Dubai, ADNOC NEW HQ TOWER GRANITE WORK

Project Description The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) New Corporate Headquarter is located in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The new complex is expected to be about 190,000 square meters working space. The new ADNOC Headquarters Tower has been designed by HOK, one of the largest U.S. based architects and engineering firms, in order to provide consolidated facilities to ADNOC Management team offices. The engineering focuses into the latest energy and sustainable technologies. The 342 m high tower is shaped as a granite clad portal arch framing a huge monolithic dark glass volume, which houses 65 stores of offices accommodation. The two vertical legs of the portal arch serve as structural cores that house the emergency exit staircases, goods lifts, plant rooms and associated shafts. Their orientation to the East and West provides shade from lower angle sunlight during the morning and late afternoon.The building incorporates energy efficiency and sustainable engineering technologies, such as double skin facade and photo voltaic glazing. The architectural choice for a “white tower “entirely cladded with about 44,000 square meters of natural stones led to the selection of Bethel White granite sourced from the unique quarry in Vermont, USA. Such a white stone along with its rough surface finish has been chosen in order to provide substantial benefit to environmental friendly construction thanks to a high Solar Reflection Index which minimizes contribution to global heating. The tower is now like a monolithic colossal sculpture that faces and contrasts with the crystalline blue water of the Arabian Sea. The large sizes of natural stone panels, which range up to about 2150*1100*40 mm thickness, was a major challenge of the project, subject to extremely demanding wind loads in relation to its location as well as the height of the building: extremely selective procurement and engineering of stones and anchoring system were the tasks to cope with. Since the consistency in tonality was the main target to meet Architect’s expectations, the goal was the selection of blocks in such an amount, quality and time frame in order to guarantee the aesthetic performance in consistency of the “white color”stone panels, given such a huge quantity and remarkable dimensions. On top of this, the consistency in the surface processing of the stone panels, flaming and water jetting,has been another step to be achieved. Identification Project Name: The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) New Corporate Headquarters. Client: Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)- Abu Dhabi UAE. Architect: HOK (formerly) Hellmuth+Obata+Kassabaum (worldwide company from US -design, architecture, engineering and urban planning) Stone quarry: Rock of Ages – Vermont USA Stone Fabricator: Ascon Marble and Granite LLC-Dubai UAE Stone Installer: HAZ Marble LLC-Turkey. Stone Used Material Name: Bethel White granite Finish: Flamed and water-jet brushed. Sizes: range 2133-2180 x 1050-1163 mm. thickness. 40 mm Quantity: about 44,000 square meters.