Dubai
is building the future. In the future all buildings will create the energy that
they require to exist, as do all living things on Earth, either directly or
indirectly from the Sun.
The Almeisan Tower generates
its own energy (and the energy required to run the rest of Za’abeel park) by
integrating a 600KW solar power tower into the design (the equivalent of the
power used by 300 average households). 224 large heliostatic polished mirrors
track the sun’s position in the sky and reflect a concentrated beam of light to
a central collector where a furnace containing liquid sodium is heated to
extremely high temperatures to run a steam turbine. By placing the mirror array
at 100 meters above grade, it will make the concentrated beams of light visible
from a great distance as an emblem of the U.A.E.’s leadership in the 21st
century.
In
addition to actively creating energy from the sun, the building incorporates
eight wind piers for passive cooling of the podium. The eight 5m wide
structural piers draw hot air from the podium level to carefully placed openings
110 meters above the ground where the wind and the cooler air create a strong
chimney effect.
The eight
main structural piers leave the ground at 60 degrees from vertical, driving up
towards each other to almost touch at 50 meters above the earth. There they are
tied together with a tension ring before blooming outward like the bud of a
flower and opening up to reveal the inner piers that support the dazzling jewel
of the café and the finial structure of the collector tower far above.
The word Almeisan
is the Arabic name for one of the brightest stars in the sky, located in the
constellation Gemini. Its name derives from Al Maisan, or “the shining one”. It
is an apt naming for this tower with its beacon of light shining like a star in
the day sky.