering sweeping views of The Palm, the Arabian Gulf and the Dubai skyline.

As well as creating a comfortable climate for users, the solar-control glazing will also significantly reduce the need for air conditioning, reducing costs and emissions.

Leo Pyrah continued: “Dubai is a city that is pushing architectural and technological boundaries and we’re excited to have played a role in shaping the look of its iconic and ever-evolving skyline.”

Project: Palm Tower, Dubai

Client: Nakheel

Glazing distributor: Intraco UAE