One of the most luxurious developments in Dubai, City Walk brings together high-end fashion brands, fine dining restaurants, opulent homes and awe-inspiring entertainment venues. Developed by real estate company Meraas, City Walk is a design-inspired lifestyle destination. Meraas and global design experts from Benoy worked together to create this multi-purpose space right in the heart of the city. A small part of the much larger Downtown area, City Walk has become a bustling cultural and retail hub for the city.
With City Walk being a luxury retail development, we were tasked with the job of creating a glamorous and striking façade for the property. The architect wanted to create an exterior that would reflect the mood of its surroundings, compelling us to push the envelope and think of unique solutions to meet the design requirements. The structure was conceptualised to have a chequered façade that didn’t compromise on vision. This became one of the most interesting challenges for us to overcome. Given the harsh desert climate and extreme temperatures faced in the city, we had to ensure that our design helped control the glare from the panels while also providing shaded areas for comfort. Additionally, the design called for the panels to change colours through the day without affecting the view from inside. Most importantly, we needed to ensure that our façade solutions were low-maintenance, easy to install, and met all the local building code requirements.
To achieve a dynamic façade while maintaining neutral views from the inside, we tested several options. We explored with sputtered coats, ceramic frit and metal inserts. While these materials enabled us to achieve the required external appearance, they disrupted views from the inside. To overcome this, we selected a product from our VIVIDVIEW range by creating a customised panel using SEFAR mesh AL 260/25 laminated with float glass. The patented mesh we used was unique as it allowed us to achieve the exterior metallic appearance without obscuring views from inside.
The VIVIDVIEW Vision Mesh that was utilised for this project also had a significant functional advantage as the three-dimensional SEFAR mesh acted as mini-louvres that filtered the light passing through it. This, along with the smart use of open areas, allowed us to reduce the glare by dispersing the light. The glass panels were placed strategically across the façade to provide shade from the hot desert sun whenever required. In order to meet local building code requirements, a high performance clear low-E glass from Guardian was incorporated into the IGU make-up. We manufactured the special glass for the façade at our in-house state-of-the-art facility. The coating on the mesh provides a varying appearance throughout the day ranging from silver to orange depending on the time of day and incident angle of the sun. Our stringent quality checks at the glass processing facility were critical in eliminating on-site rejections. While selecting the glass for this project, we ensured we sourced panels that did not require any special maintenance and could be installed into the façade design with ease.
The VIVIDVIEW panels offer one-sided vision, providing residents with unparalleled views of the surrounding area, while also giving them the privacy they deserve. Additionally, the three-dimensional panels help bring the structure to life. The use of special glass panels with metallic lustre allowed us to create a façade that reflected the surrounding areas while enveloping the entire space in a majestic glow.
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Future Architectural Glass, LLC (Future Glass) is a joint venture between a multinational & diversified Singapore corporation and a leading Indian glass conglomerate. The company has positioned itself to establish itself as UAE's premium glass processor having the entire gamut of European machinery and systems to process any type of interior and exterior glass.
Since 1976, the group has been serving the needs of the architectural glass market by providing the latest products suiting the dynamic needs of architects/consultants. We started operations as a glass trading and distribution firm and ever since have expanded our products and services to include safety glass manufacturing and providing specialty glass solutions.