Capital Gate:

Building Envelope
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Thom Anderson

Jason Barhorst

Martin Davis III

Ashley Huffman

David Scott

Luke Stutler
 The Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi is conceived to provide a signature tower that

signifies the city’s evolution and progress. Capital Gate is a modern marvel showing a

futuristic design that reflects the dynamism of Abu Dhabi. It is the focal point of Capital

Centre, which is the world’s first exhibitions lifestyle destination. This will comprise of

several towers that will include hotels, commercial buildings, residential apartment

complexes and mixed use facilities. Capital Gate is the iconic building, which serves to

draw the national spotlight to this emerging city.

This project was a design-and-build project because of the types of problems that

were encountered during the construction. The architect and engineer, RMJM, had to

be extremely involved in the project in order to solve problems. (RMJM 2008) RMJM is

an international architectural practice with offices throughout Europe, the Middle East,

Africa, Asia-Pacific and The Americas. Their work encompasses architecture,

sustainable design, urbanism, master planning, interior design and research and

development. Their culturally diverse studios are made up of almost 1000 architects,

designers and creative thinkers - comprising 50 nationalities - working on projects in

over 20 countries worldwide. The Capital Gate is their most recognizable project to

date. (RMJM, 2008)

The Capital Gate soars 160 meters (525 feet) above ground and has been built

with a westward incline of 18 degrees. Capital Gate holds the Guinness Record for

‘World’s Furthest Leaning Manmade Tower’, a newly created category created for The

Capital Gate because it is so unique, and beats the Leaning Tower of Pisa by 14

degrees. The building is a mixed use building containing both a high-end hotel and

office spaces. It contains 35 stories with floors 2 - 16 comprising office space, floors 18

onwards will house the 189-room, exclusive ‘Hyatt Capital Gate’ hotel, and floors 1 & 17

comprise plant rooms. (UNP)

One of the features that set this building apart is that its exterior envelope serves

as not only the shell for the building, but also part of its structural mechanical systems.

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The building envelope consists of a combination of glass and steel. It also consists of

two diagrids, an internal and an external, and a center concrete core. A diagrid is a new

system used in the construction of large buildings which creates a skeleton composed

of triangular structures and diagonal support beams, using less steel than a typical steel

frame building.

The diagrid system was chosen because of the unique architectural form of the

building, the constantly changing position of the core in relation to the varying floor

plates, and the desire to have large clear internal floor spaces. With the tower in

constant motion, having columns located in the same spot throughout the building to

spread out the forces was impossible. The exterior diagrid carries the weight of all the

floors, while the internal diagrid supports the weight of the floors and transfers it to the

center concrete core (Roberts, Lean on Me, 2010). The diagrid system consists of

approximately 8,500 structural steel beams, with each element weighing nearly 15 tons

and has a painted finish (The Mace Group, 2009).

The exterior façade of the building consists of large prefabricated 26.25 foot tall

diamond-shaped panel, which are installed and connected to the diagrid. Over 700

panels were used to enclose the structure. Each panel included 18 different panes of

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glass, covering a surface area of roughly 247,570 ft2. All the panels are shipped to the

site fully assembled and raised into its precise location, since no pane is the same. To

add to the uniqueness of the building each panel had to be installed correctly to allow

for some movement as the building corrects from the core’s pre-camber (Reina, 2009).

The core, which contains 19,619 yd2 of concrete reinforced with 10,000 tons of steel,

uses vertical post-tensioning and was constructed with a vertical pre-camber. This pre-

camber means that the core was constructed with a slight opposite lean, as each floor is

installed, the weight of the floors and diagrid system pull the core and slowly

straightening it out. As the core is straightened it is post tensioned, thus making the core

and structure incredibly strong (Crowcroft, 2010).

The floors are constructed using a composite floor system, spanning from the

main core, to the internal diagrid, and between the internal and external diagrids. The

floor beams are connected to the concrete core via embedment plates which are cast

directly into the core wall when the concrete is poured. The first ten floors are stacked

vertically directly on top of one another. The floor plates, on level 10 through 27, stagger

over each other, between 32 to 55 inches and then back to 35 inches in line with the

lean of the building’s face. The remaining floors, between levels 27 and 34, shift

between 35 and 12 inches (Roberts, Lean on Me, 2010).

The hotel space, in particular, will feature a double facade. This will create a

thermal cushion in the intervening space which should significantly reduce building

energy demands. (Roberts, Lean on me, 2010) Waste air is pre-cooled in between the

inner and outer facade thereby reducing the energy consumption of the building by

recycling the used air. The stainless steel ‘splash’ is a shading device that eliminates

over 30 percent of the sun’s heat before it ever reaches the building, thereby saving on

the need for cooling within the building. The splash twists around the building towards

the south to shield Capital Gate as much as possible from direct sunlight (UNP).

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 Works Cited
Diagrid. (2010, September 22). Retrieved November 17, 2010, from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagrid

Crowcroft, O. (2010, June 2). UPDATE: Progress on Abu Dhabi's Capital Gate.

Retrieved November 17, 2010, from Construction Week Online:

http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-8519-update-progress-on-abu-

dhabis-capital-gate/

Reina, P. (2009, July 9). Wrenches Put In Tower’s Works. Retrieved November 17,

2010, from EngineeringNewsRecord.com:

http://www.ctbuh.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=YA%2FLZX0x%2FOw%3D&tabid=

53&language=en-GB

RMJM, A. (2008, October 27). Capital Gate achieves Guinness record for ‘World’s

Furthest Leaning Manmade Tower’. Retrieved November 16, 2010, from e-

architect: http://www.e-

architect.co.uk/dubai/capital_gate_abu_dhabi.htmo%20General%20Overview

Roberts, J. (2010, January 5). Lean on Me. Retrieved November 16, 2010, from

ConstructionWeekOnline.com: http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-

7298-lean-on-me/1/
The Mace Group. (2009, November 02). Advanced Diagrid Technology Gives Shape to

Capital Gate. Retrieved November 17, 2010, from MACE Group:

http://www.macegroup.com/media/news/advanced-diagrid-technology-gives-

shape-capital-gate

UNP. (n.d.). Capital Gate is more inclined than the Tower of Pisa. Retrieved 11 18,

2010, from UNP: http://www.unp.co.in/f143/capital-gate-is-more-inclined-than-

the-tower-of-pisa-84083/

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