Modernizing the mashrabiya: Smart-skinned Al Bahar Towers near completion

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The Aedas-designed Al Bahr Towers (Image: Aedas)

Visualization of a tower top (Image: Aedas)

The automated mashrabiyas open and close according to the position of the sun (Photo: Aedas)

Prototype mashrabiyas (Photo: Aedas)

Visualization of Al Bahar Towers' mashrabiyas at various states of closure (Image: Aedas)

Open, the mashrabiyas form a geometric pattern of three-pointed stars (Image: Aedas)

The automated mashrabiyas open and close according to the position of the sun (Photo: Aedas)

Computer model of the mashrabiyas (Image: Aedas)

Cut-away through one of the towers (Image: Aedas)

Restored traditional mashrabiyas at Spain's Aljafería Palace (Photo: ecelan)

Article Summary

Glass-skinned steel-frame skyscrapers have many advantages. They're relatively quick, inexpensive and easy to build and require comparatively few materials. But they pose problems; heat not least among them. Buildings with fully glazed facades are essentially greenhouses, so when the sun comes out, they can get uncomfortably hot. The problem that is more acute in hot climates like that of the United Arab Emirates, where, despite this fact, the appetite for glassy high-rise continues to be voracious. For its design of Al Bahr Towers in Abu Dhabi, Aedas has developed a unique intelligent skin, inspired by the traditional Arabic mashrabiya, that it claims reduces interior heat gains caused by sunlight by around 50 percent.

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