Index of Comfort and Style
The skyscrapers capital – Dubai gained another landmark building. According to the Council for building construction and urban habitat (CTBUH ), the best skyscraper in the Middle East and Africa acknowledged Tower The Index, was erected here on the draft British architectural firm Foster+Partners. Awards Juror Werner Sobek noted that “the Index presents a new environmental icon for the Middle East, showcasing important passive strategies of orientation, core placement and shading.”
Foster+Partners company successfully works in the architectural market, designing buildings around the world. According to the company’s founder Lord Norman Foster “Architecture is generated by the needs of people. It has much to do with optimism, joy and reassurance”. Award-winning architects Foster+Partners, whose dedication to the art and science of architecture has created yet another iconic structure. The Index building exemplifies this impressive lineage.
Dubai is the second largest of seven Emirates, making up the United Arab Emirates. Situated at a southern aspect of the Arabian Gulf, where the desert has been developed to reveal a vibrant metropolis, it is positioned to be one of the most significant international cities of the world. The city provides world-class telecommunications plus a superb infrastructure with an enviable array of social services. Destined to become a regional landmark,
The Index will allow a particular adaptability that is unusual for those confined to the cloistered surroundings that are often incorporated within traditional skyscrapers. The best architecture comes from a synthesis of all the elements that separately comprise a building: the structure that holds it up; the services that allow it to work; the ecology of the building, whether it is naturally ventilated, the quality of light; the materials used, their mass or their lightness; the character of the spaces, the symbolism of the form; the relationship of the skyline and the way in which the building signals its presence in the city or in the countryside, said Norman Foster.
Foster+Partners utilizes this philosophy to create space, within a restrained technological applicability. Their objectives are guided not only toward overall form and function, but also for the wellbeing of the corporate and residential customers of Dubai. The 80–storey, 328–metre-high Index tower is located on a prominent corner site within the Dubai International Finance Centre. The centre was designed by Eric Kuhne. Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is situated along the city’s main highway Sheikh Zayed Road, approximately twenty minutes drive from Dubai International Airport.
A financial free zone, DIFC aims to be the universally recognized regional hub for capital and investment. It will attract the most prominent financial and investment houses of the world.
The Index (One Central Park)
Location: Dubai, UAE
Client: Union Properties
Architects: Foster+Partners in collaboration with Khatib & Alami (After completion of the contract with Woods Bagot)
General Contructor: Edara Confluence
Consultant costs: Currie & Brown
Design engineers: Halvorson and Partners (After completion of the contract with BG & E)
Engineering: Roger Preston & Partners (After completion of the contract with WSP)
Construction: 2005–2010
Building height: 328 m
Number of floors: 80
Site area : 20,000 sq. m
Total space:
Offices: 75,908 sq. m
Housing: 94 492 sq. m
NIA:
Offices: 57,625 sq. m
Housing: 78 719 sq. m
Retail: 5985 square meters
Apartments: 520 apartments
of which:
• 264 one-bedroom
• 208 two-bedroom
• 36 three-bedroom
• 12 penthouses
Number of offices: 1665
• 191 room for visitors
Parking for 2442 parking spaces
Full version you can download here
Materials provided by architectural firm Foster+Partners, Nigel Young, photo/Foster+Partners