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Emirates Telecommunications Corporation
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Etisalat Building

File includes:

  • 190 Drawings: 4 site plans, 51 plans, 20 sections, 3 8 elevations, 3 6 exterior perspectives, 11 interior perspectives, 5 diagrammatic sketches, 1 aerial view, 22 details: floor patterns, general patterns, elevations, dome geometry; 2 combination drawings: 1 plan I section, 1 plan I elevation
  • 78 Photographs: 61 prints of model, 17 miscellaneous

Building on the success of the Abu Dhabi project, the client, the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, requested a design for its Dubai site. It would be a variation on the themes developed for Abu Dhabi. The functions were to be virtually the same but on a substantially larger site than that of Abu Dhabi. The site provided in Dubai was near the Dubai Creek opposite the Sheraton Hotel in a zone scheduled for future development of major buildings. As the first in this zone, Etisalat sought to address a future visual corridor to the creek and to the other major cultural buildings. The scheme developed into a 16 storey office tower with a facetted curtain wall similar to that of the Abu Dhabi plan but with curved core walls on the east and west faces. The principal materials included granite, green tinted glass and painted aluminum. The project also utilized a radome and the combination of the curvatures of the rotunda. The walls of the tower and the radome, together with the stepped forms of the parking building, have created a most interesting play of forms, finding great favour with both the users and the Dubai citizens alike.

Etisalat Head Office Building (Etisalat Headquarters)

File includes 15 drawings (10 plans, 1 section, 3 elevations; 1 combination drawing with 1 plan, section, detail), 105 photographs (40 prints: 24 of model, 16 miscellaneous; 65 negatives: 30 of model, 33 site), and 1 model of the building. The Etisalat Head Office Building in Abu Dhabi serves as the headquarters of the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation and provides a symbol for the corporation in Abu Dhabi and throughout the United Arab Emirates. The project was the winner of a Limited Design Competition conducted in 1985. It is composed of transmission facilities, branch office and head office functions, and public activities, all located on a prominent corner site in Abu Dhabi. The plan of the project responds to the corner site by directly addressing the traffic circle. By selecting a tower plan form, it also provides the office functions with good views of the adjacent gardens, the city, and sea to the north. A unique curtain wall system provides solar protection by a facetted arrangement of alternating opaque and vision panels, which give the façade its geometric pattern. At the project's summit is the radome, which houses the telecommunications/microwave functions. It is a unique solution to the problem of visually controlling the multitude of dishes and aerials required of Etisalat, recalling the traditional forms of Islamic design in a refreshing manner. This feature of the project has now become the identifying "image" of the Corporation in the Emirates. It was nominated for the Aga Khan Award in 1995.