Crowning Glory

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It is no secret that getting buildings finished in Dubai has got more difficult in the last year, which makes the quick progress at the 91-storey Elite Residence all the more impressive.

Contractor Arabian Construction Company (ACC) is developing between five and seven floors a month. With 64 floors finished on the estimated US$250 million project, only 20 remain. Architect Ahmed Saffarini explains that the use of slipform techniques – which allows concrete to be poured as the core is moved vertically – has enabled ACC to develop the towers so quickly.

“The ability to move the core vertically means you can build very, very fast,” he says.

But Saffarini also points out that, when finished, the Elite Residence will be one of the strongest buildings around. He says that the architects planned for the building to withstand winds of up to 160 mph, while also designing an innovative ‘core and core’ structure.

“You have a central core and you have an outside core. It’s a more rigid type of structure. The structure is very strong,” he says.

The façade, meanwhile, is designed to be smooth, minimising the effect of the wind. “Like a car,” Saffarini explains.

The Elite Residence sits alongside the Princess Tower, another Tameer property currently under construction. The building will offer 697 residential units to wealthy investors, with amenities such as swimming pools, high speed elevators, a ballroom and table tennis court.

With this in mind, it is difficult to see how the building is any different to the other developments in Dubai. But according to the developers, it is Elite Residence’s architecture that sets it apart.

“If you look at the shape and the form of the building, it is an interesting blend between what people consider to be modern architecture and what is obviously a remarkable building that really drove the emerging of technologies and architectural expression,” says John Zwets, Tameer’s chief development officer.

“You can’t call Elite a traditional building, because it is simply not. I think what the architect was trying to do was give it a Dubai flavour. And by this, I mean something different to the bland sky scrapers you would see in other metropolis like Hong Kong or New York. I think what the architect tried to do was to give it a bit of soul.”

Saffarini agrees that Elite will stand out from many of the other towers in Dubai, and says that he looked at Victorian and Renaissance architecture for inspiration. This is the reason for the building’s crown, which will be fitted with 400 lights that will change colour at night.

“The client was looking for the building to be more or less like a presidential building: the crown gives it the feeling of a classical palace,” he said.

A significant challenge for Saffarini was the small footprint of the site, which necessitated that the tower was square and very narrow in form. Another challenge was the location, on the waterfront and subject to onshore wind, sand and salt.

“We are had to use high quality colouring which is very durable, due to the sand and the salt and the weather,” he said.

But in terms of construction challenges, it is the roof that will present the biggest as Elite Residence grows towards its final 380m height. “The roof will be pre-fabricated at ground level, and lifted up to the top of the building in stages and installed by crane,” explains Arabian Construction Company’s project director Bill Parker. “The light fittings will all be pre-installed into the cladding at the factory so as to avoid having to fit the lights at height.”

Tameer hopes that the building will be completed by October 2011, but delays have not been a stranger to the development so far, as Tameer were hit by financing problems in 2009. “The recession has had an impact on the construction of Elite, I would be lying if I said otherwise,” says Zwets.

“Although we have sold the majority of the units, the financial crisis impacted on how people deployed their capital and paid their bills. One of those bills was to satisfy their agreements with the developer. It became more labour intensive to get people to make payments.”

That said, Zwets maintains that the scheduled completion date has not changed since it received RERA approval for the project in 2009.