Al-Birr Foundation Office Tower

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Al-Birr Foundation Office Tower

Firm

Type

Commercial › Office

SIZE

500,000 sqft - 1,000,000 sqft

For the Al-Birr Foundation’s new headquarters, Perkins+Will reinterpreted the typology of an urban tower in the spirit of Le Corbusier’s explorations of the brise-soleil, calibrated to the extreme solar exposure and heat conditions of the microclimate of Riyadh. The design employs innovation in elevation and section, rather than plan, as the generator for functional solutions as well as symbolic analogies to Saudi historical precedents—the minaret, the garden, and the mashrabiya—all emblematic of the Foundation’s altruistic mission to protect, replenish, and speak for needy children and families. Simple orthogonal floor plates ranging from 1000-1200 square meters simplifyleasability, office partitioning, and construction methodology, while the dynamicsection provides temperate microclimatic terraces, stack effect cooling, and acontinuous hanging garden from entry plaza to the rooftop terrace. The tower’s intricate enclosure is formed of lightweight glass-impregnated photocatalytic precast concrete supplemented with fly-ash. Beyond structurally supporting the tower, it controls solar and heat gain, preserves dramatic views to the city, and operates as a light shelf diffusing system. Calibrated to the changing sun angles, the perforated northern elevation allows for views and cooling breezes and transitions to primarily opaque at the southern elevation. Illuminated internally at night, the enclosure’s apertures result in a scintillating pattern of light; a literal inversion of the solar-regulating function of the tower enclosure during the day.Award:2007 AIA New York State Design Award of Merit